The chimney cap is the cheapest part of the whole structure, and it protects everything below it. A flue left open to the sky takes rain straight down the throat, collects leaves and debris, invites birds, squirrels, and raccoons to nest, and lets wind drive smoke and odors back into the house. Feldman Chimney Services installs chimney caps across Fort Worth, TX that are sized to your specific flue, fastened to last through our wind and weather, and built with a spark arrestor screen to keep embers off the roof. For the modest cost of the part, a good cap heads off a long list of expensive problems.
- Cap sized to your actual flue, not a one-size guess
- Stainless or galvanized to hold up to North Texas weather
- Spark arrestor screen to keep embers off the roof
- Keeps rain, leaves, and animals out of the flue
- Cuts the downdrafts that push smoke and odor inside
- Installed in a single visit, with the price set in writing
What a bare chimney top allows down the flue, and what it costs
An uncapped flue is an open pipe pointed at the sky, and over time it collects everything that falls or climbs in. Rain goes straight down the throat, soaking the smoke chamber, rusting a metal damper, and feeding the moisture that breaks masonry down from the inside. Leaves, twigs, and windblown debris pile up and block the draft. And around Fort Worth, an open flue is an open invitation to wildlife, birds building nests in the spring, squirrels and raccoons looking for a warm, sheltered den. A nest packed into a flue is both a draft blockage and a fire hazard, and getting an animal out of a chimney is a far bigger job than the cap that would have kept it out.
There is a comfort problem too, and it is one a lot of homeowners never trace back to the missing cap. With nothing on top of the flue, wind blowing across the roof can reverse the draft and push smoke, soot smell, and cold air back down into the living room, the downdraft that makes a fire hard to start and a closed-up fireplace smell of old ash on a windy day. A cap with the right design breaks that wind and keeps the draft pulling the right direction. For the price of one part, the cap solves water, debris, animals, and downdraft all at once, which is why it is the single best-value piece of chimney protection there is.
Sizing and fitting a cap that actually lasts
A cap only does its job if it fits the flue it sits on, which is why we measure rather than guess. A cap too small does not seal out the weather, and one slapped on without proper fastening becomes a projectile in the first strong spring storm to roll through Tarrant County. We size the cap to your specific flue, whether you have a single clay tile, multiple flues sharing one crown, or a metal chimney, and we fasten it to hold against the wind these roofs see. We fit a stainless or galvanized cap built to survive years of Fort Worth sun, rain, and the occasional hail, not a thin part that rusts through in a couple of seasons.
Every cap we install includes a spark arrestor, the mesh screen that catches embers before they can rise out of the flue and land on the roof or the dry yard, which matters in a region that sees its share of dry spells. While we are on the roof fitting the cap, we are also reading the crown and the flashing right there beside it, because those three pieces work together to keep water out, and a new cap on a cracked crown is only half the protection. If we spot a crown or flashing problem, we will show you the photo and let you decide, with no pressure to bundle in work you did not ask about.
The cheapest insurance a chimney can carry
Of all the work a chimney can need, a cap is the one with the best return, precisely because it heads off the slow, costly damage that an open flue invites. The cost of the cap is small set against a flooded smoke chamber, a rusted-out damper, a nest extraction, or the masonry repair that follows years of water pouring straight down the throat. A cap is quiet insurance for the entire chimney beneath it, and on most Fort Worth homes it pays for itself the first wet season after it goes on.
If your flue is open, if your old cap has rusted out, blown loose, or gone missing, or if you are dealing with a downdraft that pushes smoke into the room or the recurring smell of ash on windy days, a cap is usually the simple fix. We will measure the flue, recommend the right cap for your chimney, and put the price in writing before we do a thing. It is one of the easiest and most worthwhile upgrades a chimney owner can make.
The wider chimney job around this
A chimney is a system, so chimney cap installation rarely stands alone, it connects to chimney sweeping service, chimney inspection, chimney repair, stainless liner installation, tuckpointing, and our crew handles all of it under one roof. We bring the same service to Arlington chimney cap installation, North Richland Hills chimney cap installation, Benbrook chimney cap installation, Chimney Cap Installation in Haltom City and everywhere else across the Fort Worth area.
If you searched for local chimney service, you have reached a local crew, call 325-222-0798 any time. For background, read Chimney Leaks in Fort Worth: Tracing the Water Back to Where It Really Gets In on our blog, or head back to our Fort Worth home page to see everything we do.