Chimney repair in Jersey City

Jersey City is mostly apartments. Only about 14 percent of its homes are one-unit houses, attached or detached, and the rest are in buildings with two or more units, from a two-family on The Heights to a tower on the waterfront. About 29 percent of the city's housing was built before 1940, much of it in the brick and brownstone neighborhoods Downtown. About a third of the city's homes heat with electricity, most of the rest with gas.

The older buildings are where the chimneys are. The 19th-century brownstones around Hamilton Park and Van Vorst Park typically have several fireplaces feeding one stack, and many of those fireplaces were closed off long ago. Today the chimney usually vents a boiler or water heater, sometimes for several units, and the exhaust from modern gas appliances is wetter and cooler than the coal smoke the flues were built for. That moisture works into old mortar from the inside. We start with a free inspection, photos and a written price before anything is touched.

Historic district rules: even repairs need sign-off

Jersey City has five designated historic districts: Hamilton Park, Harsimus Cove, Paulus Hook, Van Vorst Park, and West Bergen-East Lincoln Park, plus individual landmarks. The city's rule is strict. Any work on a property in a district, including maintenance and repairs, needs a Certificate of No Effect or a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission before it starts, whether or not a construction permit is needed.

Most repair work is approved by commission staff under a Certificate of No Effect, while rooftop additions, demolitions and work that doesn't meet the city's standards go to the full commission. Repointing a brownstone's chimney or replacing its crown is usually a staff-level matter, but it still has to be filed first. Plan for that before you schedule the work.

Brownstones, shared stacks and reopening a fireplace

A row of brownstones often shares party walls, and a crack in one chimney can let smoke or water into a neighbor's unit. On the roof we check the crown, the flashing and the top courses, and inside we find out which flue serves which apartment. In condo and co-op buildings the chimney is usually common property, so the association should be part of the decision.

Reopening a closed fireplace is a common request. Many were built shallow for coal, and the flue above may be cracked or unlined. New Jersey's fire code says an unlined chimney with open mortar joints shall be repaired or relined. A stainless liner typically costs $1,500 to $5,000, and a direct-vent gas insert, which needs no open flue, runs $2,000 to $8,000.

Where we work in Jersey City

Downtown · Paulus Hook · Van Vorst Park · Hamilton Park · Harsimus Cove · The Heights · Journal Square · McGinley Square · Bergen-Lafayette · West Side · Greenville