How To Repair Leaning or Tilting Chimneys

One of the largest yet most overlooked assets to your home is your chimney. Most homeowners do not consider their chimney when examining their homes for foundation failure. However, your chimney can show many telltale signs of foundation problems. If you have a leaning or tilted chimney, or if cracks have begun to form in your chimney, it may be a sign of foundation failure.

If you suspect foundation problems are the culprit, is important to have this looked at by professionals like our team at Pierman Foundation Repair Services of Oklahoma.

How Can My Chimney Signal Foundation Failure?

When a home begins to settle, especially if it settles unevenly, it throws the whole home out of alignment. This is the why doors and windows sticking is a cause of foundation failure. This also has an effect on your chimney as the portions around it slightly shift.

This issue can be magnified when the chimney is built along the outside of the house. Depending upon how the home settles, it could either push in toward the chimney or pull away from it, causing the chimney to tilt away from the home.

Best case scenario: It is the chimney itself that is settling (chimneys are occasionally even built on their own foundations) not the home. Either way, however, repairs must be made before the chimney itself needs to be replaced or, in a worst case scenario, collapses.

How to Tell If Foundation Problems Are to Blame For a Leaning Chimney

If there is an issue with the foundation underneath your chimney or the home's foundation, you will probably be able to tell by checking the chimney for common signs of settlement. Some of these common signs include:

• Leaning or tilting chimney: If your chimney is leaning or tilting to one side, it is a sure sign that there is something wrong with the foundation supporting it underneath.
• Cracks where the chimney meets the home's foundation: Cracks are never a good sign; whether they are in the chimney or the foundation itself, they often indicate foundation failure.
• Gaps between chimney and home: If there are gaps between the exterior of the chimney and the siding on the house, it it likely a sign that the leaning chimney is a result of serious foundation issues.
• Leaking chimney: Water leakage in the ceiling due to dislodged flashing usually indicates that the chimney and the foundation below are settling.
• Damage to roof where flashing meets chimney: This indicates that the chimney has settled or shifted, probably due to an issue with the home foundation below the chimney.

Solutions for Chimney Problems in Oklahoma

Chimneys are an incredibly heavy part of your home. Because of this, they must have a sturdy base. If they do not, they will probably settle or start to lean. There are many different foundation issues that can cause this to happen, including:

• Moving or shifting foundations
• Foundation cracks
• Missing or defective chimney footings
• Poor soil conditions
• Deteriorating chimney mortar
• Chimney brick cracks
• Poor drainage

These can all lead to a leaning or tilted chimney. But no matter what happened to cause your leaning chimney, it is important to have it repaired as soon as possible to prevent worse problems from occurring. Fixing a leaning or cracking chimney requires you to go to fix the source o the problem, in most cases, a shifting or settling foundation, be it under your home or the chimney itself. A foundation that has begun to settle of shift can be repaired using underpinning services. These underpinning services utilize foundation piers to lift and support the foundation. Contact Pierman Foundation Repair Services for more information. We provide quality foundation repair and underpinning for those in Oklahoma.