Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
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AfterFast, Reliable Chimney Cap & Crown Across North Kensington
Chimney cap and crown work in North Kensington usually runs between $350 and $1,400 depending on whether we’re repairing a cracked crown, replacing a rusted cap, or mounting a multi-flue unit over a converted oil-to-gas chimney. Most North Kensington jobs are done in a single visit, and we keep the parts that fit your 1940s-1960s chimneys on the truck so you’re not waiting on a warehouse. If you live off Plyers Mill Road, Glenallen Avenue, or any of the side streets between Georgia Avenue and Connecticut, we know the houses you’re in because we’ve crawled across dozens of those same roof pitches. Call (240) 716-5865 for a straight answer and a free estimate.
Why North Kensington Homeowners Call Top Hat Chimney for Cap and Crown Work
Most of the chimneys in North Kensington were built to burn coal or oil, not the low-BTU gas furnaces they vent today. That’s not a trivial detail. It changes what a cap has to do, how a crown gets repaired, and whether the job is even safe to call finished. Wendell Pike founded Top Hat Chimney in 1999 and has spent more years than he can count on the ladder, looking down at exactly the kind of flue you probably have: an 8×8 clay tile with a cap that doesn’t fit and a crown that’s been cracking for a decade.
Our Chimney Cap & Crown crew works North Kensington every week. We’re not a national franchise that sent a guy from two states over with a laminated binder of add-ons. We answer the phone with a live person, we give you a real number before the truck shows up, and the 90-Day Done Right Promise is in writing on every invoice. One call brings Wendell back if something isn’t right. No voicemail box, no call center, no runaround.
North Kensington customers call us because we’ve seen the specific problems their houses have: the original crown on a 1950s brick colonial was never sealed, and the freeze-thaw cycling we get here every winter turns a hairline crack into a water channel. Ask anyone on your street who’s had a chimney issue. Chances are you’ll hear our name, or you’ll hear about the national outfit that changed the price at the door. We’d rather be the first call than the rescue call.
Our Chimney Cap & Crown Services in North Kensington
Crown Repair
The crown is the concrete cap at the very top of the chimney. On North Kensington’s brick colonials and Cape Cods, the original crowns are often only two inches thick and unsealed. Four decades of Montgomery County freeze-thaw cycles have done the damage. When a crown cracks, water gets into the flue and the framing below. We rebuild or repair the crown with modern materials rated for this climate, then we seal it so water stops wicking into your brick and mortar. A crown repair in North Kensington typically runs $450 to $900, depending on how much of the original crown has spalled off.
Crown Coating
Crown coating is what a 1950s chimney needs before the crown gets bad enough to require a full rebuild. We clean the surface, fill cracks and minor spalling, then apply a flexible waterproof membrane that moves with the chimney through the freeze-thaw seasons. Around North Kensington we regularly recommend this on chimneys that have already had some water stain show up on the ceiling near the fireplace. It’s the difference between a $375 fix and a $900 rebuild. Crown coating on a standard North Kensington chimney runs $325 to $500.
Cap Replacement
If your chimney still has the original single-flue cap from the 1960s and you’ve since converted from oil to gas, that cap is almost certainly rusted and undersized. North Kensington is full of homes that made that switch in the 1970s and 1980s, and the smaller gas flue doesn’t match the oversized clay tile the cap was built for. We match the replacement cap to the actual flue size, not the chimney’s footprint. Cap replacement here usually costs $400 to $750 installed, depending on the cap material and whether we’re doing one flue or several.
Cap Installation and Multi-Flue Caps
Lots of North Kensington homes have two flues: one active gas flue and one abandoned oil flue. You can’t just shove a single cap over both and call it done. A multi-flue cap has to be sized so each flue drafts correctly, and the abandoned flue still needs to be capped to keep rain, birds, and squirrels out. We install Gelco and Olympia multi-flue caps sized for the North Kensington chimneys we see, and we build custom caps when the flue layout is too unusual for stock sizing. Multi-flue caps from Top Hat run $550 to $1,100 installed, custom work on top of that.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Carry in North Kensington
We stock and install caps, crown sealants, and associated hardware from Gelco, Olympia Chimney, and HeatShield. These are the brands that hold up to the DC metro freeze-thaw cycle without warping, rusting through, or losing their galvanization in six seasons. For North Kensington customers that means we usually have the right part on the truck the first visit, not a week later from a distributor. If you have a DuraFlex or Famco cap on a previous install, we service those too and can match the existing hardware when we replace the crown and need to remount the cap.
Common Chimney Cap & Crown Problems We See in North Kensington Homes
- Freeze-thaw crown cracking on 1940s-1960s brick chimneys. Montgomery County winters cross 32°F dozens of times each season. The original lime mortar and unsealed concrete crowns on North Kensington’s mid-century housing stock couldn’t take that stress then, and now they’re 60 to 80 years old. The crown cracks, water gets in, and the cap starts wobbling on its fasteners.
- Oil-to-gas conversion mismatches. When North Kensington homeowners switched from oil to gas heat in the 1970s and 1980s, most kept the original clay-tile flue. That oversized flue doesn’t draft modern low-BTU gas equipment properly, which creates acidic condensate. That condensate collects at the crown, corroding the cap and eating away the mortar joint beneath it. Cap work on a gas-vented chimney in North Kensington always includes a liner assessment, because the cap has to fit the liner, not just look right from the ground.
- Factory-built prefab chases on 1980s additions. When a North Kensington homeowner added a family room or sunroom in the 1980s, they often installed a zero-clearance prefab fireplace with a galvanized flue inside a wood chase. Those chase tops were rarely weatherproofed correctly. Rain runs down the flue, rots the chase framing, and the cap that came with the unit gives up after a few seasons. We inspect the chase top on every prefab chimney we’re called out for.
- Spalling clay tiles at the flue exit. North Kensington’s original clay tiles crack at the top first, where weather exposure and condensate meet. Once the tile spalls, the cap no longer sits tight on the flue, and flue gas or rain can get where it shouldn’t. This shows up on chimneys off Glenallen Avenue and up toward the Wheaton side of the neighborhood just as often as it does on older streets off Connecticut.
Pricing for Chimney Cap & Crown in North Kensington, MD
Here are the price ranges we quote in North Kensington, honest and plain. A standard crown repair on a single-flue brick colonial runs $450 to $900. Crown coating runs $325 to $500. Cap replacement on a single flue runs $400 to $750. Multi-flue cap installation, including sizing for a gas flue plus an abandoned oil flue, runs $550 to $1,100. Custom cap work starts around $800 and goes up based on the flue layout and material. What moves the number: how much of the original crown has spalled, whether the flue was relined after the oil-to-gas conversion, and whether the chimney chase is brick or framed. The price we give you on the phone before the job is the price on the invoice when we’re done. We don’t add trip charges inside our service county, and if you have another company’s written estimate, we’ll give you a free second opinion. Call (240) 716-5865 and we’ll give you our number for your chimney.
We Also Serve Cities Near North Kensington
Our crews work Chimney Cap & Crown in North Kensington every week, and we take care of the surrounding communities too. That includes Rockville, North Potomac, Redland, and Travilah. If you’re just outside the North Kensington line off Veirs Mill or in the neighborhoods along Rockville Pike, call us. Same crew, same 90-Day Done Right Promise, same straight answer.
Serving North Kensington, MD - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the North Kensington area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Chimney Cap & Crown in North Kensington
Because the chases on 1980s and 1990s prefab installations in North Kensington were rarely weatherproofed at the top, and the factory caps that came with them are often rusted through. Rain runs down the galvanized flue, rots the wood chase framing, and the problem hides until the chase top fails. The cap and crown still do the same job on a prefab chimney as on a brick one: they keep water out. A newer chimney just hides the damage longer. Call (240) 716-5865 and we’ll put a camera up the flue and show you exactly what we see.
You can and should cap the unused flue, but not with just any cap. The abandoned oil flue still needs a weather cap that keeps out rain, birds, and squirrels, and the gas flue needs a cap sized specifically for the smaller liner diameter. If you put one oversized cap over both, neither flue drafts correctly. The fix is a multi-flue cap sized per-flue. We install Gelco multi-flue caps on exactly this North Kensington condition all the time. A multi-flue cap installed on a two-flue colonial runs $550 to $1,100.
You’ll see pieces of the concrete crown missing at the edges, cracked sections lifting away from the brick, and sometimes pile of small concrete bits in the gutter. On North Kensington’s 1950s brick chimneys, the original crowns were thin and unsealed, so a spalled crown is common. It matters for your cap because the cap fasteners anchor into the crown. If the crown is crumbling, the cap isn’t secured, and water wicks into the flue through the crown cracks. You fix the crown first, then remount or replace the cap. Crown repair in North Kensington is $450 to $900.
Crown coating seals the top of the chimney with a flexible waterproof membrane. For a North Kensington brick chimney, it stops the freeze-thaw cycle from pushing water into the mortar and clay tiles, which is what causes spalling and flue damage. We clean the crown, fill minor cracks, then apply the coating so it flexes with the chimney through the winter instead of cracking like unsealed concrete. On a typical North Kensington single-flue chimney, crown coating runs $325 to $500, and it buys you years before a full crown rebuild is needed.
If you converted from oil to gas in the 1970s or 1980s and still have the original clay tile flue, your cap is probably mismatched. The gas flue is now venting a smaller appliance through an oversized tile, and the cap that fit the old oil arrangement doesn’t match the current draft. The tell is acidic condensate collecting at the crown, corroding the cap fasteners and staining the brick below the crown. On a brick colonial off Plyers Mill Road, we recently pulled a rusted original cap that no longer matched the flue after gas conversion, repaired the crown, and installed a multi-flue cap sized for both flues, then flagged the missing liner for follow-up. Anything else would have locked in the mismatch. If you’re not sure, call (240) 716-5865 and we’ll check the flue sizing while we’re up there.
You don’t need a chimney that looks right from the street. You need a cap that fits your flue, a crown that’s sealed, and an honest answer about whether the liner your home inherited from the 1960s is doing its job. That’s the job we do. Call Top Hat Chimney at (240) 716-5865 for a free estimate on cap and crown work in North Kensington.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving North Kensington and Montgomery County since 1999.