Chimney Repair for Dover chimneys
Almost every older house in Dover has a brick chimney, and on two-family homes it often serves two heating systems. Many of these chimneys were built with lime mortar and clay or no liners, and they have been through more than a century of freeze-thaw cycles. Furnace and boiler replacements over the years have often left modern appliances venting into old flues that were not designed for them.
Downtown and multifamily buildings add larger masonry chimneys rising through flat roofs, including some that are no longer in use. Asset Roofing & Chimney inspects, repairs, relines, caps, rebuilds and waterproofs chimneys throughout Dover.
Dover housing
Dover's housing stock is old and compact: late-19th and early-20th-century single-family and two-family frame houses on narrow lots, many with front porches, steep gable roofs and a brick chimney, plus small apartment buildings and mixed-use buildings with apartments over storefronts. Mid-century capes and ranches appear on the hillside streets toward the town's edges. Industrial and commercial buildings with low-slope roofs sit along the river and the rail line.
Weather & exposure
Dover lies in the Rockaway River valley with hills rising on either side, so it gets cold, snowy western Morris County winters and the moisture of a river town. Houses set close together shade one another and shed snow and water onto neighboring roofs and walkways. Flat roofs downtown deal with ponding and freeze-thaw at parapets, and summer storms bring short, heavy downpours that overwhelm small gutters on older houses.
Repair, repoint or rebuild in Dover
We start with an inspection from the roof and from inside, including the appliance connections where we can see them. On most Dover chimneys the work is a combination of crown repair, repointing, a cap and new flashing, with a stainless liner added where a modern appliance vents into an old flue.
If the chimney above the roof is loose, leaning or badly spalled, rebuilding from the roofline up is more durable than patching. For unused chimneys on commercial buildings, we can cap and repair them or discuss removing the top below the roofline.
