East Flatbush is several neighborhoods under one name, and most of it was built between the 1920s and the 1950s. Rugby and Farragut are one and two family detached and semi-detached houses from the twenties and thirties. Wingate mixes wood frame houses, brick row houses and walk up apartment buildings. Remsen Village has modest attached and semi-attached brick homes, plus the late 1930s bungalows on Remsen Avenue near Clarkson Avenue. Along Church Avenue, Linden Boulevard and Utica Avenue you get walk ups and stores with apartments above.
Nearly every one of those houses was built with a brick chimney for a coal or oil boiler. Most of the boilers have been replaced since, and plenty of the new ones vent straight out a side wall. The brick stack above the roof stays anyway, doing nothing, while the mortar washes out of the joints and somebody tars the base every few years. Water soaks into the brick and runs down inside the wall. So the stain shows up on a top floor bedroom wall, sometimes a few feet from the chimney, and nobody thinks roof. More tar at the base will not stop water that is coming in through the top and the face of the brick.
There are two real fixes. If the chimney still vents a boiler or a water heater, it gets repointed, gets a new crown or cap, and gets counterflashing cut into the mortar joints instead of stuck to the face. If it truly vents nothing, a heating contractor confirms that first, and then the permanent fix is often to take the stack down below the roof line and roof over the opening. We do not take a chimney down until someone has confirmed nothing is connected to it, including a flue from the house next door. A blocked flue on a working appliance is a carbon monoxide problem, not a roofing problem.
The walk ups are a different job. Big flat roofs with a stair bulkhead, a parapet all the way round and one scupper and leader at the back that fills with leaves. On those buildings the leak is usually at the bulkhead door sill or at the back of the parapet, and the call comes from a tenant on the top floor. We work Church Avenue, Linden Boulevard, Utica Avenue, Remsen Avenue, Clarkson Avenue, Rutland Road, Lenox Road, Clarendon Road and Avenue D.
What we actually see in 11203, 11212 and 11210: unused chimneys with washed out mortar leaking into top floor walls, tar smeared over chimney flashing instead of counterflashing cut into the brick, wood fascia rotting behind overflowing gutters on the frame houses in Wingate, and walk up roofs leaking at the bulkhead door and the rear scupper.
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Q: The stain is on my bedroom wall, not the ceiling. Could it still be the roof?
A: Yes, and on an East Flatbush house the chimney is the first place we look. Brick soaks up water when the mortar is gone, and that water runs down inside the wall before it shows. A stain on a top floor wall, especially one that gets worse after wind driven rain, very often traces back to the chimney above it. We check the brick, the crown and the flashing before anyone opens a wall.
Q: Should I repair my old chimney or take it down?
A: It depends on whether anything still uses it. If your boiler or water heater vents through it, it stays, and it gets repointed, capped and properly flashed. If a heating contractor confirms it vents nothing, taking the stack down below the roof line and roofing over it ends the leak and the upkeep for good. We will not remove a chimney until that has been confirmed.
Q: What does chimney repair cost in East Flatbush?
A: Repointing a typical row house chimney usually runs about $500 to $1,500, a new crown about $200 to $600, and new flashing about $300 to $800. Most chimneys we see here need two or three of those at once. Taking an unused stack down and roofing over it is priced after we see the chimney and the roof around it.
Q: We are replacing the roof anyway. Should the chimney be done at the same time?
A: Yes, that is the best time. The new roof has to flash into the chimney, and new flashing tied into loose brick will fail in a few years and take the new roof's warranty with it. If the brick is bad we tell you before the roof goes on, not after.
Q: Do you work on the walk up apartment buildings too?
A: Yes. On the walk ups along Linden Boulevard and Church Avenue we replace flat roofs and fix the parts that usually leak first: the bulkhead door sill, the back of the parapet and the rear scupper and leader. If tenants are affected we tell you in advance which days the crew will be on the roof.
Q: Which ZIP codes do you cover in East Flatbush?
A: Most of East Flatbush is 11203, with the blocks toward Brownsville in 11212 and the Farragut side in 11210. We cover all three, plus Flatbush, Crown Heights, Canarsie and Midwood. Call (516) 713-9199 for a free estimate.
MLM Construction Group works out of 1717 Avenue P in Brooklyn, NY 11229. East Flatbush is inside our regular service area, so estimates and emergency calls there are handled by the same crew, not subcontracted out.
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