Water dripping into fireplace?

Asked by rufuswashere (26

) December 14th, 2010

We have a perplexing water leak situation.
It rained a lot here two days ago on a relatively warm day. Started getting drips both in our wood-burning fireplace and around it (i.e., coming outside the fireplace and dripping down the mantel). Assumed it was a chimney/roof flashing problem. Here’s the weird part: The weather has dried up, and it’s now much colder (below freezing)—and the dripping has increased! The plumber says it’s not a leaking pipe, and when we turned off the water to the house, the dripping didn’t stop. The water is cold, so I doubt it’s from our boiler.
Help?

home repair

Observing members: 0

Composing members: 0

1 Answer

I’ll bet you “used to have” a chimney cap, and now you don’t. The storm may have blown it off, or awry.

What I expect has happened is you have some water that came down the chimney and is now pooled on your damper. If you open the damper, then I expect you’d have a one-time mini-flood of all the water that has backed up there. Not more than a gallon or two, one would hope.

That explains water “in the fireplace”. But for water outside the fireplace and dripping onto the mantel, I suppose your assumption of a roof / flashing issue is the most likely answer.

CyanoticWasp (20274

)“Great Answer” (3

) Flag as…