Chimney Damper Repair in Somerville, NJ

A damper stuck closed or half closed is not safe to burn under, because the smoke and carbon monoxide of a fire have nowhere to go but the room. Check it every time before a fire, by looking up with a flashlight. A plate that seems open may have dropped partway, and a handle that moves may no longer be connected to anything.

A plate stuck open is safe to burn under but wasteful, since the flue draws heated air out of the house between fires. What it also tells you is that a chimney may be taking on water, as rust is the common cause. If a fire has started and smoke rolls into the room, stop adding wood, open a window and leave the damper as it is. If the room fills or an alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call for help from there. Leave a seized plate alone until it has been looked at, because forcing it can snap the rod or drop the plate onto the smoke shelf.

An old cast iron damper can often be cleaned, freed and kept working, since the casting itself is thick and rarely rusts all the way through. Those plates were built heavily, and in the Victorian houses of Somerville or the older buildings of Rocky Hill and Millstone, a damper may be as old as the fireplace. Soot and rust are cleared from the seat and the pivots so the plate can close again. A cracked or broken casting is another matter, since a replacement of that pattern may not exist.

Old plates often do not seal well even when they move. Metal resting on rough metal leaves gaps, and worn pivots add to them, which is fine while a fire is burning and less so on a January night. Ask for an honest view of how tightly the old plate can close, and whether that is good enough for how you use the fireplace. For a room with a rarely lit fireplace, keeping the original is usually reasonable. For a room that loses heat all winter, the next section may be the better answer.

Most handle, rod and pivot problems can be fixed from the firebox, with the fireplace cold and the room protected by drop cloths. Debris sitting on the plate is cleared from there too, along with any creosote that has gummed up the edges. Bent stops, a loose bracket, and a rod that slipped off its peg are all ordinary repairs. A dropped plate that is still in one piece can often be lifted back onto its seat.

A plate rusted through, or a frame coming loose from the masonry, usually takes more. The surrounding brick may have to be opened to reach a built-in frame, which is out of proportion on many older fireplaces and on a marble or tile surround. The chamber above is right there, so look at it during the same visit, and if it has open gaps, smoke chamber repair is best done while the damper is out of the way. Water usually explains the failure, and that takes a look at the cap and crown as well.

A top-sealing damper suits many older chimneys, provided the flue serves the fireplace alone and the top tile is strong enough to hold it. It closes the flue at the top with a gasket, worked by a stainless cable that runs down to the firebox, and it leaves the old throat damper in place, or out of the way if it has failed. New Jersey's code allows a damper in the fireplace or in the chimney that vents it, provided it can be worked from the room. It also holds warm air in the flue, so the chimney does not act as a cold shaft.

Older chimneys raise some cautions. A stack with no flue tile, or a soft crown around crumbling tile, may not give the damper a good seat, so that gets fixed first. A flue that shares its passage with a boiler or a water heater cannot take a top damper at all, since those appliances have to vent all the time. On a house in a historic district, ask how the top of the chimney will look from the street, and confirm any change with the commission.

Not a manual one, on gas or oil equipment. New Jersey's residential code bans a manually operated damper in the connector of a gas appliance and allows manual dampers only with solid fuel. Old hand dampers still turn up in the flue pipes of boilers around Rocky Hill and Montgomery, and if you find one, leave its handle alone and have it looked at. Automatic flue dampers and barometric draft regulators are a separate matter: they are listed devices that belong to the heating system, and your heating contractor services them.

The damper page you are reading covers fireplaces. For the flue above a heating appliance, the concern is that it stays open, sound and suited to what uses it, and chimney flue repair covers that. Either way, the visit starts with a free evaluation and photographs of what was found. The company behind the work is veteran owned, licensed and insured (NJ HIC 13VH13654300), and its Somerville location takes damper calls 8 AM to 8 PM, 7 days a week.