I've started finding small pieces of brick in my flower bed below the chimney. Is that usually a sign the chimney is deteriorating?
Answer
That’s usually not a good sign. Brick and mortar generally don’t end up in your flower bed unless something up on the chimney is breaking down. A lot of times it’s the mortar joints, the crown, or the top few courses of brick taking a beating from years of Michigan weather. The next step is figuring out exactly what’s failing and how extensive the deterioration has become. What lands on the ground is often just a small portion of what’s actually loose up on the chimney. We’ve seen plenty of chimneys that looked minor from the ground but had much more significant deterioration once we got a closer look.
