Guttrz / Roof repair / Chimney flashing repair
Chimney flashing repair in Canton, OH
The owner inspects every chimney himself, sends a photo report the same day, and gives you one written price good for a year before any work starts.
Guttrz repairs chimney flashing in Canton, OH and across Stark, Summit, and Medina counties by replacing the apron, step flashing, back pan or cricket, and counter flashing where the chimney meets the roof, with ice and water shield underneath. The owner inspects the chimney himself from the roof and the attic, sends a photo report the same day, and gives one fixed written price good for a year, with a job minimum. Chimneys wider than 30 inches get a cricket as the Residential Code of Ohio requires. Crumbling mortar, spalling brick, or a cracked crown is a mason's job, and the report says so.
Chimney flashing repair in Canton, OH is one of the most common roof repairs on a house built before 1960, and Canton's housing stock, with a median build year around 1941, is full of those chimneys. The owner inspects the chimney himself, from the roof and from the attic, sends you a photo report the same day, and gives one written price good for a year before any work starts. The repair replaces the metal where the chimney meets the roof. It does not fix bad brick or crumbling mortar, and the report tells you when a mason has to come first. It is part of the roof repair service from Guttrz.
What are step flashing and counter flashing?
A chimney is flashed in two layers that are not fastened to each other. The step flashing is roofing: L-shaped pieces of metal, one per shingle course, with one leg under the shingles and one leg up the side of the chimney. The counter flashing is masonry: strips of metal let into the mortar joints and bent down over the step flashing. The roof moves with the framing, while the chimney stands still on its own footing, so the two layers slide past each other instead of tearing.
The downhill face gets an apron that laps over the shingles below, and the uphill face gets a back pan, or a cricket when the chimney is wide.
Does a chimney need a cricket?
A cricket is a small peaked roof built behind the chimney to split the water coming down the slope and send it around both sides. The Residential Code of Ohio, which follows the International Residential Code, requires a cricket or saddle on the ridge side of any chimney more than 30 inches wide, measured perpendicular to the slope. On a wide chimney without a cricket, leaves and snow pile against the back, ice forms, and water sits against the brick for weeks at a time.
A cricket is framed, decked, covered with ice and water shield, then shingled or capped in metal. On a two-flue brick chimney, usually wider than 30 inches, adding one is part of the repair, not an upgrade.
Why do caulk-only chimney fixes fail?
A tube of roof cement smeared along the base of a chimney stops a drip for a season, and then it fails for three reasons. First, no sealant can bridge the movement between a chimney and a roof. It cracks at the first hard freeze. Second, roof cement traps water. A seal with one hairline gap lets water in, and the rest of the seal keeps it from draining back out, so the leak moves instead of stopping. Third, a thick bead on top of the counter flashing hides the fact that the counter flashing has pulled out of its mortar joint.
Sealant does have a place, at the top edge of the counter flashing and in the reglet cut. A chimney that is black roof cement from the shingles to the brick has been patched, not flashed.
What are the signs of a chimney flashing leak inside the house?
- A stain on the ceiling near the chimney. Usually a brown ring that grows after a rain. Water runs down the outside of the chimney in the attic and drops onto the drywall where the chimney passes through the ceiling.
- Damp drywall or peeling paint on the chimney wall. Most often upstairs, on the wall that the chimney runs inside.
- Efflorescence. White, powdery deposits on the brick in the attic or on the chimney breast. These are mineral salts left behind as water dries out through the masonry, and they mean the brick is soaking up water somewhere above.
Not every stain near a chimney is flashing. A cracked crown, a missing cap, or failed mortar joints above the roof let water into the brick itself. The inspection sorts out which one you have, with photos, before anything is priced.
What does chimney flashing repair in Canton, OH include?
- The shingles around the chimney are lifted, two or three courses on each side and above.
- The old step flashing, back pan, and apron come off, along with every layer of caulk and roof cement.
- Soft decking at the back of the chimney is cut out and replaced, priced by the sheet on your written quote.
- Ice and water shield is wrapped up the base of the chimney and out onto the deck on all four sides.
- A new apron, new step flashing woven course by course, and a new back pan or cricket go on.
- Sound counter flashing is re-bent and resealed. Where it is missing or pulled out, new metal is let into a reglet cut in the mortar joint and sealed.
- The shingles are relaid, and photos of every layer go into your report.
How do small, medium, and large chimneys differ?
| Chimney | Where you see it in Canton | What the repair involves | Time on the roof |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small: one flue, under 30 inches wide, often a furnace or water heater flue | Postwar ranches and Cape Cods off Fulton Road NW | Apron, step flashing both sides, flat back pan, counter flashing | Usually a morning |
| Medium: a fireplace chimney, 30 to about 48 inches wide | Postwar colonials and Market Heights two-stories | The same, plus a framed cricket and more counter flashing to cut | Most of a day |
| Large: two or more flues, over 48 inches, or any chimney on a steep roof or straddling a ridge | Prewar homes in Ridgewood, Harter Heights, and Colonial Heights | Framed and shingled cricket, long step flashing runs, counter flashing on four sides, often decking replaced | A full day or more |
The written price depends on the chimney's size, the pitch, how the roof is reached, how much decking is soft, and whether the counter flashing can be saved. You get one fixed written price before any work starts, a job minimum applies, and the price is good for a year.
When is the masonry the problem, not the flashing?
Guttrz is a roofing and gutter company, not a mason, and new flashing fastened into bad mortar will not hold. If the mortar joints crumble when you scrape them with a key, if brick faces are popping off, if the crown on top is cracked through, or if the chimney leans, the chimney needs a mason before it needs a roofer. The report says so in plain words, with photos, and we will not sell you flashing on a chimney that needs repointing first. The flashing goes on after the mason is done.
When is a chimney flashing repair not worth it?
When the roof around the chimney is finished. If the shingles are bald and brittle or the valleys are worn through, reflashing the chimney alone means paying for the same work twice, because every full tear-off reflashes the chimney as part of the job. The roof replacement page covers what a tear-off includes, and the roof repair vs replacement page explains how the inspection report draws the line. If the stain is nowhere near the chimney, the roof leak repair page covers the other usual sources. Now booking spring 2027 roof replacements. Free roof inspections now.
Which Canton chimneys leak?
The brick chimneys on prewar houses in Ridgewood, Colonial Heights, and Harter Heights are tall, often two flues wide, and set on roofs pitched 8/12 or steeper. Their mortar has seen eighty to a hundred winters of freeze and thaw, and many run through the middle of the house, so the stain lands on a bedroom ceiling rather than an outside wall. Chimney work inside the city falls under the City of Canton Building Department at 424 Market Avenue N, 3rd Floor, and Guttrz checks whether a permit is needed and pulls it where it is. If the whole roof is due, the roof replacement in Canton page covers those houses.
One owner inspects, one photo report arrives the same day, and one written price holds for a year. Get a fixed written price for chimney flashing repair in Canton, or text your address and a photo of the stain to (330) 818-5584 and we text or call you within the hour.
Questions
How long does chimney flashing last?
Galvanized steel step flashing commonly lasts 20 to 30 years before rust works through it, about as long as the shingles around it. Copper and heavier aluminum last longer and often outlive two roofs. Counter flashing set into mortar lasts as long as the mortar holds it. What shortens all of them is caulk: roof cement holds water against the metal and rusts galvanized flashing years early.
Can I repair chimney flashing myself?
On a low ranch roof with a small flue, a careful homeowner can replace step flashing and a back pan, and the method on this page is the one to follow. On a prewar Canton roof pitched 8/12 or steeper, with a tall two-flue chimney, the fall risk is real and the counter flashing needs a masonry saw to cut a reglet. If you are not comfortable kneeling on that slope with both hands busy, text us a photo and let the owner look first.
Why does my chimney leak only in a hard rain with wind?
Wind drives rain up the slope and against the chimney faces instead of down the roof, so it finds gaps gravity never tests: a short apron, a step flashing piece that has slid down a course, or counter flashing that has lifted a quarter inch out of its joint. It also soaks porous brick above the roof line, and a chimney that only leaks in a storm from the west often has open mortar joints on that face as much as a flashing problem.
Is a chimney cricket required by code in Ohio?
The Residential Code of Ohio is based on the International Residential Code, and section R903.2.2 of that code requires a cricket or saddle on the ridge side of a chimney more than 30 inches wide, measured perpendicular to the slope, covered in sheet metal or the same material as the roof. Older chimneys were built before the rule and many have no cricket. Adding one during a flashing repair is part of the written price when the chimney is wide enough to need it.
Do you repair the chimney crown, cap, or mortar?
No. The crown, the cap, the mortar joints, and the brick itself are masonry, and Guttrz does not do masonry work. The inspection photographs them anyway, because a cracked crown or open joints above the roof can soak the chimney and show up inside as the same ceiling stain a flashing leak makes. If the report finds masonry problems, it tells you to get a mason first, and the flashing goes on after that work is done.
Will the new flashing match my roof?
The step flashing and back pan disappear under the shingles, so only the counter flashing and the apron show. Those come in prefinished aluminum in standard colors or in galvanized steel, and we match the darkest shingle tone or the existing counter flashing where it is being kept. On a prewar home where copper was used, the report prices copper as an option so the repair matches what is already there.
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Written by Christian Schaffner, owner of Guttrz. Updated November 8, 2026.
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