From the top of the chimney, pretty much to the ground is pulling away and taking a lot of outside wall on either side with it. Its a brick home and it just stairsteps from the eves down. How should I approach this? - without spending thousands
Appreciate any suggestions...

 

Not sure how anyone would know without at least some pictures.

 

Welcome to the forums! I have found this is not a DIY job. The footing of the chimney has failed and must be hydraulically jacked back into position and a new footing, under the original, poured. The ones I have been involved in (redoing trim, etc.) were the direct result of the footing failure, as well as the lack of brick ties used as the structure was veneered.

 

Sounds right considering the problem. Is there anyway to slow down the falling, to by some time?
Thanks a lot for the answer.

 

Short of tear down and rebuilding, I don't think there is anything you can do other than mud jacking .... and replacing the mud with concrete to form a new footer should prevent the chimney from settling again.

 

I agree with the above answers.
You're way beyond any point of just stablizing things with a band-aid.

 

After the owner had his chimney corrected to the best posible, he was still left with problems we had to go in and correct.

 

If the OP were to post a few pics, we might be able to give more pertinent (albeit, still Band-Aid) suggestions for a buy-some-time fix.

Many years ago, I helped my Pa straighten a neighbor's chimney that was leaning dangerously. I was just a teenager, doing the Old Man's gopher work, but he came up with what I later realized was an ingenious plan. He and I pulled the chimney plumb by first installing a few vertical strengthening 2 x 6s on the far corners, and then cranking on two heavy-duty come-alongs tethered with ropes and chains to a nearby large tree. Once it was plumb, we dug down around the existing concrete footing base (which was crumbling terribly) and poured a new one, around and under it after removing all of the junk concrete.

Those were the good old days in a small Wisconsin town. The homeowner insisted on paying my Pa, so he finally broke down and accepted a case of Kingsbury as full payment. The job took close to a week to complete, cranking the come-alongs just a bit each day in order to not damage the chimney.

My payment was another lesson learned in life which I've never forgotten, and the value of helping people when they have problems.