In my third floor there is a leak which appears to be associated with the chimney in that the ceiling gets wet under the sloped east side of the chimney. I will try to keep this as simple as I can. If there is a vertical heavy rain there is no leak. Only wind driven rain from the east causes it. Probably an issue from the east side of the chimney, right?

I Had two chimney contractors come:

1) First guy. Without even going up on the roof (was not impressed with this), he took binoculars to view and declared that what needed to be done was scrape and remortar the entire exposed chimney above the roof. For $2700. Said nothing about the crown because from the ground he could not examine it. He made a point of saying he would be driving a few nails into the roof for his safety...?

2) Second guy went up and he viewed the chimney and said that for $900 (1) he would do some minor mortar repair. But (2) the main value add would be that he would apply a clear coat of CHIMNEY SAVER* to the chimney to repel water off of the bricks and mortar (he says otherwise the old bricks absorb too much water?), and CROWN COAT* to repair the damaged crown.

*by Saver Systems

OK I decide to see this myself but there is a steep asphalt roof. This morning I hired a Drone photographer to gather the following images.

My tentative conclusion, please tell me your observations/thoughts on what steps the contractor I finally select should do.
(1) From studying the below I think the holes in the mortar need to be filled in. (2) A good amount of the mortar needs to be scraped and repointed, including taking out the silicon caulking and repointing. (3) THe edging at the top of the chimney needs to be mortared. (4) Maybe the top aluminum 'hats' at the top need to be replaced. (5) The crown concrete needs to be recoated. Do I also need this clear water proofing treatment as well?

Thank you!
Dave


East Side ^


Closeup east side ^

West side^

Crown^

 

What time of day was the photo taken? Trying to figure out which photo is showing the east side.

 

This was taken in the morning 8 AM. Underneath each photo is descriptive text for that photo. The first two photos are of the east side. Thank you!

 

And the last photo is on the east side of the crown.

 

Wirepuller38, Update, third contractor weighs in:

• 1st contractor. Wants to do a little repair of mortar, but primarily recoat the crown and put waterproofing on the entire sides of the chimney to stop the rain from being 'absorbed into the brick of the chimney'
• 2nd contractor. Wants to scrape out the surface chimney mortar to a certain depth and repoint all the brick.
• 3rd contractor. Wants to completely rebuild the chimney.

I'm thinking I should pick the second contractor. I would most appreciate your thoughts.