Why High Point chimneys need a custom cap
Central High Point has one of the highest concentrations of pre-1960 homes in the Triad. The Emerywood neighborhood and the historic district around downtown are full of houses built in the 1920s through 1950s, and almost all of them have original brick chimneys. Those chimneys were laid by hand, which means their flues and crowns don’t measure in the clean inches a stamped, big-box cap is built around.
A 1930s Emerywood chimney might have a 14.5” x 17” flue with decades of mortar buildup that brings it closer to 15.5” x 18”. A double-flue chimney — common on these older center-hall houses with a fireplace on each end — needs a single cap covering both flues with the right clearance and a drip edge over the masonry. Stamped caps don’t fit any of that. They end up sitting an inch high on one corner, screwed into crumbling mortar, or caulked down with sealant that fails by year three. By year five they rattle, lift in a storm, or vanish entirely.
We provide caps custom-built, to your chimney’s actual measurements, in materials that outlast the masonry.
Copper and stainless for High Point homes
Copper is the premium choice and the one we recommend most often for the visible brick chimneys in Emerywood and the historic district. It develops a patina over the first 5-10 years — bright orange to bronze to the green you see on old churches — and it will outlast the roof beneath it. On a curb-facing chimney on one of these architecturally significant homes, copper treats the chimney as the design element it is.
Stainless steel is the right balance of durability and cost for the mid-century ranches in Greenway, Skeet Club, and Deep River and the 1990s-2000s builder homes off Eastchester Drive and Skeet Club Road. Stainless lasts 30-50+ years, stays bright, and runs roughly 40% of copper’s cost. It’s also our standard recommendation for the commercial buildings and showrooms throughout the city.
Either way, what we build is a system, not just a lid on a flue: a top plate covering the full crown, a spark screen to keep embers in and birds and squirrels out, a drip edge that overhangs the masonry on every side, and standoff legs set at the proper height for draft clearance. For multi-flue chimneys we install one cap spanning all of them with correct clearance to each.
When the cap is part of a bigger chimney problem
On these older High Point chimneys, the metal cap is often fine and the leak is somewhere else. Before we quote a cap, we assess the whole chimney:
- Cracked concrete crown — the masonry crown on top is separate from the metal cap. Freeze-thaw cycles widen the cracks every winter. We repair or rebuild crowns.
- Failing roof flashing — step and counter flashing where the chimney meets the roof is one of the most common leak sources on the older homes near downtown, where original lead flashing is well past its life.
- Failing mortar joints — vertical cracks in the brick itself that need repointing.
If the cap is sound and the crown is the real problem, we tell you that. No upsell.
Why High Point homeowners choose Mid Atlantic
- 30 minutes away on Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem — not a national franchise or a storm chaser
- custom-built to your chimney’s actual measurements, in copper or stainless
- Multi-flue and complex configurations other contractors won’t quote
- Coordinated with roofing work — if you’re already due for a roof, the cap goes on at the same time
- Owens Corning Platinum Preferred, Carlisle SynTec authorized, in-house W-2 crews (no subs)
- A+ BBB, 4.8 stars on Google and Facebook, 3-year workmanship warranty
Schedule a chimney cap measurement in High Point
Call (336) 671-5208 or request an estimate online. We take measurements at your house, install, and install on a follow-up visit. Most High Point inspections are scheduled within 48 hours.