BrooklynLocal guide
Chimney Care in Brooklyn, NY: What Local Homeowners Should Know
Nearly half of Brooklyn's housing predates 1940, so many chimneys here are old brick stacks on row houses, and most now vent a gas or oil boiler rather than a fireplace. Plan a yearly inspection, check the crown and mortar joints after each winter, and ask the Landmarks Preservation Commission before exterior chimney work in a historic district.
Brownstones, brick rows and Victorian Flatbush
Brooklyn's housing is old by any measure. Recent Census estimates place roughly 48% of the borough's housing units in buildings from 1939 or earlier, and Bedford-Stuyvesant alone has about 8,800 buildings that predate 1900. Brooklyn Heights, where most brownstone rowhouses went up before the Civil War, became the city's first historic district in 1965. The Park Slope district, with 2,575 buildings, is the largest landmark neighborhood in New York.
The row-house belt runs far beyond those two neighborhoods: brick-faced homes in Sunset Park built mostly between 1892 and 1910, Bay Ridge rows that followed the Fourth Avenue subway, and the brick and wood-frame houses of Windsor Terrace. Flatbush adds the planned Victorian enclaves of Ditmas Park and Prospect Park South. Farther out, Canarsie's mostly detached homes date from the postwar decades into the 1970s, and Dyker Heights has detached and semi-detached houses with driveways and yards.
Kensington mixes brick rowhouses, detached one-family Victorians and apartment buildings, and Midwood filled in during the 1920s with large middle-class housing tracts. On a detached house, the chimney often runs up an outside wall, exposed to weather on three sides instead of sheltered between neighbors.
Rain, snow and the shoreline
Brooklyn gets nearly 50 inches of precipitation a year, and February is usually its snowiest month. That steady moisture is what wears a chimney down. Brick and mortar soak up rain, the water freezes on cold nights and expands, and over many winters brick faces flake off and joints open. A cracked concrete crown lets water straight into the top of the stack, and a rusted or missing cap lets rain run down the flue.
Coastal storms add to the strain. Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 caused extensive damage in low-lying parts of the borough, and wind-driven rain still finds weak flashing where a chimney passes through a flat row-house roof.
What the chimney is actually venting
In most Brooklyn homes the chimney's daily job is carrying exhaust from a boiler or water heater, not smoke from a fire. Census estimates show utility gas heating about 72% of occupied homes in Kings County, with fuel oil at around 5%. Gas exhaust is cool and wet, and in an old unlined or oversized flue that moisture condenses on the inner walls and weakens mortar from the inside. Oil leaves soot and scale that can narrow a flue over time. When an old boiler is swapped for a more efficient one, the masonry flue often needs a liner sized to the new unit.
Decorative fireplaces are common in brownstone parlors. Many were built long ago for small coal fires, so they deserve a check before anyone lights wood in them.
Many row houses also run a water heater into the same flue as the boiler, so both appliances depend on that one old passage staying clear and sound.
Practical care for old Brooklyn masonry
A few habits go a long way with buildings this old:
- Have chimneys, fireplaces and vents inspected at least once a year, as NFPA 211 recommends, and cleaned when deposits build up.
- Look at the crown, cap and flashing each spring, once the freeze-thaw season has done its work.
- In attached row houses the stack often sits on the party wall, so a repair may involve a conversation with the neighbor.
- After a chimney fire, or a storm that may have damaged the roof, get an inspection before using the system again.
Landmarks and permits in Brooklyn
Brooklyn has dozens of historic districts, among them Stuyvesant Heights, Fort Greene, Carroll Gardens, Prospect Heights, Ditmas Park, Greenpoint and the four Sunset Park districts designated in 2019. Exterior work on a landmarked building, such as rebuilding a chimney above the roofline or changing how it looks, can need approval from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. For other properties, check with the city's Department of Buildings before major masonry work. Pro 1 Chimney is family-owned, works with its own crew and has a branch in Brooklyn.
