QueensLocal guide
Chimney Care in Queens, NY: What Local Homeowners Should Know
Queens mixes Victorian frame houses, yellow-brick rows, Tudor homes with tile and slate roofs, and postwar Cape Cods near the bay. Winters bring hard freezes and some snow, and storms have hit the shoreline hard. Most chimneys vent gas boilers, so yearly checks of the liner, crown and flashing matter more here than fireplace use.
Queens winters, by the numbers
Queens averages about 44.8 inches of precipitation a year. A typical winter has 22 days with some snowfall, and in an average year there are 14 days when the temperature never climbs above freezing. The borough's record single snowfall, 30.5 inches, came on January 24, 2016.
For masonry, the pattern matters more than the totals. Rain soaks into brick and mortar, a hard freeze turns it to ice, and the expansion pries joints apart a little more each season. Along the bay, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 caused extensive damage to low-lying parts of Queens, a reminder that wind and storm surge can loosen caps and flashing as well.
From Richmond Hill Victorians to Forest Hills Tudors
Roughly 29% of the borough's housing units date from 1939 or earlier, with large shares from the 1940s and 1950s, according to recent Census estimates. The older stock is easy to spot. Northern Woodhaven has Victorian and Colonial houses, many more than 120 years old, and many of old Richmond Hill's Queen Anne Victorians still stand. Ridgewood is known for yellow face-brick rowhouses; a 1905 rule required new buildings there to be masonry, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission has named four historic districts in the neighborhood.
Forest Hills is full of Tudor Revival homes, often with stucco walls and red Ludowici clay tile roofs, and neo-Tudor styles still dominate parts of Kew Gardens. Southern Rego Park has colonial, English and Tudor houses with slate roofs. Postwar Queens looks different again: Cape Cods on filled marshland in Howard Beach, high ranches that followed in the 1960s and 1970s, and the free-standing homes of Bayside.
Between the old and the postwar sits a big band of 1920s building. Ozone Park saw extensive construction then, mostly detached or semi-detached homes, and builders Baier and Bauer had put up 150 single-family row houses in Middle Village by 1928. Glendale has townhomes of yellow Kreischer brick and semi-detached wood-frame houses from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and its Liberty Park section is mostly detached wood-frame houses from the 1920s.
Caring for chimneys on tile, slate and brick
Clay tile and slate are beautiful and easy to crack underfoot, so chimney work on those roofs calls for careful access and flashing that is fitted to the roofing rather than smeared with sealant. Tall Tudor stacks catch more wind and weather than a short brick chimney on a row house, and their crowns and upper courses usually show wear first.
On any Queens home, the basics are the same: an inspection at least once a year under NFPA 211, cleaning when deposits build up, and a fresh look after a chimney fire or a storm that may have caused damage.
Old brick has its own rule. Repointing a century-old Ridgewood or Glendale chimney with mortar harder than the brick around it can make the brick crack and flake, so the mortar should suit the age of the masonry.
Boilers, not bonfires
Recent Census estimates show utility gas heating about 75% of occupied homes in Queens and fuel oil about 8%. That means most chimneys here spend the winter venting a boiler or furnace. Gas exhaust carries water vapor that can condense in a cold, oversized masonry flue and eat at the mortar. Oil burners leave soot that builds up over a season. If a heating system is replaced, the existing flue may no longer match the new appliance, and a liner is often the fix.
Historic districts and approvals
Besides the Ridgewood districts, Queens has the Broadway-Flushing Historic District on the National Register and many individual landmarks in Flushing. Where a property is designated by the city, exterior changes such as rebuilding a chimney can need approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Elsewhere, ask the city's Department of Buildings what applies before larger masonry jobs.
