Q. Our home was built in 1937 with a coal furnace located in the basement. When we purchased the home in 1960, the furnace had been converted over to gas. In about1982 we replaced the furnace with a ...

Q. We have had a persistent leak in the ceiling by our fireplace. I read in your column that a saddle or a cricket behind the chimney would help this. We had a new saddle installed but have found that ...

Q: I have a brick chimney on the west side of the home. My problem is the bricks on the outside of the chimney are flaking and falling off. Do you have any idea what is causing this or what can be ...

What Can I Do About A Leaning Brick Chimney? A leaning chimney is not an optical illusion. It is a reality that needs to be addressed sooner, rather than later. If you look at the side of your home ...

Where to start with chimneys? Probably here: A chimney is not just an elongated window, not just a portal from inside to outside with deep, brick sills. A chimney, in fact, is a machine for generating ...

Jeff Somers is a freelancer who has been writing about writing, books, personal finance, and home maintenance since 2012. When not writing, Jeff spends his free time fixing up his old house. He has ...

Q: We have two chimneys, both painted white. The one for the furnace is fine, but bricks keep popping out of the other chimney, which is for two fireplaces that we do not even use. The flues for these ...

A while back, we responded to a real estate agent who wanted to know how to fix an old two-story home with severely sloping floors. The home had just been newly drywalled and painted to get it ready ...

Q. I have a brick chimney on the west side of the home. My problem is the bricks on the outside of the chimney are flaking and falling off. Do you have any idea what is causing this or what can be ...