One small, but mighty key player, in ensuring solid protection of your home are chimney caps, and more specifically, ones with quality material. For homeowners, chimney caps can be overlooked, as some may think they are not a huge factor with a home, especially if they don’t utilize their chimney. Additionally, chimney caps can be forgotten during home improvements or updates. Sometimes when homes are built, builders may not include a cap, despite its importance!

Let’s look into the importance of including chimney caps during any home repairs or home building, as well as the best materials to select when looking to include a chimney cap.

What Are Chimney Caps?

Chimney caps are placed at the top of chimneys, above the chimney’s crown. These chimney caps can be made out of a variety of materials, but it’s main function is to protect the chimney from any external threats like weather or animals. Chimney caps usually look like “mini roofs” for your chimney. They can be flat, round, or with a peak, with wire mesh.

Black chimney cap with mesh wiring.

The Importance of Chimney Caps

Chimney caps, and more directly, quality chimney caps, are extremely important when it comes to protecting not just a chimney, but the entire home. Chimney caps help to:

Prevent Water Damage: With a quality chimney cap there will be no room for weather-related issues such as rain or snow to enter the chimney. If any moisture were to enter the chimney, or flue, and gather at the bottom, it could lead to corrosion of the damper. When a damper is warped, the risk of carbon monoxide is increased if the fireplace is in use.

Any sort of moisture that enters the chimney will ultimately impact its flue (the chimney shoot) and its damper (the bottom of the chimney shoot). This can lead to further issues such as improper sealing of the damper, creating a more drafty fireplace. No one likes a drafty fireplace, as they are known for a sense of coziness and comfort! That’s why chimney caps play a key role in ensuring chimney longevity.

Prevent Outdoor Critters From Creating A Home: While the furry friends outside are cute, they are not cute when they start to make your home their home! A chimney cap helps to prevent outdoor animals from entering into the chimney and building a home internally. Birds, racoons, and squirrels are some of the most common offenders who can sneak into chimneys. So, what’s the big concern with a furry friend in a chimney? Many of these animals bring in disease, and if they were to die within the chimney’s flue, this can cause odor and can invite maggots as well. It’s best to avoid this possibility by incorporating a chimney cap onto any chimney.

Decrease Fire Risks: When it comes time for a homeowner to start their fireplace on a fall afternoon, they don’t want to have to worry about any potential fire hazards with their chimney. If their chimney is equipped with a quality chimney cap, then the chances of the fire’s embers starting a fire is highly unlikely. A chimney cap’s wire mesh will help to capture any embers from the flue, before they can make their way up and out. It’s always a good idea to have a chimney cap for the sake of preventing fires from starting from any outside combustibles.

Chimney caps serve great importance when it comes to not only protecting the quality of a chimney and its longevity, but also preventing further home issues from external forces.

Popular Chimney Cap Materials

Now that you have a better understanding of the importance of chimney caps, it’s important to understand the difference between chimney cap materials. Some common chimney cap materials include steel, aluminum, stainless steel, and copper. Each offers different aesthetics with different costs, but there are two that stand out from the rest as far as quality. Steel and aluminum are usually the cheaper materials, but not as good quality. The former has a tendency to rust sooner, while the latter can corrode easily.

Meanwhile, stainless steel and copper seem to be the best material for chimney caps to go with. Let’s look into what separates stainless steel from copper as well as their pros and cons to help you make the best choice for your construction needs.

Stainless Steel Chimney Cap Pros

Many contractors opt for stainless steel for a variety of reasons. For a little bit more money, stainless steel chimney caps prove to offer excellent features to provide protection for a chimney, and the home as a whole. Some perks to a stainless steel chimney cap include:

  • Longevity: Stainless steel chimney caps offer more longevity, as they can withstand more environmental elements, and will not corrode over time. This means homeowners are saving money in the long haul, by investing in a quality chimney cap from the beginning.
  • Sturdy: The types of chimney caps are also strong and durable to withstand some of the most harsh weather conditions.
  • Curb Appeal: Stainless steel chimney caps are more of a modern chimney cap, with clean and sleek look to them helping to match particular home exteriors.
  • Variety of sizing: Since chimneys can be in different sizes, it only makes sense for quality chimney caps to offer an array of sizes. So, stainless steel chimney caps come in a variety of sizes to appropriately match a chimney’s dimension.

Stainless Steel Chimney Cap Cons

With any perks to a certain product, there are downsides to consider as well when looking at the best quality chimney caps. A few downsides to stainless steel chimney caps include:

  • Price: Due to the quality and benefits of a stainless steel chimney cap, it will be on the more expensive side in comparison to an aluminum or steel. This may not be an ideal price for every homeowner, and is something they should keep in mind when shopping for chimney caps.
  • Complex installation: Installing stainless steel chimney caps can be rather complex and can come with some challenges. It is best to leave it to professionals for the installation process!

Overall, it may appear that the pros for stainless steel chimney caps outweigh the cons. However, it’s important to share with homeowners these factors, as some homeowners may find some downsides to be more important for them than others.

Copper Chimney Cap Pros

In addition to stainless steel chimney caps, copper chimney caps are also a popular choice for caps. Out of all the choices for chimney caps, copper is the top material for chimney caps. Additional advantages to copper chimney caps include:

  • Top quality: Out of all the four most popular chimney cap materials, copper chimney caps rank as the best quality you can get when looking for a chimney cap.
  • Durability: Similar to the stainless steel material, copper material is incredibly durable and strong. It can withstand many weather conditions, such as severe storms and winds. In addition, copper chimney caps have a low chance of any corrosion. Similarly, you can rest assured that any outdoor critters will be unable to make their way in with a copper chimney cap!
  • Curb appeal: Copper chimney caps offer a chic and elegant appearance to any home with its shiny copper look. Over time, copper chimney caps won’t even rust or erode.

Copper Chimney Cap Cons

Copper chimney caps may be the topped candidate for chimney cap materials with all of its perks and benefits. But, there are a few cons to this material that homeowners should be aware of so that there are no surprises. Some cons to copper chimney caps are:

  • Price: Because copper chimney caps offer the best quality for protection of a chimney, this means it is also the most expensive. For some homeowners it may exceed their budget, or some may find that it is better to invest at the front end just once!
  • Maintenance: While copper chimney cap cons are elegant due to their beautiful finish, they do require maintenance of sorts to keep up with their appearance. Over time, copper chimney caps will develop a layer of patina as a protective layer. The color of a patina layer is blue-green, which may be a desirable look for some home-oweners. However, if a homeowner wants to keep the copper color shiny and bright then it’s best to leave it to a professional to clean.

How Long Do Chimney Caps Last?

Chimney caps should last at least 50 years or more. However, there are certain situations when it is crucial to have a chimney cap replaced. Reasons to change a chimney cap include:

  • Water in fireplace
  • Chimney cap is eroded, rusted, or blown off
  • Downdrafts in chimney
  • Unpleasant odor, like a smokey smell

It’s also important to note that if a homeowner has moved into a home older than 50 years, it may be worth having a professional come out and check the condition of their chimney cap. This time frame is a good gauge to see if it’s time to swap out an old chimney cap for a new one!

Grey Chimney Cap

Can Homeowners Cap Their Own Chimney Cap?

For the sake of safety, it is always advised that homeowners leave it to the professionals to replace or install a chimney cap—especially with stainless steel chimney caps, as these can be more complex to install. Since roofs come with different steeps, it may not be the best idea for homeowners to save some money at the risk of their own safety for the sake of a chimney cap!

Do Homeowners Need to Cap Their Unused Chimneys?

Even if a homeowner has a chimney that is simply for visual looks, or it’s an older chimney that they’d rather not use, it is always recommended to cap it. Capping an unused chimney is just an extra precaution to avoid any external problems such as animals or weather-related issues.

Does a Chimney Cap Impact a Home’s Roof?

Ensuring homeowners have a proper and adequate chimney cap can help to prevent roof damage. Since chimney caps serve to prevent moisture from entering the chimney, this can also prevent roof damage from leaked moisture. It’s best for homeowners to keep up with the condition of their chimney caps to prevent any roof damage, which will help homeowners to save time, money, and headaches!

Chimney cap with top.

Chimney Cap Help from Metal Formers

At Metal Formers in Nashville, TN, we offer a variety of chimney cap shapes and sizes, as well as stainless steel and copper caps. By offering the top materials for chimney caps, you can rest assured that your clients will be receiving quality products. You can find more information about the chimney caps we offer online, and view some of our chimney cap work.

If you have additional questions about Metal Formers and our products, feel free to connect with us online. For online orders, download our Chimney Cap order form. Once completed, you will want to send this form to us via email at office@metalformersinc.com.

No matter where you may land on the chimney cap journey, whether looking at options or ready to purchase for your clients, the team at Metal Formers are eager to assist you in any home improvement needs! We look forward to hearing from you.