An insurance company assumes that you, the homeowner, will take precautions to prevent anything that might be considered “unnecessary” damage.
Our technicians inspect chimneys daily and find various types of damage that the homeowner could have avoided if they had taken proper steps. Neglecting your chimney can result in the following damage:
- Fires caused by excess creosote in chimneys. Get them cleaned!
- Cracked or broken chimney liners cause localized house fires. Yearly inspections will catch these issues while they're still small!
- Bricks and mortar are crumbling and deteriorating severely. Yearly inspections will catch these issues while they're still small!
- A leaning chimney. Yearly inspections would have caught this.
- The chimney structure collapses in whole or partly. Yearly inspections would have caught this.
- Water damage from faulty masonry, chimney crowns, flashing and caps. Yearly inspections would have caught this.
- Acidic creosote buildup causes interior damage. A yearly cleaning would have prevented this.
Homeowners insurance companies will deny a claim for these or similar conditions if they can argue that they could or should have prevented them. They call it "lack of maintenance" by homeowner and they will not pay the claim. These claims can get into the high thousands! Take precautions now with a little bit of investment and your bank account will thank you later.