Leaning Chimney help

[tj218]

I am in the process of purchasing a house and just got through with the home inspection. Something I completly overlooked previously was the chimney. It turns out this chimney is leaning pretty bad and the home inspector said repair needs to be done ASAP. The inspector said probably only from the roof line up needs to be replaced (about 8-9 feet).

I am not sure if I can or even want to do it myself but does anyone have any (very rough) idea on how much this may cost. The roof is accessible without a ladder. The house is a 2 story Victorian on a sloped lot (roof can be walked up by an old deck. Thanks!

I have a picture of it but I can't figure out how to post it.

[pilkinga]

I have a similar situation... I am looking to purchase a house and the only sticking point is the condition of the chimney. From approximately the roof line (36 brick rows) up the chimney brick is crumbling and the chimney is starting to lean towards the house roof.

Does anyone know what something like this might cost? I know two of the four chimney flue's are capped, seems like it would be possible and cheaper to only rebuild the two working flue's.

If I hire a contractor are they going to pull the whole thing over with a truck so I have to reline the flue's anyway or will they just rebuild the brick around the existing flue's? If the former is more likely seems like it might be worth gambling with letting the chimney live as is and letting it fall over on its own someday.

TJ218 - did you ever fix the chimney you were interested in?

[HayZee518]

I saw something on "This Old House Classics" on the Discovery channel that dealt with a similar problem - multiple flues from four fireplaces. In the attic the large chimneys started to bend and the past owners just patched up the space around the roof - when it left the roof it bent even more. Dave Thomas had a chimney contractor with him and he said replacement was almost the only thing to do. The contractor quoted about $8 - 12 thousand dollars to replace it.

[ChimneyPro]

Yep, I agree with the last comment. In both your examples, you are coming into a situation where you unfortunately don't have first-hand access to the history of the house, since you are just now purchasing. The safest route to take in most cases is to do a full rebuild.