Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
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AfterOlympia Chimney Chimney Cap & Crown in Lawrence: What to Know First
Olympia Chimney cap and crown work in Lawrence typically runs $285 to $640 for a standard cap replacement or crown repair, and most jobs are done in a single visit. We’re an independent Olympia Chimney service provider, meaning we work on their products every week but we don’t answer to the manufacturer. If you’ve got a cracked crown, a rusted cap, or water working its way into your flue, call (516) 604-2573 and we’ll give you a straight answer on what it needs.
This page is for Lawrence homeowners who already own an Olympia Chimney system and want to know what’s actually going on above the roofline. We’ll walk through how Olympia caps and crowns fail, what a proper fix looks like, and what you should expect to pay in this part of Nassau County.
How Olympia Chimney Products Fail - and How We Fix Them
Olympia makes solid equipment, but like every manufacturer, they have weak spots that show up in our climate. Here’s what we see on Lawrence roofs, year after year.
- The Olympia solid-pack cap base rusts at the bolt points. On their standard stainless caps, the mesh body holds up fine, but the galvanized base ring where the mounting bolts pass through is where salt air and winter moisture do their work first. We regularly replace just the base assembly rather than the whole cap, which saves you about half the cost of a full replacement.
- Olympia crown coating failures on older clay-tile flues. Houses in Lawrence’s older neighborhoods near the Five Towns area often still run original clay tile liners. When a crown cracks on those systems, water follows the crack straight down between the tile and the brick. We use a flexible crown sealer that moves with the thermal cycling, not a rigid patch that cracks again by spring.
- Multi-flue cap sizing mistakes from generic installs. We see a lot of Lawrence homes where someone bolted a one-size-fits-all cap over an Olympia multi-flue setup. The cap sits too low, chokes the draw, and the furnace side of the flue struggles. If your water heater draft is lazy or you get backpuffing on windy days, the cap could be part of it. We field-measure and fit caps to the actual flue dimensions, not the box the cap came in.
- OEM Olympia caps with undersized mesh on wood-burning flues. Olympia’s standard mesh works for most oil and gas setups, but on a wood-burning fireplace in Lawrence where the flue runs hot, fine mesh loads up with creosote faster than it should. We’ll spec a cap with wider mesh on wood flues, which is an aftermarket choice we make on purpose. It breathes better and you’re not up there cleaning the cap every other month.
- Crown mortar spalling from ice and freeze-thaw. This is the big one on older Lawrence homes with exposed chimneys. A poured concrete crown with no drip edge lets water sit, freeze, and pop the top layer off in chunks. We rebuild crowns with a proper overhang and drip groove so water doesn’t climb back under the cap lip. This detail alone extends a crown’s life by years in coastal weather.
Our Olympia Chimney Chimney Cap & Crown Process
When you call us about an Olympia cap or crown, here’s what happens.
- 1
The call. A live person answers, and you’ll tell us what you’re seeing: water streaks on the flue, a cap that looks off after a storm, dampness in the firebox. We’ll ask whether you burn wood, oil, or gas, because that changes the cap spec.
- 2
The roof inspection. Wendell or one of his crew goes up and looks at the whole chimney, not just the cap. We photograph everything. If the crown looks fine and the cap just needs replacing, that’s what we’ll tell you. If the crown is shot and the cap is fine, we’ll tell you that too.
- 3
The parts decision. Some Olympia parts we’ll replace with OEM. For caps, we’ll often recommend a quality aftermarket unit that fits better than the factory piece for your specific flue setup. We explain the tradeoff in plain English before any money changes hands.
- 4
The repair. Crown work means removing the loose material, prepping the surface, and applying a coating or rebuilding the crown. Cap work means measuring, fitting, and securing. We don’t caulk over rust and call it a day.
- 5
The test and photos. We run a quick draft check when it matters, and we leave you with photos of the finished work. You’ll see the cap on the flue and the crown surface before and after.
- 6
The guarantee. Every job leaves with the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If something’s not right, one call brings us back, no charge.
What Olympia Chimney Chimney Cap & Crown Costs in Lawrence
Here’s the range for the work we actually do on Olympia systems in Lawrence. Prices depend on roof access, chimney height, and whether we’re replacing or just repairing.
- Standard Olympia cap replacement (single flue): $285 to $420, including the cap and installation
- Multi-flue cap for Olympia systems: $480 to $760, measured and fit to your flue spacing
- Custom cap for unusual Olympia flue configurations: $640 to $1,100, fabricated to spec
- Crown repair with flexible sealer: $320 to $540, depending on crack severity
- Full crown rebuild with drip edge: $720 to $1,350, for crowns that have spalled badly
- Crown coating only (sound crown, preventive): $240 to $390
What moves the price: roof pitch and height, how many flues you have, and whether the existing crown is salvageable. A two-story house with a steep pitch costs more than a ranch. We don’t charge a trip fee inside our county, and $40 comes off any repair over $200. Call (516) 604-2573 and we’ll get you an exact number before any work begins.
Why Lawrence Homeowners Call Top Hat Chimney for Olympia Chimney Work
We’ve been working Olympia chimneys in Lawrence since before a lot of the national chimney outfits had trucks on Long Island. Wendell Pike started Top Hat Chimney in 1999, and he’s been up and down the South Shore long enough to know which Lawrence streets still have original clay tile liners and which ones have been patched too many times. When you call, a live person answers. When we show up, it’s someone in a uniform with a name, not a rotating crew of strangers.
We also service DuraFlex, HeatShield, and Gelco systems, so when your Olympia flue shares a house with another brand’s liner or cap, we don’t send you to someone else. One crew handles the whole chimney. Our 90-Day Done Right Promise is in writing on every job. If it’s clean, we’ll tell you it’s clean. If the crown can wait another season, we’ll tell you that too, and we’d rather earn your call next year than pad a ticket today.
FAQs
Olympia’s warranty covers manufacturing defects in their products, not the labor to replace them, and not damage from weather, installation, or normal wear. As an independent Olympia Chimney service provider, we don’t file warranty claims for you. We’ll tell you honestly whether the part failed on its own or whether something else caused the damage, and we’ll price the fix fairly either way. Call (516) 604-2573 if you’re not sure what you’re looking at.
For most Lawrence homes, we can match the cap style and size closely enough that nobody notices from the ground. If you’ve got an older Olympia cap that’s been discontinued, we’ll spec a current model or a quality aftermarket unit that fits the same flue dimensions. You’ll see the proposed cap before we install it.
A crown repair with a flexible sealer typically lasts 5 to 10 years in our coastal climate, and a full rebuild with a proper drip edge can go 15 to 20. The variable is how much water was already getting into the chimney before you caught it. If water has been working down the flue for years, the crown is only half the story.
If the crown has surface cracks but the concrete is still solid, a coating job usually does it. If chunks are missing, the overhang is gone, or you can feel the crown crumble at the edges, patching is throwing money away. That’s the honest answer. We’ll show you photos from the roof and you can see for yourself.
Most non-emergency cap and crown work in Lawrence gets scheduled within a week or two, and the job itself is usually done in one visit. If you’ve got active water coming in or a cap that’s lifted half off the flue, tell us when you call and we’ll do what we can to make room sooner. Call (516) 604-2573 for the next open slot.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner, Top Hat Chimney at Top Hat Chimney, serving Lawrence and nearby areas.