Masonry repair
Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Gas fireplace serviceLevel 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.
Famco Crown Repair: The Miami Owner’s Guide
We stock and install Famco-compatible chimney crown repair parts across Miami, and most crown repairs run between $450 and $1,100 installed depending on the size of your flue opening and how much of the existing crown has spalled away. We keep common Famco crown dimensions on the truck, which means most Miami jobs get done in a single visit rather than a quote-then-return trip. The way most homeowners find out their crown has failed: they spot thin cracks or a chalky, crumbling edge from the driveway, or they notice water staining on the ceiling near the fireplace after a South Florida downpour.
Which Famco Models This Applies To
Famco crown repair kits are built around the outside diameter of your flue tile and the overall width of your chimney chase, so the first thing we check is whether you have a standard 8×8, 8×12, or 12×12 flue tile, or an oval liner from an older Coral Gables or Coconut Grove home. Famco makes their crowns in a limited set of sizes, and the gotcha in Miami is that many pre-1980 chimneys around here used non-standard flue dimensions that require a custom-formed crown rather than an off-the-shelf Famco unit. If your crown plate has a readable label, that settles it. If it doesn’t, we measure the flue opening and the crown footprint before we ever quote a number.
On the OEM versus aftermarket question: Famco’s own crown assemblies are well-built stainless, but for Miami’s salt-air and humidity, we often recommend a heavier-gauge aftermarket replacement from Olympia Chimney or Copperfield that’s matched to the Famco footprint. The honest trade-off is cost versus corrosion resistance. Famco OEM is perfectly fine for most homes, but if you’re within sight of Biscayne Bay, the salt exposure eats standard stainless faster, and spending $60 to $90 more on a higher-chromium alloy makes sense.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Famco Crown Repair Is Failing
- Hairline cracks running across the crown surface – Miami’s wet season causes repeated thermal expansion and contraction, and thin pour-in-place crowns crack first at the edge of the flue opening where the material is thinnest.
- Chalky, sandy residue washing down the chimney face or collecting at the base – That’s the crown material itself eroding. Once you see loose grit, the crown has lost its water-shedding taper and water is pooling instead of draining.
- Dark water stains on the ceiling or wall adjacent to the chimney after rain – A failed crown lets water run down the inside of the flue chase, and it shows up as ceiling stains before you ever smell dampness because the water travels inside wall cavities.
- Spalling or missing pieces along the crown’s outer edge – This is common on older Famco crowns where freeze-thaw cycles from air-conditioner condensation plus winter cold snaps (yes, Miami gets them) have popped small sections loose.
- Rust bleed marks around the flue cap or spark arrestor – That’s not the crown’s fault, but it tells us water is standing on the crown and finding its way past the flashing, which means the crown’s drainage slope has failed even if it looks intact from below.
Replacement Cost & What’s Included
For a standard single-flue Famco crown repair in Miami, expect $450 to $650 installed. A double-flue or oversized chase crown runs $700 to $1,100. That includes removing the damaged crown material, prepping and cleaning the chase top, forming or fitting the replacement crown, sealing all seams with masonry-grade sealant, and re-bedding the flue cap so it doesn’t wobble in a storm.
The spread in pricing comes down to three things: whether we can use a stock Famco or aftermarket crown plate or have to form one around an irregular flue tile, whether the existing crown has damaged the top course of masonry that also needs re-pointing, and how much of the old material has to be ground out. You’ll get a written price before any work starts – that’s the Kingswell Way – and the number on the invoice matches the number we quoted at the door. Every crown repair is covered by our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the repair fails within the guarantee period, we come back and correct it at no charge.
See the difference
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After
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AfterDIY or Call Us?
A crown repair isn’t a weekend job, and there’s a real safety line here. Getting on a Miami roof, often with barrel tile or a steep pitch, and working at the top of a masonry chimney is where DIY goes wrong. We’ve seen homeowners seal a cracked crown with a hardware-store caulk, and six months later the water damage behind the drywall costs more than the crown repair ever would have. What you can safely do from the ground: photograph the crown with a zoom lens, check for flaking material at the chimney base, and note any new ceiling stains after heavy rain. If you see any of those, call us at (850) 787-8597 and we’ll assess it with a written quote before anything gets touched.
FAQs
A properly installed stainless crown assembly typically lasts 15 to 25 years in Miami’s climate, though homes within a mile of saltwater often see 10 to 15 years before surface pitting begins. The deciding factors are material grade and whether the original crown was formed with adequate slope – flat or low-slope crowns fail fastest here because standing water plus humidity is relentless.
A crown with a single hairline crack can sometimes be sealed with a masonry elastomeric as a 2-to-3-year stopgap, but once material is spalling or the drainage slope has failed, repairing it is throwing money away. For Miami homes, we almost always recommend replacement once you’re past cosmetic cracking, because a sealant-only fix rarely survives one full wet season. Call (850) 787-8597 for an honest assessment – we’ll tell you if it can wait.
Most single-flue Famco crown replacements are completed in 3 to 4 hours from setup to cleanup, and we handle the old material removal and disposal in that window. Double-flue or complex chase crowns may take most of a day, but we book the whole thing as one visit and don’t leave you with a half-finished chimney.
We carry the most common Famco crown sizes, plus equivalent aftermarket options from Olympia Chimney and Copperfield, on service trucks dispatched across Miami. If your flue is a non-standard size, we form the crown on-site from the correct gauge stainless, so there’s no return visit just to measure. Give us a call at (850) 787-8597 and we can usually tell you over the phone whether your setup is stock or custom.
Contact
Nathan Corliss and the team at Ashby Chimney Miami are based right here in Miami and handle crown repairs for Famco and most other major chimney brands. If your crown is cracked, spalling, or leaking, call us at (850) 787-8597 for a free estimate. We’ll show up with the price already written down, do the job with professional-grade materials from Famco, Copperfield, Olympia Chimney, DuraFlex, and HeatShield, and put the guarantee in writing before we leave. That’s the whole Kingswell Way – say the price, show up in the window, leave it cleaner, put the guarantee in writing, and come back if it fails.
Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner & Lead Chimney Technician, Ashby Chimney Miami at Ashby Chimney Miami, serving Miami and nearby areas.