A chase cover is the metal panel that caps the top of a chimney chase, the framed and sided enclosure built around a factory-made metal fireplace flue, doing the same water-shedding job a masonry crown does on a true brick chimney.
A lot of newer homes have a factory-built fireplace with a metal flue run up through a framed wood chase rather than a full masonry chimney, and the chase cover is what keeps weather out of the top of that enclosure. From the ground, a framed chase can look a lot like a masonry chimney since it's often boxed in with siding or stucco to match the house, but structurally it's built entirely differently. Chase covers are usually galvanized steel, aluminum, or copper, sealed around the flue pipe penetration and sloped to shed water off the edges.
Chase covers rust through and their seams open up from years of freeze-thaw cycling and sun exposure, and once that happens water runs straight down inside the framed chase where it can rot the sheathing and damage the flue pipe's insulation. Even on a home without a true masonry chimney, the flashing and masonry detailing around the base of the chase are still work we handle, since that's where the framed enclosure meets the roofline and has to tie into the shingles correctly to stay watertight.
More masonry vocabulary from the glossary.
The services where this term comes up.
Chelo's Brick & Stone serves Hillsville, Galax, Wytheville, Fancy Gap, and Independence, VA. Call for a straight answer and a free on-site estimate.
