Chimney Repair in Iselin, NJ
Woodbridge Chimney Repair is a chimney repair company working in Iselin, NJ, one of the towns we serve around Woodbridge. Sweeps, liners, leaks, crowns, flashing, repointing, and rebuilds, with the same crew on the roof from start to finish.
Iselin went by Perrytown and then Unionville before it took the name of Adrian Iselin, the New York investment banker and philanthropist who opened a finishing school here in the 1870s and paid toward a new train station. That station was later replaced by Metropark, a little to the south, which serves NJ Transit and Amtrak from the southwestern corner of the community. The American Community Survey puts Iselin's median year built at 1959, and 74 percent of its homes predate 1980.
Iselin chimneys by the numbers: a 1959 median and gas heat almost everywhere
Iselin covers 3.13 square miles in the northwest part of Woodbridge Township, with Colonia to the north, Avenel to the northeast, and Edison to the west. Its downtown runs along Oak Tree Road, the Little India strip bounded by the Garden State Parkway and Route 27. The housing behind it is older than the township median, 1959 against 1962, yet only 4 percent of Iselin homes date from 1939 or earlier, compared with 11 percent across Woodbridge Township. Seven in ten were built between 1940 and 1979.
Heating fuel is just as concentrated. Utility gas heats 86 percent of occupied Iselin homes, against 80 percent township-wide, and fuel oil is down to 4 percent. The typical Iselin chimney is a masonry flue of that era now carrying gas exhaust. When a clay flue was sized for a bigger or hotter appliance than the one attached today, the cooler exhaust condenses on the tile, washes out the mortar between tiles, and drops debris at the cleanout. A stainless liner sized to the current furnace or water heater stops it, and the crown and cap belong on the same visit.
Repairs we do in Iselin
Repairs that come up on Iselin chimneys
Gas exhaust condensing in oversized flues
When a high efficiency furnace or a lone water heater vents into a flue built for something larger, the exhaust cools before it reaches the top. Moisture forms on the tile, acidic residue softens the joints, and flakes collect in the cleanout. Relining to the size the appliance calls for ends the cycle.
Mortar wash crowns past their service life
Many chimneys of this age were topped with a sloped mortar wash, not a cast concrete crown with an overhang. Decades of freeze and thaw crack the wash and let water into the core. Cutting it back and casting a proper crown with a drip edge stops water at the highest point on the stack.
Loose brick in the top courses
Water entering through a cracked crown attacks the top few courses first. Brick that rocks under hand pressure is a falling hazard over the roof and the yard. Caught early, only the top courses are relaid in matching brick. Ignored, the rebuild line moves down the stack every year.
Iselin, named for the banker Adrian Iselin, has Metropark in its southwest corner and Oak Tree Road at its center; the census puts its median year built at 1959, and gas heats 86 percent of its homes.
Getting hold of us from Iselin
Call us at (732) 466-7855 during working hours and you will get one of us, not a dispatcher.
Nearby
Close to Iselin: chimney repair in Colonia and chimney repair in Avenel. Every service and town is on the Woodbridge Chimney Repair home page, and flue cleaning has its own page: chimney sweep & cleaning in Woodbridge.