Water at base of chimney/Creosote cleaning

I'm getting some weepage of water at the base of my chimney below the clean out onto the concrete floor in my basement. The chimney is concrete block with a tile liner, it has no cap, thus the source of the water. I will be adding a cap soon. Most of this problem is because I swept the chimney back in the spring and then forgot/got distracted and didn't vacuum it out, then we got a torrential rain storm toward the end of the summer and it started weeping this nasty black stinking water. Yes, I have since cleaned out the nasty black water soaked sweepings. Any ideas on how to clean this up and should I be worried about the fact that the water weeps out of the base of the chimney? Here is a pic.

 

water will seep through a cinder block - trying to find it's equilibrium.
I wouldn't worry about it causing structural integrity issues(up in an attic I'd be worried). There are some soot/creosote cleaners that may lighten it up but won't get it completely clean.
You could try a mix of Muriatic acid in a pump sprayer(beware of the strong fumes indoors) available in the pool chemical section of your local ACE.

 

Thanks. Did a bit of searching and found this stuff for cleaning. Says its the same as muriatic acid, but safer.

ChimneyRX Safer Brick and Masonry Cleaner - 1 Gallon

About the chimney cap. This is a dual flue chimney, I am looking at caps like these to cover both flues.

Chimney Master Top Mount Stainless Steel - Hundreds of Sizes

The mason added a one piece stone cap at the top, not sure what the stone is and I'm not sure how to drill the stone for attachment of the cap. I've got a hammer drill and masonry bits but am worried about cracking the stone.

 

Bacon and eggs and beer

 

$40 for a gallon of "safer muriatic acid" = diluted muriatic acid that a gallon costs ~$7-8
They have proprietary water they must mix it with You can dilute your own remember always add acid to water.

Depending on how far apart your flue tiles are could you use two separate caps? The one I had on mine prior to the liner had clamps that grabbed the inside of the tiles - no drilling required.

If you have to drill the stone I'd try a regular drill with a tapcon bit and use some high temp silicone on the fasteners to prevent any water from getting in and freezing.

 

Our basement is not living space, so I don't really care what it looks like either, but we are trying to sell this house...prospective buyers looking for problems is the issue, plus it stinks.


I meant to take a picture yesterday when I was up there yesterday, will try today. We are getting a couple inches of rain tonight/tomorrow, so I went to HD and got a cap for just the wood stove flue, was all they had that would work.

I'm going to call the mason who built the chimney about the stone. He is a friend of my FIL. We picked him specifically when we built the house, to give him the business even though he was more expensive. To say thanks he added this extra piece of stone.

 

I had the same thought re the muriatic acid. Am checking the hardware stores on the way to work.

Two caps will not work, not enough space between the flues, went down that street yesterday. Put one over the wood stove flue yesterday as we are getting 2" of rain tonight/tomorrow.

 

If a hardware store doesn't have it a pool store will.

Glad you know the mason he should be able to steer you in the right direction

 

My chimney weeps water at the base once in a while too. Always has. I just let it dry up.

 

Those of you with leaking water from masonry chimneys, might look into sealing the outside of said assembly. It is not uncommon for these to wick water in which then collects in the cinder block which acts like sponge. This concerns new and old. got the t-shirt with this back in the mid 80's my system was from the late 50's a friend had it happen on a brand new build. In my case I had to replace a third of my interior ceilings in his it was the whole living room wall( cathedral style) due to the water damage. Both of us had to remove and replace attic insulation as well.

 

Here are some pics of the top of the chimney. I'm thinking this top piece of stone is nothing special as I can see what looks to be similar on a few different chimneys on the way in to work today. I'm gonna get in a freakin wreck being a chimney voyeur.

I forgot to measure the outside of the stone when I was up there, but its 19.5" from the outside of one clay liner to the outside of the other. I had to bend the roof of the cap that is now on the wood stove flue so it wouldn't dump water down the furnace flue.

 

Going back to using two of the same type caps...
Why not just trim the edge of the one on left and bend the right one over the top of the left one?

 

Try using ammonia full strength. Soak a towel in it and set over the stain. When the towel dries up pour more ammonia on it and use a stiff bristle brush if not a wire brush and give it some elbow grease.

 

That might work, I wasn't too happy with the attachment of that cap, we will see if it stays put tonight, sposed to get pretty blowy. I probably end up with one big one, top mounted, less questions from prospective house buyers, more correct fix.

I talked to the on line cap supplier today, he said he would use liquid nails and don't drill and screw into the stone. Didn't hear back from the mason.

 

update:

Got the cap on, just used adhesive, it took a few weeks for the water to stop seeping, and it hasn't affected the operation of the stove that I can tell.

Got the cement at the base of the chimney cleaned up, elbow grease, simple green and a nylon brush got most of it, muriatic acid got the rest.