Take a Tape to the Skaneateles Chimney
One measurement across the slope tells you whether the chimney on your roof was ever detailed properly, and a tape measure is all it takes.
Flashing Repair quote in Skaneateles
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The thirty inch test on a Skaneateles chimney
Measure the stack across the slope, not around it. Section R903.2.2 of the 2025 Residential Code of New York State requires a cricket or saddle on the ridge side of any chimney or penetration more than 30 inches wide measured perpendicular to the slope, and requires it to be built in sheet metal or in the same material as the roof covering. Wider than that with nothing built above it, and snow and water are being asked to sit against masonry until they find a way in. Skaneateles village is full of the stacks this was written for: 54.3 percent of its housing was standing in 1939 or earlier against 36.6 percent in the town around it, and generous masonry chimneys came as standard with that era.
What flashing repair involves
Why repointing a Skaneateles chimney does not stop the leak
A cricket is a structure and pointing is a surface, which is why one substitutes badly for the other. Rebuilding the mortar joints in a wide stack makes the masonry sound and changes nothing about the geometry that puts water and snow behind it. If there is no built-up slope above the chimney, the same thing happens the following winter and the homeowner concludes that roofers and masons are both useless. The order that works is to measure, establish whether a cricket is required, build it if it is, and then decide whether the masonry itself needs attention as a separate question with its own price.
Measure across the slope
Perpendicular to the fall of the roof, not around the perimeter of the stack. Over 30 inches is where the requirement starts.
Look uphill of the chimney
A cricket is a small built-up slope above the stack. If there is only flat roof and flashing up there, it was never made.
Keep masonry and roofing as separate items
Pointing does not change geometry. Both may be needed and they should be priced and understood apart.
What the code requires above a wide village chimney
In Skaneateles village the median year of construction is 1938. Of 1,353 housing units, 54.3 percent were built in 1939 or earlier, 61.2 percent before 1950, 82.5 percent before 1980 and 17.5 percent in 1980 or later. 73.0 percent are single-family detached and 75.5 percent of occupied units are owner occupied.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, tables B25034 year structure built, B25035 median year structure built, B25024 units in structure and B25003 tenure, accessed 2026-09-14
Section R903.2.2 of the 2025 Residential Code of New York State requires a cricket or saddle on the ridge side of any chimney or penetration more than 30 inches wide, measured perpendicular to the slope, and requires it to be sheet metal or the same material as the roof covering. Unit skylights flashed to the manufacturer's instructions are excepted.
Source: 2025 Residential Code of New York State, via UpCodes, accessed 2026-09-14
Skaneateles village has 1,353 housing units, 73.0 percent single-family detached and 9.8 percent in three and four unit buildings, with 75.5 percent owner occupancy and a median build year of 1938. The Town of Skaneateles around it has 3,492 units with a median of 1956, 36.6 percent pre-1940 and 83.1 percent detached.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, tables B25034 year structure built, B25035 median year structure built, B25024 units in structure and B25003 tenure, accessed 2026-09-14
Send the width of the chimney
Measured across the slope, and a photo of the uphill side. We arrange an insured contractor who builds the saddle properly.
Chimney questions from Skaneateles homeowners
My chimney is 36 inches wide and there is nothing above it. Is that a defect?
It is outside what the current code requires for new work, and on an older building it is better understood as an explanation rather than an accusation. Whatever the rules were when it was built, the physics has not changed: a wide flat-backed stack collects water and snow on its uphill side. Building a cricket is the correction and it is usually modest work.
Can a cricket be added without redoing the roof?
Yes, in most cases. It means opening the covering on the uphill side of the chimney, framing or forming the saddle, flashing it into the stack and the slope, and reinstating the shingles over it. It is a day or two of focused work rather than a roof job, and it addresses the cause instead of the symptom.
Get the geometry fixed, not just the mortar
Tell us the Skaneateles address and what has been tried. No obligation, and this is a detail repair.