Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Masonry repair
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.
Copperfield Chimney Cap Installation: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
If your Copperfield chimney cap is rusted through, missing its screen, or letting rain pour down your flue, Ashby Chimney Fort Lauderdale installs Copperfield-compatible caps daily, and most jobs run between $275 and $550 installed, parts and labor included. We stock the common Copperfield sizes on our trucks, so in most Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods we can complete the swap the same day we come out. The way most owners discover the problem is simple: water stains on the ceiling near the fireplace, a cap that’s visibly leaning after a storm, or birds chirping somewhere inside the chimney that they can’t quite locate.
Which Copperfield Models This Applies To
Copperfield’s chimney cap lineup splits into a few families: the standard single-flue caps, multi-flue customs, and their draft-increasing caps with the rounded hood. The single-flue units are by far what we install most often in Fort Lauderdale, and they come sized to fit flue tiles measuring 8×8, 8×13, 13×13, and 9×13 inches. If you don’t know your flue size, check for a paper label on the inside of the old cap’s skirt, or have us measure it during a standard inspection. The Copperfield caps use a sliding bolt-and-clamp system that grips the flue tile from the outside, no drilling required, so installation doesn’t crack your flue. We’re an independent service provider, not affiliated with Copperfield directly, but we source their caps and compatible hardware from recognized chimney supply distributors. For a failed Copperfield cap, replacing with genuine Copperfield keeps the fit and the look consistent; quality aftermarket equivalents exist too, but the wind-resistance rating and screen mesh gauge can differ, and in Fort Lauderdale’s storm season that matters more than most owners expect.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Copperfield Chimney Cap Installation Is Failing
- Water dripping into the firebox after rain. A cap with a rusted-through hood or separated seams lets water run straight down the flue. You’ll see rust starting on the damper, which is the first metal part it hits.
- Birds, bats, or rustling sounds inside the flue. The mesh screen on Copperfield caps is typically 3/4-inch galvanized or stainless. Once it tears or pulls away from the hood, birds find their way in fast. In spring, Fort Lauderdale chimney swifts are the usual offenders.
- The cap is visibly tilted or hanging. Salt air and hurricane-force gusts loosen the interior clamp arms. A tilted cap lets rain enter from the open side and rubs against the flue tile in high wind.
- Rust streaks running down the exterior crown or siding. A cap that’s rusting from the inside out drips oxidized water down the chimney structure. By the time you see the streaks, the cap’s structural integrity is usually gone.
- Smoke backing up into the living room. A cap with soot-clogged mesh or a collapsed hood restricts the draft. After a few neglected burning seasons, the mesh becomes a solid sheet of creosote and the flue can’t pull.
Replacement Cost & What’s Included
In Fort Lauderdale, a Copperfield single-flue cap installed typically runs $275 to $425. Larger multi-flue or custom-fit Copperfield caps run $425 to $550+ depending on flue dimensions and whether we need to fabricate a custom skirt. The price includes the cap itself, disposal of the old unit, and the labor to fit and clamp it properly. What drives the range is mostly the cap size and whether your flue tile has a standard dimension or something unusual. Every quote we give is a written price before any work starts, so the number you see is the number you pay. And every chimney cap installation here carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if it’s not right, we make it right, with a written guarantee and a free second visit if the repair fails inside the guarantee period.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
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AfterDIY or Call Us?
What you can safely do from the ground: photograph the cap with your phone from the yard, note whether it’s leaning or rusted, and check inside the firebox for water or rust. That’s genuinely useful information when you call us. What you should not do is climb a Fort Lauderdale roof with a socket wrench and a new cap under your arm. The work itself is not physically dangerous in the way that, say, a garage door spring is, but working at height on a damp, often tile roof is, and a chimney cap that comes loose in a storm becomes a projectile. Our techs are on roofs from Las Olas Boulevard to Victoria Park weekly, they carry the right clamp sizes on the truck, and they know which Copperfield models fit which flue tiles without guessing. If you’ve already bought the cap, we’ll install it; if you haven’t, we’ll bring the right one. Call (754) 354-1451 for a written quote.
FAQs
A Copperfield stainless steel cap in Fort Lauderdale’s salt air typically lasts 8 to 12 years; the galvanized steel versions run 4 to 6 years. The ocean breeze accelerates rust, especially in neighborhoods east of Federal Highway and on the barrier islands. If your cap is stainless and under 8 years old, it’s worth having us look before you replace it; the failure might be in the mesh or clamps, not the hood itself. Call us at (754) 354-1451 for an honest read on whether yours has life left.
Sometimes. If the hood is solid but the mesh screen has pulled away, we can often re-secure or replace just the screen. If the clamp arms have loosened, we can tighten and re-seat the cap. But if the hood is rusted through or the seams have separated, the cap is done, and a repair will cost you half as much but fail again in a year. We’ll show you the damage up close before we recommend anything, and the written quote will say exactly what’s repairable and what isn’t.
Most single-flue Copperfield cap installations take 45 to 90 minutes from ladder up to ladder down. That includes removing the old cap, cleaning the flue tile rim, seating the new cap, and re-checking the clamp tension. If we’re doing a sweep or inspection at the same appointment, the full visit runs longer, but the cap swap itself is a fast job.
We do, in the most common Fort Lauderdale flue sizes: 8×8, 8×13, and 13×13 inches. If you need an odd size or a multi-flue custom, we’ll order it from the supply house and schedule the install once it lands, usually within a few days. We also keep parts from DuraFlex, HeatShield, and Gelco on hand for related liner and repair work, so one visit can knock out everything the chimney needs.
Call for a Written Quote
If your Copperfield cap is leaning, rusted, or letting in the rain, call Ashby Chimney Fort Lauderdale at (754) 354-1451. Say the price first, explain the work second, put it all in writing – that is the whole business model. Nathan Corliss has been cleaning and inspecting chimneys in the Fort Lauderdale area for going on two decades, and his crew knows Copperfield caps down to the clamp-arm torque spec. We’ll give you a written price before any work starts, show you the damage on camera, and back the installation with the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If it fails inside the guarantee period, we return at no charge. That’s the Kingswell Way, and it’s how every Ashby job in Fort Lauderdale has been done since 2002.
Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner, Ashby Chimney Fort Lauderdale at Ashby Chimney Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.