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.
Gelco Chimney Cap Installation: The Houston Owner’s Guide
We stock Gelco chimney caps on our trucks and install them across Houston for a typical total of $340 to $620, parts and labor included. Most Gelco cap installations take under two hours from ladder-up to cleanup, and we can usually get you scheduled within the week. The way most Houston homeowners discover their Gelco cap has failed is simple: they notice water streaking down the chimney chase or hear a loose metal rattle during one of our frequent Gulf wind gusts.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already spotted rust bleeding down the brick, found a fallen cap in the yard after a storm, or had a home inspector flag the cap during a pre-sale inspection. A Gelco cap that’s lost its screen or rusted through the mounting flanges stops doing its job: keeping rain, birds, squirrels, and embers out of your flue. Hank Delano and our crew replace or install these weekly, and the pricing never changes once we’ve quoted it.
Which Gelco Models This Applies To
Gelco makes caps in two main families that we handle in Houston: their standard single-flue caps (round and square base, typically sized by flue tile dimensions) and their multi-flue or chase-cover styles that mount across the top of a masonry chimney crown or a factory-built chase. The most common Gelco cap we install is the single-flue air-cooled design with a ⅝-inch spark-arrestor screen and a stainless steel or copper body.
Here’s the compatibility gotcha: Gelco caps are sized to the inside diameter of the flue tile, not the outside. A cap labeled 13×13 fits a flue tile measuring 13 inches by 13 inches inside. So before anyone quotes you a part, we measure the flue opening with a tape, not a guess. Common Houston sizes we stock on the truck are 8×8, 9×13, 13×13, and 13×18, with round caps from 6-inch to 10-inch diameter. If yours is an odd size, we order the exact Gelco part and reschedule the install once it lands, typically three to five days.
For the OEM-versus-aftermarket decision: Gelco’s stainless caps hold up well in Houston’s salt-adjacent humidity and frequent thunderstorms, but if your original cap failed in under eight years, we’ll usually recommend upgrading to a heavier-gauge stainless or copper cap rather than buying the same gauge again. You gain lifespan without a full system change. We also stock and install caps from DuraFlex and HeatShield for situations where a Gelco match isn’t the strongest long-term call.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Gelco Chimney Cap Installation Is Failing
- Rust streaks down the chimney chase or crown. The mild steel mounting hardware or a thin-gauge cap body is oxidizing. In Houston, this usually starts where two different metals touch (galvanic corrosion) and means the cap’s days are numbered.
- Water inside the fireplace after heavy rain. The cap’s screen may still look fine from the ground, but a pinhole in the cap base or a broken seal around the flue tile lets water drain straight down into your firebox.
- Loose or rattling metal in high wind. The mounting bolt holes on a Gelco cap can wallow out over years of Gulf coast wind-gust cycles. What starts as an occasional rattle becomes a cap that shifts and eventually loses its screen.
- Birds or squirrels getting into the flue. The spark-arrestor screen has a hole or has pulled loose from the cap body. In Houston’s older neighborhoods, squirrels are the usual culprit, and they’ll make a significant mess in a flue in one nesting season.
- Cap missing entirely after a storm. A strong squall line will rip a rusted or poorly fastened cap right off the flue. If you find a piece of bent metal in the yard after weather, check the chimney before you burn anything.
Replacement Cost & What’s Included
A Gelco chimney cap install in Houston typically runs $340 to $620, and the price depends on four things: the cap size, material (stainless versus copper), whether we need to repair the crown or chase top first, and roof access difficulty. Here’s our standard pricing breakdown:
- Standard single-flue Gelco stainless cap, installed: $340 – $480
- Standard single-flue Gelco copper cap, installed: $520 – $620
- Multi-flue or custom-sizing charge: add $80 – $140 depending on measurement complexity
- Crown resealing or chase-top repair before cap install: quoted separately, always in writing, before work starts
Every cap install includes removing the old cap, cleaning the mounting surface, leveling and securing the new cap, and a photo before and after. The work carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the cap fails or comes loose within a year of install, we return at no charge and make it right in writing. That’s our standard, and it applies to every Gelco cap we put on a Houston chimney. What we quote is what you pay, and the number on the invoice matches the number you approved before the ladder ever went up.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterDIY or Call Us?
The honest split is this: if you can safely inspect from the ground with binoculars, look for obvious rust, a missing screen, or a shifted cap. That’s useful. But a proper Gelco cap replacement requires working on a roof, often at height and on a sloped surface, with tools and a methodical hand. The biggest DIY mistakes we see are caps sized to the outside of the flue tile (which leaves a loose fit), bent mounting flanges from over-tightening, and sealing against bare crumbly crown instead of prepping the surface. None of that shows up until the first hard rain finds its way in.
We’re not saying you can’t. We’re saying the cap is the first line of defense for a chimney that sits in Houston humidity and storm cycles year-round, and a bad install costs more than the part. If you’d rather not climb, call (325) 750-6259 and we’ll send a background-checked, uniformed technician with the cap and the tools to do it the same day we quote it.
FAQs
A stainless Gelco cap installed properly should last 10 to 15 years in Houston’s climate; a copper Gelco cap often lasts 20 or more. The Houston-specific killers are salt-driven humidity near the coast, frequent heavy rain, and the cyclical heating and cooling that loosens mounting hardware over time.
Sometimes, a torn screen or a loose bolt can be repaired if the cap body itself is still solid. But if the base is rusted through or the screen has pulled from the frame, repair becomes false economy, and replacement is usually the better call. We’ll tell you which one you’re looking at before you spend a dollar, and we’ll show you why with a photo.
From truck arrival to final vacuum and tarp pickup, most Gelco cap installs take 90 minutes to 2 hours. Odd flue sizes or a crown that needs minor patching add time, but we give you the window before we schedule, and we arrive inside it.
We keep the most common Houston sizes stocked on our trucks: 8×8, 9×13, 13×13, and 13×18 squares plus round caps from 6 to 10 inches. If yours is an uncommon size, we measure accurately, order the exact Gelco part, and install it the day it arrives, usually within a week. Call (325) 750-6259 and we’ll tell you if yours is on the shelf right now.
This page was written by Flint Chimney Co Houston. Flint Chimney Co Houston is an independent chimney service company and is not affiliated with Gelco. Gelco is a trademark of its respective owner. We install Gelco caps alongside other professional-grade products including DuraFlex and HeatShield.
Get a Written Price Before You Commit
If you’ve got a failed or missing cap, call (325) 750-6259 and tell us what you’re seeing. We’ll quote a firm number before we schedule, and the cap and the work are guaranteed in writing for a full year. Tell me what you’re seeing, I’ll tell you what it costs to fix it.
Written by Hank Delano, Owner, Flint Chimney Co Houston at Flint Chimney Co Houston, serving Houston and nearby areas.