My daughter had just had some surgery the very week all this occurred as well and was trying desperately to rest and recuperate to no avail. You'll see why in a pic below.
Here is the before photo that I remembered to get after the roofing had begun.
(Before)
(Google Maps View of Before)
This is a different sort of painting post in that I had the roofers bring down the faux brick (painted metal) chimney cover that I absolutely abhorred. Every single time I drove into the driveway or viewed my house from any type of distance, this thing just taunted me. It was awful. The fake bricks were faded and it was rusty to the point it looked like it was oozing rust from our vantage points. I asked them if they could bring it down off the roof for me and they agreed they could after they got to the point of removing the shingles around the stack and assessing that it was indeed possible.
I searched far and wide for updated options and could not find anything that would work for us with our setup. I drove through multiple neighborhoods checking out what others had over their chimney stacks. Obviously, the newer builds were all good in that they had actual brick, but most of the homes with fireplaces like mine built in the 1960s had either already removed their faux cover or still had the same one as we did looking equally awful as ours. They certainly don't make these types of covers any longer as far as I could tell online or I just wasn't hitting on the right search terms, so off to Home Depot I went.
Try as I might, I could not find any spray paints in various gray and black tones so I wound up going with brown tones. I bought a cream color, a tan color, a brown color, and any shade I could find in between, as well as a primer and a sealer. All were cans of outdoor Rustoleum spray paint. I had no idea if this would work, but I just had to give it a go.
Here is a photo of one of the reasons we were so miserable during this week. Yup, that is a giant boombox atop the chimney and we had Five Finger Death Punch heavy metal blaring into our home through the fireplace. I had to ask them to move it, but we could still hear it. I have shared stories with many others who endured a new roof. We all laugh about it after it is over.
I first primed the stack cover in a rust-prevention primer and then proceeded to spray random swaths of each color onto it. I also sprayed a piece of cardboard making little pools of color in a sort of camouflage pattern. I then ran over the painted swaths with a foam roller and also dipped the foam roller into the various pools of color I had created.
The roofers, whenever they took a break, decided to watch incredulously, especially when I was spraying random swaths of paint directly onto the cover. I think they didn't believe in my methods at the time. Today, however, they have called my husband up asking me if I would be willing to do this for other people!
Luckily, as I blended with the foam roller, it turned a grayish color! I used the cream colored spray paint sprayed into a cup and then used a small paintbrush to paint on the faux grout lines! I am tickled over this one and smile now whenever I look up at my rooftop! I decided to use the darkest shade of brown that I had available to paint the tops of the various levels. I figured if I had gone with the cream color to mimic grout, the rust that will inevitably appear again one day would be super obvious. This dark brown buys me some time before touch-ups are required!
(brownish/greyish tones)
Here is the after, sitting atop my house! I hope this post helps just one more person who is stuck with an eyesore of a faux chimney stack cover! Note how it looks more gray up on the roof in contrast with the charcoal grey shingles!? Perfect!
I think the two super dark bricks in this photo make it appear that there are missing bricks but in actually are a reflection of light that my camera captured just so. Look to the pic where the stack is on the garage floor to see how the bricks look all up close and personal!
