An open flue is a hole in the roof that Cleveland weather uses year-round: rain and lake-effect snow straight down the tiles all winter, raccoons and chimney swifts shopping for real estate in spring, and your furnace-warmed air convecting out the top every night the damper doesn't seal. Caps, chase covers, and top-sealing dampers are the inexpensive hardware that closes the hole, and a local chimney mason covering Cleveland, Lakewood, Strongsville, and the rest of Cuyahoga County quotes yours free.
Caps: the cheapest insurance a masonry stack can buy
A proper cap is a stainless or copper hood with mesh sides, through-bolted to the flue tile or crown, that sheds precipitation past the flue while the mesh keeps out squirrels, raccoons, and the birds that nest in uncapped Cleveland flues every May. The failure modes this county sees are specific: painted-steel bargain caps that rust streaks down light-colored brick in three winters, friction-fit caps that the wind off the lake removes and deposits in the yard, and mesh too fine that cakes shut with creosote on a working wood-burner. The masons on this roster size the cap to the tile, bolt it, and spend the extra sentence explaining why stainless costs what it costs — because they're the ones who get called back when the cheap one fails. If an animal is already in residence, that's a job for a licensed nuisance-wildlife operator first; the cap goes on after the tenant leaves, and the mason will say so plainly rather than seal something in.
Chase covers: the Strongsville problem
Out in the county's newer housing — the 1970s-through-1990s colonials of Strongsville and the outer ring — many "chimneys" are framed chases wrapped in siding with a factory fireplace inside, topped not by a crown but by a sheet-metal chase cover. The builders' originals were mostly galvanized steel, and forty Ohio winters rust them through at the low spots, dropping water onto the firebox unit below and streaking the siding orange as a warning. The fix is a one-piece stainless or aluminum cover, cross-broken so it sheds instead of ponds, with a storm collar sealed at the pipe. It's a measure-twice trade — every chase is its own size — and the mason who takes the job templates it on site rather than guessing from the driveway.
Top-sealing dampers: heat that stops leaving
The original throat damper in most of the county's older fireplaces is a cast-iron flap that hasn't sealed since the Browns last played at Municipal Stadium; rusted, warped, or wedged, it leaks conditioned air up the flue all winter and hot July air down it. A top-sealing damper replaces the function at the flue's top: a gasketed lid on the flue tile, opened and closed by a cable at the firebox, that seals tight when the fireplace is idle. On a drafty double in Lakewood or a big Euclid four-square, it's one of the few chimney purchases that quietly pays for itself. Cap, cover, or damper, the pattern is the same — describe the stack, get a free number, decide at your own speed — and if the metal is covering for a masonry problem underneath, the crown or leak conversation happens before the hardware sale, not after.