When you receive your home inspection report back, do you understand what it means when a chimney cricket is reported as needed or absent? Well, it has nothing to do with the movie Pinocchio.

A chimney component, called a cricket, will divert water away from the chimney as it travels downward from the roof above. The design is intended to have water avoid the chimney area and instead go directly to the gutter below. It is called a “chimney cricket” by the IRC Building code 1003.20. The device is triangular and required to be installed on the upside of the chimney when the width of the chimney parallel to the ridgeline is greater than 30 inches at the right angle intersection of the roof and the chimney.

If you have a wide chimney without this provision, then it will allow water coming from the roof angle above to pool at the chimney area and eventually penetrate the home! So make sure you pay special attention to the chimney cricket! It may not be Jiminy from Pinocchio, but it could help save you from a whale of a problem later on!