On April 20, 2016 we completely changed a top of our brick chimney at our rural country house. It was not planned actually to change all top of chimney, just to add two rows of bricks. Thus after a quick inspection it was clear - it's time to replace it all.
Read how we lost a chimney in past: Replacing Roof - Part 3: Removing the old roofing (Losing Chimney)
Workers inspecting chimney
It was clear - there are no other option, but to remove brick by brick from atop of the chimney, and rebuild it from scratch (almost)
Removing old bricks from chimney
It was much easier that it seemed - due to the harsh weather and lack of any maintenance for the past 25 years (at least) bricks were detached from the mortar and in fact it was already dangerous to have such an unstable and unsafe chimney.
Red bricks for chimney
They are not new, they are actually some 80 years old, as we took them from the second chimney base (the one we lost last summer)
The mortar
Half way there
I was told a chimney should have seven rows above the roof.
Done
It took us three people, three sacks of the mortar and some thirty bricks to complete chimney repair works in some six hours. A chimney is an integral part of our rural country and now we can move on, keeping our place warm.