Chimney inspection and repair in Lynn: Seacoast Chimney for area code 781

About homes and winters in area code 781

Area code 781/339 rings Boston, from Lynn and the North Shore through Malden, Medford, Waltham and Lexington to the South Shore towns. It is an old housing stock: of about 486,000 homes and apartments, roughly 72% were built before 1980 and 31% before 1940, and the median home dates from the 1950s. About 55% are single-family detached houses.

Lynn, the largest city in Essex County and the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts, sits on the Atlantic about 3.7 miles north of the Boston city line. It is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core and a major economic and cultural center of the North Shore, while 781 also takes in inner suburbs such as Malden, Medford and Waltham.

Winter here is serious. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for Boston Logan International Airport, MA show about 5,545 heating degree days a year, a January average of 29.9°F, and about 49.2 inches of snow. Water that soaks into brick freezes, expands and thaws again many times each winter; over the years that cracks crowns and loosens mortar joints, so a cap and a sound crown are worth the money.

The most common way to heat a home here is utility gas (about 56% of occupied homes, per the Census), followed by heating oil at about 24%. Wood is the main heat in fewer than 2 in 100 homes, so most fireplaces here are for cool evenings, and gas fireplaces and inserts are common. Oil heat sends its exhaust up a chimney flue as well, so the flue serving the boiler or furnace deserves the same yearly look. Energy codes place it in IECC climate zone 5A. NFPA 211, the national chimney and venting standard, recommends an inspection every year no matter what you burn.

Sources: Census ACS 2018–2022 (B25034, B25040, B25024); NOAA Climate Normals 1991–2020, Boston Logan International Airport, MA (USW00014739); IECC 2021 climate zones by county (PNNL-33270); NFPA 211; Wikipedia: Lynn, Massachusetts.