When it rains hard, I get a decent amount of water coming in through my chimney. Is this normal? What can I do to minimize this?
It's a relatively new house; it has a guard on top, and the chimney is in great shape.
Water – How to prevent water from leaking down the chimney
chimneywater
Related Solutions
This is common but its also a big issue. I doubt that this has to do with your house foundation although it could be a factor. The main cause would be a weak footing below your chimney.
The fact that you are having a dry year might have caused the footings to move earlier but if they weren't up to spec then it was going to move. You have to figure that your chimney may weigh a few tons. It has the house on one side. So the chimney is going to move away from pressure if the footings are weak. So that is why the top is separating probably a little more than the bottom.
I am not sure exactly who was supposed to do what to make the chimney 7 years ago.... But normally the mason would create proper footings or at least not build until it was done right. If your mason was contracted to do everything he messed up or your soil is completely unstable (which he should have researched before doing the job).
So now you need to get this fixed ASAP. If it hasn't had too much damage they can jack it back into place, repair footings, and bracket it into place. This is much much cheaper than tear down and build. If you have a warranty you will need to keep trying to contact the mason - maybe he gives you a deal on the repair. Fixing this yourself really isn't DIY because the tools/equipment are too costly for a one time job.
It looks like your land sits a little lower than the adjacent roadway. It would be a cost but if you pave the first 10 ft of your driveway you can make a little berm with that pavement. Since pavement is non-porous the amount of water to overcome a couple of inches of slope would be substantial. Yet those same couple of inches will not be much to drive over. You really only need 0.5% slope for a couple of feet. While your gravel seems solid it likely has enough space between the rocks for water to pass through. If there is storm sewer nearby you could also look into installing a trench drain. Though that would perform better if your driveway was paved. The water would have a tendency to go around the drain and wash out the soil at the edges.
Some interesting links
Pennsylvania Code has good stuff on the driveway slopes. This picture is from their site.
This is a trench drain.
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Best Answer
Is there a chimney cap? If not, start there. If there is a chimney cap, and it's a brick chimney, odds are you have cracks and/or missing mortar--at which point I'd say your chimney is unsafe...both as a combustion exhaust (you don't want fumes leaking into the house) and as a safety issue (falling bricks hurt). I'd call out a licensed chimney inspector/cleaner/sweep.