Chimney questions, answered honestly

NFPA 211 calls for a yearly inspection, with sweeping when it’s needed. A fireplace used most winter weekends usually needs sweeping every year. The flue your boiler vents into should be checked every year as well, even if you never light the fireplace.

Yes. Each flue is its own passage with its own creosote and its own cracks, so each one gets swept, run with a camera and photographed. You get one report covering every flue.

Yes. Slate and clay tile need careful handling, and flashing on them has to be done to suit the roofing. We photograph the roof around the chimney before and after the work so you can see it was left as we found it.

Old brick and stone are softer than modern mortar. If a chimney is repointed with hard cement mortar, the brick takes the stress instead of the joint and starts to crack and spall. We match the mortar to the original so the masonry can move and breathe as it was built to.

Often, yes. Modern gas boilers and water heaters produce acidic condensation that breaks down old clay liners and mortar. If the flue is unlined or cracked, a stainless steel liner sized to the appliance is the usual fix.

It depends on the chimney. A single fireplace and a three-flue stone stack with a boiler liner are very different jobs, so we quote after seeing it. The quote comes before the work and doesn’t change afterwards.