Chimney Sweep in Quincy, MA

It still needs looking at, though the reason usually isn't creosote. In Quincy, the problems we find on lightly used fireplaces come from the weather, not the burning: salt-laden wind and driving rain off Quincy Bay rust out caps, open up crown cracks and lift flashing. A flue that sees four or five fires a season can be nearly clean inside and still be taking on water at the top. If you burn rarely, an inspection-led visit makes more sense than an automatic sweep, and we'll tell you honestly if there's little to sweep.

Yes, and it's one of the more common things we look at here. Plenty of Quincy capes and two-families still run an oil-fired boiler through the original masonry flue. Oil flue gases are acidic and cool, so the inside of an unlined or poorly lined chimney deteriorates quietly over years. We check whether a stainless liner is present, whether it's correctly sized to the appliance, and whether the base and connector are sound. If the flue has never been lined, that's worth knowing before the heating season, not during it.

The top. Exposed shoreline position means the cap goes first, usually to rust, and once it's compromised rain gets straight into the flue. After that it's crown cracking and flashing failure where the chimney meets the roof. On brick chimneys built into an exterior wall, which is typical of the 1920s–1950s housing in Wollaston, Quincy Point and Squantum, freeze-thaw cycles spall the brick face and the mortar joints wash out. On the older granite-era houses we see weathered mortar more than failing brick. Most of it is visible from a ladder once you know what to look at.

Through spring and summer we can usually book within a few days. Once the weather turns in the fall, Quincy homeowners all think about the chimney at the same time, and the schedule tightens to a week or more. If you've got a live problem such as water coming down the firebox, a smell in the house, or a boiler flue you're worried about, say so when you call and we'll work you in sooner. We'd rather reshuffle the day than have someone running an oil boiler into a flue nobody's checked.

Access and condition, mostly. A straightforward sweep and inspection on a gas insert in a renovated cape is at the low end of what we do. Costs climb when a chimney sits on an exterior wall with spalled brick and a cracked crown, when a two-family has multiple flues sharing one stack, or when the roof pitch and height on an older Quincy house mean staging rather than a ladder. Waterfront condos sometimes involve building access and scheduling that adds time. We'll look first and tell you what the work actually involves before you decide anything.