Chimney Sweep in Niles, IL
Call (847) 238-9426Niles chimneys and the quirks we keep finding
Most stacks here never served a fireplace. Postwar ranches got a short brick chimney. It vented a furnace and a water heater. Then the furnace was replaced with a condensing unit. That one vents in PVC through the rim joist. The water heater sits orphaned in a flue sized for two. Exhaust cools, condenses, and eats mortar from inside. In the basement, look for a dead clay thimble patched with sheet metal.
Test the draft yourself. Shut the utility room door. Run the dryer and a bath fan. Open a hot tap. Hold a smoking match near the draft hood. Smoke drifting back at you is spillage.
The brick is usually Chicago common, soft local clay. It was made to be covered, not weathered. Above the roofline the faces flake off. Hard Portland tuckpointing speeds that up. Crisp joints standing proud of eaten brick mean a bad past repair.
Townhomes and newer additions use framed chases, not masonry. The galvanized chase cover rusts, ponds, and streaks the siding. That is a sheet metal job, not tuckpointing.
Sometimes we say stop. A stack rebuilt twice above the roof, serving nothing, is better removed and roofed over. Expect a village permit on structural work.
Same-day service available in Niles, IL. Call to check availability.
Call (847) 238-9426Frequently Asked Questions
The cast-iron cleanout door at the base of our chimney is rusted and won't latch. Repair or replace?
On the 1950s and 60s brick stacks around Niles, that little door sits low on a side or rear wall, close to grade, where splashback and snow piles keep it wet most of the winter. If the frame is still solidly mortared into the brick and only the door itself has rusted thin, swapping the door is simple. If the frame has rusted and spalled the surrounding brick, the whole assembly has to come out and the opening gets rebuilt. That's masonry work, not a parts swap. We tell you which one you have at the sweep and show you the brick around it.
Water shows up near the chimney every February. Is that the chimney or the roof?
In Niles it is usually the flashing, tied to ice damming. The low slopes and tight roof spacing on these ranches and Cape Cods hold snow instead of shedding it. Meltwater backs up behind the ice, and the counterflashing at the chimney is the first joint it finds. A chimney that is genuinely leaking through the crown or brick tends to stain year round and show inside the firebox. We look at both during an inspection so you are not paying a roofer and a mason to argue about it.
We put in a high-efficiency furnace and now the chimney smells damp and the brick is staining. What happened?
This is the most common call we get in Niles. Those short brick stacks were sized for a furnace and a water heater sharing one flue. Take the furnace off and vent it out the side wall, and the water heater alone can't keep the flue warm. Exhaust condenses inside, soaks the liner and the brick, and works its way out as white staining or a musty smell in the basement. The fix is sizing the flue to what is actually still attached, normally a properly sized liner for the orphaned water heater.
How fast can you get out here, and do you ever do same day?
Niles is close in, so routine sweeps and inspections are usually booked within a few days outside of peak season. Same day happens when we have a cancellation or are already working a nearby block, and it is more realistic in spring and summer than in January. If you have no heat because a water heater or furnace flue is blocked or backdrafting, say so when you call. We treat it as urgent rather than scheduled. Around here most wood burning is a few cold weeks a year, so fall is when the calendar fills.
What drives the price up or down on a Niles house?
Access helps you here. These are mostly one and two story homes with short stacks, so we are not staging for a steep three story roof. What moves the number is how many flues are in the stack and what they serve. A single fireplace flue that gets light use a few weekends a winter is the simple end. A shared or orphaned flue that needs scoping, or a chimney where the cleanout and crown have been taking water for years, takes longer and may turn up repair work. Condo and shared stacks can also need association coordination, which adds time.