Chimney Sweep in Slate Hill, NY

Chimney sweeping in Slate Hill

A chimney sweep in Slate Hill, NY often means a tall, narrow flue built a very long time ago. We brush it its full length, clear out what has collected inside, and tell you plainly what condition the rest of the chimney is in. The age of the stack does not change the method. It does change what we expect to find.

Slate Hill is about five miles southwest of Middletown, a short drive from our base in Middletown. The hamlet and the open country around it are two different sets of conditions within a few square miles, so it is worth telling us which one you are in.

Old houses, and what is inside their chimneys

Slate Hill is the hamlet where the Town of Wawayanda has its town hall, and it has a real historic core. The houses clustered in it are among the older buildings in this part of Orange County, and age is the defining chimney issue here.

The older a chimney is, the more likely its liner is either failing or was never there. Lining flues with clay tile only became standard practice well into the twentieth century. Plenty of earlier chimneys were built with the flue running straight against the brick.

An unlined chimney is not automatically a crisis. But you should know about it before you burn regularly, and certainly before you put a wood stove into it. The way to find out is a camera scan during an inspection. You cannot tell from the firebox or from the roof.

Older stacks here also tend to be tall and narrow, built for the fireplaces of their day. Many carry more than one flue in a single structure. Where two flues share a chimney, the masonry divider between them matters. If it has broken down, exhaust can cross from one flue into the other.

On the rural properties around the hamlet, the picture shifts back to exposure. Wind on all sides, cracked crowns, and caps that take a beating.

What a visit looks like

Nothing gets touched until we have had a proper look at what is actually there. After that the hearth and the floor in front of it are covered, the opening is sealed, and the vacuum stays on for the duration so the soot leaves in the machine. A tall old flue takes a while to brush end to end, and we would rather take the time than rush it. Afterwards we clear the debris, check what is reachable, and go through the findings with you. The full sweeping process is on our main page.

Anything that needs attention gets shown to you, usually in a photo. On an old chimney the important finding is often what the camera sees rather than what the brush brings down, so we take the time to explain it. We set out the options, say when waiting is reasonable, and do not price a repair we have not looked at.

Where Slate Hill is

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Chimney services available in Slate Hill

• Chimney Sweeping

  Brushing the full length of a tall, narrow older flue, and clearing whatever decades of use have left on the smoke shelf.

  Read about chimney sweeping

• Chimney Inspection

  A camera scan is the way to find out whether an old chimney is lined at all, and whether the divider between shared flues is intact.

  More about chimney inspection

• Chimney Repair

  Repointing soft historic mortar in kind, rebuilding spalled brick and patching the crowns that take the weather on a rural site.

  More about chimney repair

• Chimney Cap Installation

  Out on the open properties around the hamlet, caps take a beating and crowns crack. A sound cap is the cheapest protection there is.

  More about chimney cap installation

• Chimney Liner Installation

  An unlined flue is not automatically a crisis, but you should know before you burn regularly. A liner is how it gets put right.

  More about chimney liner installation

Booking from Slate Hill

Call (845) 375-3666. Tell us the address, roughly how old the house is, what you burn in, and whether you know if the flue is lined. If you do not know, that is normal, and finding out is part of what the visit is for.

Late spring and summer book far more easily than October. On an older chimney the quiet season is worth taking, because if a camera scan turns up an unlined or broken flue you want time to decide what to do about it, rather than deciding in a cold week in November.