Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
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AfterFast, Reliable Chimney Repair Across Jenkintown
A chimney repair in Jenkintown typically runs $375 – $2,800 depending on what’s actually wrong. Most crown repairs, flashing fixes, and mortar repointing fall in the $400 – $900 range. A full flue relining with HeatShield runs higher, generally $1,800 – $2,800, because it means rebuilding the inner passage that carries smoke and gases out of your house. We give you the written price before any tool comes off the truck, so you know exactly what you’re approving. Call (830) 251-4560 and we’ll schedule a sweep and camera inspection, then hand you a photo report you can look at while we explain what needs doing now and what can wait.
The houses here in Jenkintown aren’t like new construction. Most of the borough’s chimneys were built before 1950, and a lot of them started life serving coal or oil furnaces. That matters more than most people realize. We work these chimneys every week, from the twins on Runnymede Avenue to the larger colonials off Walnut Street, and we know what the age of the housing stock means when a three-inch gas furnace flue gets vented into a coal-era flue that was sized for something entirely different. Local knowledge here isn’t a talking point. It’s what keeps us from missing the obvious.
Why Flint Chimney Sweep Is Jenkintown’s Preferred Chimney Repair Company
Flint Chimney Sweep has been part of the Garrison Partners family since 2002, and we run every Jenkintown job under The Garrison Standard: written price first, documented scope, and a one-year written guarantee on every repair. The chimney trade has a reputation problem and we know it. No-shows, price changes at the door, crews that leave a mess. We built our process to be the opposite of that. You get a background-checked, uniformed technician who arrives in the window we give you. You get a written price before work starts. You get a guarantee that says if a covered repair fails within 365 days, we come back at no charge. Not a verbal promise. A written one.
Our Chimney Repair team takes the same approach on every job in Jenkintown, whether it’s a crown rebuild off Old York Road or a flashing repair near Noble. Homeowners who have been through a bad chimney company once are usually skeptical, and we don’t blame them. But the photo report changes things. You’re not taking a technician’s word for a liner problem you can’t see. You’re looking at the camera footage on a screen, seeing the cracks and the glaze yourself. That’s how we earn trust here: we show you the problem, put the fix in writing, and back it for a year.
Chimney Masonry Repair in Jenkintown
Chimney Masonry Repair in Jenkintown is the most common call we get after the first hard freeze of the season, because the borough’s brick and stucco-over-masonry chimneys take a beating every winter. Water gets into the brick, freezes, expands, and pushes the face off the brick. What starts as a hairline crack in the crown becomes a spalled brick, then an open void, then water running down the inside of the flue. By the time you see crumbling mortar on the ground or a white haze on the brick face, the damage is usually deeper than it looks from the sidewalk. A typical repointing job on a Jenkintown chimney runs $450 – $850 depending on how much of the stack needs work and how high the staging has to go.
Freeze-thaw damage we see every spring
Brick is porous. Water soaks into the face when the crown has no proper overhang or the flashing’s been nailed instead of step-flashed. Then January hits, the water freezes, and the brick face pops. We see this on the pre-war twins and row homes off Walnut Street every year. The fix isn’t just patching the loose brick. You have to address the water entry point, or you’ll be repointing the same stack again in three years.
Stucco over masonry hides real problems
Stucco-over-masonry chimneys in Jenkintown look fine until they don’t. The stucco traps moisture against the brick underneath, and hairline cracks in the stucco let water in without ever looking like a structural issue from the ground. We run a moisture meter over the surface during a standard inspection and it tells a story the eye misses. When the moisture reading spikes, the repair usually means cutting back damaged stucco, repointing the brick beneath, then sealing with a breathable masonry sealer. That job typically runs $600 – $1,200.
Chimney Cap Installation in Jenkintown
Chimney Cap Installation in Jenkintown is one of the most straightforward repairs we do, and one of the most neglected. A stainless cap with a full mesh screen does two jobs: it keeps rain out of the flue and it keeps animals out of the smoke chamber. Raccoons and squirrels are not hypothetical in Jenkintown. We’ve pulled live animals out of chimneys near Jefferson Avenue, and the mess and the smell are the least of it. A proper cap installation runs $285 – $475, and that includes the cap, custom sizing, and stainless fasteners that won’t rust out in five years.
Why the cap has to fit the flue, not the chimney
A common mistake we fix here is a generic cap slapped onto a coal-era flue that’s far larger than the appliance it now serves. The cap has to match the flue tile dimensions, and it has to be sized so it doesn’t restrict draft while still keeping water out. We measure and install caps from Olympia Chimney and Famco, and we stock common sizes so we can install without waiting on a parts order. If you’re hearing dripping after a hard rain off Old York Road or seeing a damp smoke chamber, the cap is usually the first and cheapest fix.
Copperfield caps for older homes
Some Jenkintown homeowners don’t want a big stainless lid on a 1920s brick chimney. Copperfield makes a lower-profile stainless cap with a copper finish that matches the look of older homes better. We install those on a lot of the twins and townhouses around the borough. Same function, better fit with the architecture, and they still carry the full one-year guarantee we put on every job.
Trusted Brands We Service in Jenkintown
We don’t install mystery parts. The brands we use are ones you can look up for yourself: HeatShield for flue lining, DuraFlex for flexible stainless liners, Olympia Chimney and Famco for caps and dampers, Copperfield for specialty caps on older homes. We stock common parts locally for Jenkintown customers, which means faster turnaround when a liner section or a cap needs to be replaced. The brand name matters because a chimney liner is not the kind of part you want to shop for by lowest bid. HeatShield and DuraFlex both carry documented performance records and have been used in tens of thousands of installations nationwide. We’ll put the exact product name on your written quote, so you can verify quality before you approve the work.
Common Chimney Repair Problems We See in Jenkintown Homes
- Coal-to-gas conversion with an unlined flue. Pre-1950 homes in Jenkintown often had a new gas furnace vented into a flue that never had a liner. Gas exhaust is cooler than coal smoke, so it condenses and eats the old mortar from the inside. You end up with a back-drafting appliance and carbon monoxide pushing into the basement.
- Cracked crowns from freeze-thaw cycling. The borough’s winter temperature swings work brick hard. A crown with no overhang lets water run straight down the brick face, freeze, and pop the surface. Most crowns we rebuild in Jenkintown never had a proper drip edge in the first place.
- Third-degree creosote from older wood inserts. A brush removes the loose soot, but the hard glaze that forms in the flue throat needs a more aggressive treatment. Handyman sweeps often miss it because they can’t see it without a camera. Left in place, it’s a chimney fire waiting for the right conditions.
- Flashing failure at the roofline. On sloped roofs around Noble and the streets off Meetinghouse Road, step flashing pulls away over time and water follows the nail holes into the smoke chamber. The leak shows up as a stain on the ceiling near the chimney, but the actual problem is two storeys up.
Pricing for Chimney Repair in Jenkintown, PA
We Also Serve Cities Near Jenkintown
Our crews cover the surrounding Montgomery County towns as well. If you’re in Elkins Park, Glenside, Willow Grove, or Oreland, you can book the same written-price process and one-year guarantee we offer in Chimney Repair in Jenkintown. The dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from our Philadelphia office, and we deploy the same background-checked technicians across the whole service area.
Serving Jenkintown, PA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Jenkintown area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Chimney Repair in Jenkintown
Once a year, without exception. Brick twins in Jenkintown are pre-1950 construction in most cases, and freeze-thaw cycles do quiet damage that doesn’t show up until spring. An annual Level 1 or Level 2 inspection with a camera catches crown cracks, flashing gaps, and creosote buildup before they become a $2,000 repair. Call (830) 251-4560 to schedule, and we’ll give you a written report with photos.
We can clean it, but the bigger question is whether the flue is lined and correctly sized. Coal flues are often too large for gas exhaust, which condenses and deteriorates the mortar from inside. If the camera shows no liner, cleaning alone won’t fix the back-drafting risk. We’ll show you the footage and give you a straight answer on what needs a liner and what can wait. Call (830) 251-4560 for a camera inspection in Jenkintown.
Third-degree creosote is a hard, shiny black glaze that looks like tar baked onto the flue wall. It forms from cool smoke and poor draft, often in the throat and upper flue. A standard wire brush removes surface soot but won’t take off the glaze. You need mechanical removal with rotary tools or chemical treatment, and usually a liner assessment afterward. We were called to a 1920s twin on Runnymede Avenue where the homeowner had a new gas furnace vented into what turned out to be an unlined coal-era flue with a badly spalled crown and open mortar joints. The camera showed third-degree creosote glaze and a missing liner. We installed a HeatShield liner and a stainless cap, rebuilt the crown with a proper overhang, and the furnace now drafts correctly. That’s what a real inspection finds.
In many cases, yes. A crack in the crown or a gap in the flashing doesn’t have to be fixed this week if the chimney isn’t in active use and the water entry is slow. But if the camera shows a missing liner or open mortar joints in the smoke chamber, that’s a safety issue that shouldn’t wait. We’ll tell you plainly which category you’re in, and we’ll put it in writing. Call (830) 251-4560 for a straight assessment, not a pressure sell.
Yes, and we custom-size the cap to the flue, not the outside dimensions of the chimney. Stucco chimneys often hide visible damage, so we measure the actual flue tile and match the cap to that. We install Olympia Chimney and Famco caps, plus Copperfield for lower-profile copper finishes. Every cap installation carries our one-year written guarantee. Call (830) 251-4560 and we’ll schedule a free estimate.
Written by Hank Delano, Owner at Flint Chimney Sweep, serving Jenkintown since 2002.