Birmingham, Oakland County
Chimney inspection in Birmingham
In Birmingham we inspect older houses that are being bought and sold, and new houses built where an older one was torn down. Each needs a different kind of look at the chimney.
Why Birmingham owners call us
Most of the inspections we're asked to do here fall into a few situations. Someone is buying or selling. Someone moved into a new house and nobody explained how the fireplaces work. Or a furnace was replaced and the chimney it used to vent into hasn't been looked at since.
In Poppleton Park, most of the houses were built between the 1920s and the 1950s, and many still have their original masonry chimney and clay flue tiles. In Holy Name, a newer two-story house sits next to a smaller older one on a lot of blocks. Those two chimneys have almost nothing in common, and we inspect each one for what it is.
Factory-built fireplaces
A new Birmingham house often has two or three fireplaces, many of them gas, all of them factory-built units with metal flues. The flue runs up inside a framed chase, and the chase may be covered in brick or stone veneer so it looks like masonry. We check the cover and cap at the top, the flashing, the parts of the flue we can see and the fireplace itself. If the veneer has cracks or the cover is rusting, we'll show you.
What it costs
- Level 1: $49, the chimney inside and out wherever we can reach without tools. The $49 is credited toward any repair or service we do after it.
- Level 2: $149. It adds the attic, basement and crawl space areas and a camera through the flue. It's the one for a sale, a change to the system, or after a chimney fire or storm.
- Camera add-on to a Level 1: $75.
Our guide to chimney inspection levels explains the difference, and what a chimney inspection costs lays out the prices in one place.
Selling or buying
If you're listing, a Level 2 before the house goes on the market gives you photos and answers before a buyer's inspector asks. If you're buying, call early in your inspection period so there's time to price a repair if something turns up. And if the fireplaces will be used this winter, the chimney sweep and cleaning includes an inspection on the same visit.
Questions
We're buying an older house in Poppleton Park. What does a Level 2 add to the home inspection?
A general home inspector usually looks at the fireplace from the room and the chimney from the ground or the roof edge. Our Level 2 covers the chimney where it runs through the attic and basement, and puts a camera through the flue. On a house from the 1930s or 1940s, the inside of the flue is the part nobody can judge from the outside. It's $149.
Our house has three fireplaces. Do you inspect all of them on one visit?
Yes. Each flue is inspected on its own, and the $49 Level 1 price is per chimney. When you book, set the quantity for the number of chimneys or fireplaces, or call us and we'll work it out with you. We'll plan enough time to get to every one on the same visit.
Chimney inspection near Birmingham
Chimney inspection in Birmingham
Pick a day and a 3-hour arrival window online. If you'd rather talk it through, call (248) 266-9991.