Chimney sweep, inspection and repair in Ferndale

Bungalows from the 1920s

Ferndale became a village in 1918 and a city in 1927, and a lot of its streets were built up in those years. The houses west of Woodward are mostly bungalows, with bigger houses around Drayton that were first built for doctors and other professionals. Woodward Heights, just east of Woodward, is a tight grid of early bungalows, brick Tudors and small cottages on modest lots, most with a rear alley.

A chimney built in the mid-1920s is about a hundred years old now. At that age, the crown and the top courses of brick take the most wear. If the brick near the top is flaking or has white stains on it, our guide to white stains and crumbling chimney brick explains what's going on.

A fireplace in the basement

The Ferndale Historical Society notes that a lot of Ferndale homes had a wood-burning fireplace in the basement as well as the one upstairs. Many also had a small door near the furnace for burning trash, and coal furnaces heated these houses before gas did. You can still find coal chutes in plenty of Ferndale foundations.

All of that went up a chimney. One chimney on a Ferndale bungalow can hold a flue for the living room fireplace, one for a basement fireplace and one for the furnace, and some of those flues haven't been used in decades. If you're thinking about lighting a fire in the basement, book a cleaning and inspection first. We check every flue in the chimney and tell you what each one is connected to and what shape it's in.

The east side

The east side of Ferndale had its own boom in bungalow building in the 1950s. Those chimneys are about seventy years old, and the crown is usually the first part to show it. Many of them carried the furnace and water heater flues too, so when the furnace has been replaced, we check what's still venting into the chimney.

Repairs on narrow lots

A lot of older Ferndale houses sit close together on narrow lots, some with a garage off an old alley and no driveway at all. When a chimney here needs a crown rebuilt or the top courses repointed, we plan where the ladder, the mixer and the brick will go before the job starts. Tell us about the alley or the parking when we quote.

Getting to you

We work across Ferndale on Woodward, 9 Mile, 8 Mile, Hilton, Livernois and Pinecrest, and pair Ferndale visits with jobs in Royal Oak, Oak Park and Berkley. Book online and pick a 3-hour arrival window, or call for same-day availability when the schedule allows.