Huntington Woods, Oakland County
Chimney sweep and cleaning in Huntington Woods
Huntington Woods is small, and a lot of it is green: the Rackham Golf Course alone takes up about a fifth of the city. Those trees end up in uncapped chimneys every fall.
Fireplaces in a city of brick houses
Most Huntington Woods houses were built between the 1920s and the 1950s with a wood-burning masonry fireplace, and many of those fireplaces are still there. A lot of them still burn wood. Some have had a wood insert set in for heat, which sends smoke up a stainless liner. A few have gas logs. Each leaves something different behind.
Burning wood coats the flue with soot and creosote. Dry, seasoned wood burned hot keeps that coating thin. A slow fire, damp wood or an insert turned down low leaves more, and over time that coating hardens. Gas logs leave little, but the flue still needs to stay open, and in an old fireplace that was switched to gas, the soot from the wood years is often still on the walls.
Leaves and nests
The Rackham Golf Course, opened in 1925, sits in the southern part of the city, and the western part of the Detroit Zoo is inside the city limits too. Between them and the street trees, a lot of houses have big trees over the roof. On a chimney with no cap, leaves and twigs fall straight down the flue, and squirrels and birds move in.
Chirping from the flue between May and August usually means chimney swifts. They're federally protected while nesting, so the nest stays until the birds leave. Our guide to chimney swifts explains the timing, and a cap afterward keeps the next pair out.
When to book
Book before the first cold weekend. If you hear scratching or chirping in the chimney, call before you light anything. Our guide on how often to clean a chimney helps if you aren't sure it's time.
Price and what you get
The price is $349. That covers sweeping one flue and an inspection on the same visit. We put drop cloths down before we start and clean up before we leave. If you want to see inside the flue, a camera is a $75 add-on. On a chimney this age the inspection sometimes turns up loose brick or a cracked crown. When it does, you get photos and a written quote for the chimney repair, and nothing is done until you approve it.
Questions
We only burn a few fires a year. Do we still need a sweep every year?
Maybe not. A fireplace used a handful of times a season builds up slowly, and some years an inspection is enough. But a fireplace that sits unused collects leaves and nests from the top, and a 1920s or 1930s flue should be looked at regularly either way. We'll tell you after the visit whether yours needs sweeping yearly or less often.
There's a black, crusty coating inside our flue. What is it?
That's creosote that has baked onto the flue walls. It builds up faster from slow, smoky fires, like a wood insert turned down overnight or damp wood. Flaky soot comes off with brushes. Hard, glazed creosote takes more work, and we'll tell you what we found and what removing it involves before we quote anything extra.
Chimney sweep near Huntington Woods
Chimney sweep in Huntington Woods
Pick a day and a 3-hour arrival window online. If you'd rather talk it through, call (248) 266-9991.