Chimney sweep near you
We cover all of Beaverton, and the usual calls are split crowns and orphaned furnace flues on 1960s and 1970s ranch chimneys, rusted chase covers in Murrayhill and the later tracts, and dryer vents in the condos near MAX.
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Beaverton grew from under 6,000 people in 1960 to more than 53,000 by 1990, and many houses from those decades were in single-developer tracts of one-level ramblers, the Cedar Hills type, and split-levels, often with a brick fireplace on an outside wall.
An outside-wall brick chimney on a 1965 rambler is now sixty winters old, and in this climate that is an age when the crown splits, the mortar joints open on the weather side and the furnace flue sharing the stack may have been left with nothing to vent after a high-efficiency furnace went in with plastic pipe out the side wall.
Murrayhill and the other 1990s and 2000s phases were built in the factory-built era, commonly with a metal firebox behind a wood or stone surround and a framed chase above it, and the 2010s condos near the MAX line and The Round tend to have gas fireplaces or none, which makes the dryer vent the call from those addresses.
Beaverton has few pre-war house chimneys, since little of its housing predates 1940, so the masonry here is mid-century: often one brick stack on the end wall of a ranch, carrying two flues, one for the fireplace and one for the furnace.
The two failures that follow are rust and condensation. Rain through a cracked crown rusts the throat damper until it will not seat, and a furnace flue that lost its furnace to a side-wall vent now carries a water heater at most, so the flue runs cold, sweats and sheds its mortar; the factory-built units in the 1990s tracts tend to fail at the chase cover and the refractory panels.
Beaverton's calls sort by decade: masonry and orphaned flues in the 1960s and 1970s tracts, chase and panel work in the later ones, dryer vents in the condos.
A furnace swap is the moment to book a Level 2 camera inspection on a 1960s or 1970s Beaverton house, because the old furnace flue in the brick stack is now orphaned or carrying only a water heater, and the camera shows whether its tile has started to flake. The same visit looks at the unbraced brick above the roofline, which is the part of a rambler that can break and fall in an earthquake.
A crown poured in 1968 has had close to sixty winters of rain soaking in and about 32 freezing nights a year to crack it, so a split crown is a frequent repair on the end-wall chimneys in the older tracts. We rebuild or patch the crown with a drip edge past the brick, then fit a cap so the flue stops drinking rain.
The open masonry fireplace in a split-level gets used through the wet months and swept once a year with the Level 1 look-over, and on a Beaverton ranch we run the brush down the fireplace flue and put a light down the furnace flue beside it in the same trip up the roof. First-degree soot brushes out; glazed creosote means a longer visit.
In Murrayhill and the 1990s subdivisions a leak at a factory-built fireplace is rarely brick, because there is none; it is usually the sheet metal chase cover on top of the framed chase, rusted through where water stands, or the flashing where the chase meets the roof. We replace the cover with a cross-broken one that sheds water and reseal the chase flashing.
The condos and townhouses near the MAX line and The Round were often built with gas fireplaces or none, and the dryer vent in those units can run a long way to an outside wall or a roof hood. We clean it from the dryer to the hood and check that the flap opens, because a run that long can pack with lint and a load that needs two cycles is the sign.
We come into Beaverton on US 26 and down Canyon Road, or on OR 217 to Walker Road, Canyon Road, Hall Boulevard or Scholls Ferry Road, depending on which side of the city the house is on.
Murray Boulevard, Hall Boulevard and Tualatin Valley Highway carry us across the city, so most addresses are a couple of turns off one of them. Sexton Mountain and Cooper Mountain are the sloped parts of Beaverton, and a chimney on the downhill side of a sloped lot needs the long ladder, so mention a slope when you book and say where a van can stand without blocking a cul-de-sac.
Beaverton incorporated in 1893 with about 400 residents and Alonzo Cady as its first mayor; the name comes from the beaver dams in the area, and the Atfalati village here was called Chakeipi, place of the beaver.
Nike headed the city's 2024 list of largest employers with 6,019 workers, even though the company resisted annexation and its campus sits outside the city limits.
Beaverton Transit Center is TriMet's busiest transit center and the northern end of the WES commuter rail line, and the 550-seat Patricia Reser Center for the Arts opened downtown in 2022. The Evergreen Curling Club gave Beaverton the first ice rink in Oregon built for curling in January 2013.
Residents give directions by Cedar Hills Crossing, Tualatin Hills Nature Park, The Round and the Nike campus, and the city recognizes 13 neighborhoods, Sexton Mountain, Five Oaks, Triple Creek, Vose, Highland and Denney Whitford among them.
Yes, 97003, 97005, 97006, 97007 and 97008 are all inside the area we cover, including the unincorporated pockets with Beaverton mailing addresses. The sweep and the inspection carry the prices posted on our pricing page, and when we do the work there is no separate charge for driving out to Beaverton. Whether your street is inside the city limits only matters for the wood burning rule, not the price.
Yes, it needs a look and then a decision. The old flue in the brick stack is now down to a water heater, or nothing at all, and a big cold flue with little going up it sweats until the condensate loosens the mortar joints. A camera inspection tells us whether to reline it for the water heater or cap and close it so it stops pulling damp air through the house. Our orphaned chimney guide covers the choices.
Not inside the city limits. The November 1 to March 1 program names unincorporated Washington County, Hillsboro and Cornelius, and our research found no separate Beaverton ordinance. What does apply is the Oregon DEQ air pollution advisory, issued when cold, stagnant air traps smoke, and the sensible response is to let the fireplace sit until it lifts. An unincorporated address with a Beaverton ZIP is a different case, and our wood burning rules guide walks through both.
In most of the year, within the week; in October and November, further out, because the first cold snap fills the calendar across Washington County at once. A Beaverton house that wants the fireplace swept and the furnace flue checked before the rain should get on the calendar in late August, when the schedule is open and the roof is dry. If smoke rolled into the room last season, keep it cold and tell us when you call.
Yes, a factory-built fireplace gets swept and inspected like any other. We use brushes sized to its round metal flue and check the refractory panels, the damper and the chase cover while we are there. These units in the 1990s and 2000s Beaverton tracts tend to fail in the same spots: a cracked panel in the firebox, a rusted chase cover that leaks onto the framing, and a cap screen clogged with creosote. The posted sweep price covers it.
If the insert is uncertified, yes. Oregon's home-sale removal law requires it to be removed and destroyed, with DEQ notified. The seller handles that before closing unless seller and buyer agree in writing that the buyer will, and the buyer then has 30 days after closing. Masonry fireplaces, pellet stoves and gas units are outside the law. A Level 2 camera inspection is also the trade's recommendation when a house sells.
Start with our contractor-check guide for Oregon, which walks through the state's public lookup and what each line on it means. Then put two questions to the company: whether you will see the photos from inside your own flue, and whether the price is on the board before anyone drives out to Beaverton. A company that answers yes to both has little left to hide about a 1960s ranch chimney.
From Beaverton the same truck works Aloha and Hillsboro out Tualatin Valley Highway, Cedar Mill to the north, West Slope and Raleigh Hills to the east, and Tigard down OR 217.
Call with what the fireplace is doing, or text a photo of the opening and one of the chimney top, and we will name the service and its posted price before we come out.