Chimney sweep near you
Yes, we cover Forest Grove, from the pre-1930 houses in the Clark, Walker Naylor and Painter's Woods districts to the subdivisions at the edge of town. The work here is camera inspections and stainless liners for brick flues that were often built without one.
Updated
Forest Grove's oldest houses and brick chimneys stand in the blocks around Pacific University, many of them inside three National Register districts: Clark with 115 resources, Walker Naylor with 83 and Painter's Woods with 37.
Those houses went up between the late 1800s and the 1920s, decades before building codes in many places required a flue liner, and their brick stacks were commonly laid in lime mortar that has now taken more than a century of valley rain. Open joints, a crown split across its width and brick faces popping off the weather side are what we find once a ladder is up.
The 1940s to 1960s streets farther from campus often came with a masonry fireplace and a furnace flue sharing one chimney, and many of those furnace flues now sit orphaned by a newer wall-vented furnace. The 1990s to 2010s subdivisions at the city limits commonly have factory-built fireplaces or gas units, and out along OR 47 we are called more often to wood stoves on acreage than to fireplaces.
Brick is the material in old Forest Grove: one stack that served a fireplace, a basement wood furnace, or both, and often built without a clay liner.
A camera run comes before any fire in a flue like that, and a stainless liner is the fix where the tile is missing or cracked through. The Historic Landmarks Board reviews exterior alterations on designated houses, so a rebuild that changes the height, brick or cap of a visible stack gets cleared with the city first, while repointing, a matching crown and a liner leave the street face alone.
The calls from Forest Grove sort themselves by distance from the campus, oldest brick nearest Pacific University and newest boxes at the edges.
Before a house in the Clark, Walker Naylor or Painter's Woods districts changes hands, or before its fireplace is lit again after years cold, we send a camera down the flue for a Level 2 inspection, which shows whether the flue was ever lined and what a century did to it. The brick above the roofline on these houses is commonly unreinforced, so we photograph the stack where it meets the roof and go over bracing options before we leave.
Unlined flues in the pre-1930 houses get a stainless liner sized to the opening, insulated where the installation calls for it, which turns a column of loose joints into one continuous flue. On the postwar blocks, the furnace flue left behind by a wall-vented furnace is relined down to the water heater that still uses it, or sealed off if nothing does.
Lime mortar from the 1890s and 1900s washes out of the joints on the rain side long before the brick itself gives up, and we repoint those joints in a mortar matched to the old one rather than a harder modern mix. Spalled units are cut out and replaced, and on a designated house we match the brick before the first one comes out.
Crowns on chimneys this old were often a thin wash of mortar rather than a poured slab, and after a hundred wet winters they are split and feeding water straight into the brick below. We form a new crown with an overhang and a drip edge, then treat the brick under it with a breathable water repellent so the next winter runs off instead of in.
Past the city limits along OR 47 and the farm roads west of town, the call is more often for a wood stove than a fireplace, and a stove that runs all winter needs the baffle out, the connector pipe apart and the flue brushed from the stove collar to the cap. We check the door gasket and the stovepipe joints while it is open.
Forest Grove sits at the west end of the Tualatin Valley Highway, OR 8, which is the way we arrive from Hillsboro and Cornelius, with OR 47 the route down from US 26 when we come across from the north.
In town, Pacific Avenue and 19th Avenue run east to west past the campus, and the district streets near campus have curb parking, so the truck and ladder sit at the street. Up Thatcher Road and David Hill Road the lots widen and the driveways lengthen; tell us when you book if the chimney is on the far side of the house from the drive.
The name Forest Grove was picked on January 10, 1851, at a meeting of the Tualatin Academy trustees. The Chemawa Indian School opened in Forest Grove in 1880 and moved to Salem four years later.
Old College Hall and Marsh Hall are the landmarks of the Pacific University campus, and the residential historic districts lie near it.
Downtown Pacific Avenue carries a 120-foot flagpole, and the Forest Grove Sound, a hissing noise heard at night, made the news in 2016.
The Clark Historic District was listed in 2002, Painter's Woods in 2009, Walker Naylor in 2011 and the downtown district in 2020.
Yes, every address in 97116 is inside our service area, in town and on the acreage past the city line. The posted sweep price is the same for a house on Pacific Avenue and a farmhouse off OR 47, and there is no separate trip charge when we do the work. Book the same way for either, and mention a long gravel drive so we bring the right ladder setup.
Usually within the week outside the fall rush, and the first visit is a camera inspection, not a fire. A flue that has sat cold in a pre-1930 Forest Grove house may hold loose tile, a bird nest or no liner at all, and none of that shows from the hearth. Book in late summer if you want the fireplace ready for the first cold week of November.
The same work as anywhere: brushes sized to the flue, a vacuum running, and the firebox, smoke chamber and damper cleaned. A Level 1 look at everything we can reach without tools comes with it. On a district house we add photos of the exterior brick and the crown, since that is where a review question would start if repair is needed, and you keep every image we take.
Not until a Level 2 camera inspection has looked at the whole flue. Bare brick with open joints lets heat and gas reach the framing around the chimney, and joints laid in 1905 may not be tight all the way up. If the camera confirms there is no liner, relining it in stainless, sized to the fireplace, turns it into a continuous flue you can use. Until then, the fireplace stays cold.
Not inside the city, by our research, because the county program covers unincorporated addresses plus Hillsboro and Cornelius. That leaves a house in town under Oregon DEQ advisories rather than a county red day, while a farmhouse outside the line is under the county rule from November 1 to March 1. Our wood burning rules guide keeps the current status and the exemptions in one place.
The seller, unless a written agreement passes the job to the buyer, who then has 30 days after closing. If the insert is uncertified, Oregon's home-sale removal law requires it to come out and be destroyed as part of the sale, with DEQ notified. A Level 2 camera inspection is also what the chimney trade recommends at a sale, and on a Forest Grove house with old brick it is the one to order.
Start with our guide to checking an Oregon contractor, which shows the state lookup one screen at a time. Then ask whoever you call two things: will you show me the camera images from my own flue, and is the price posted before you arrive. On a designated Forest Grove house, add a third: will you put the scope in writing so the city can see what changes and what does not.
From Forest Grove the same truck works back east along Tualatin Valley Highway through Cornelius and Hillsboro to Aloha and Beaverton.
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.