Chimney sweep near you
Yes, Gladstone is on our regular route, from the early 1900s houses along Portland Avenue to the postwar ranches, where a furnace flue left to a lone water heater is a call to expect, along with sweeps, stuck dampers and cracked crowns.
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Gladstone is a built-out town between the Clackamas and the Willamette, and its housing shows it: the count of homes barely moved between 2010 and 2020, so little here is new, and the chimneys belong to older houses.
The streets near Portland Avenue, which follows the line of an 1893 interurban streetcar, hold the early 1900s houses, and their brick chimneys were often built unlined and often served a basement furnace as well as the fireplace. They need the same camera inspection and liner conversation as any pre-1940 brick in the metro.
Much of the rest of Gladstone is 1950s to 1970s ranches, commonly built with a masonry fireplace and a chimney that also vented an oil or gas furnace. When a high-efficiency furnace went in with its own plastic vent, the masonry flue was left to the water heater alone, too big and too cold for it, and that orphaned flue is a finding to expect in houses this age.
Gladstone's chimneys are masonry of two generations: often unlined early 1900s brick near Portland Avenue, and postwar brick stacks, often with a tile-lined fireplace flue and a second flue for the furnace.
Left to a water heater alone, the furnace flue runs cold, the exhaust condenses on the tile, and the condensate eats mortar joints from the inside until tile and mortar flakes turn up at the cleanout. The fireplace flue beside it ages the ordinary way: a rusted throat damper, a cracked crown and spalled brick on the weather side, plus whatever an ice storm like February 2021 drops on it.
Gladstone calls trace back to the age of the house, and these five cover the ranches and the Portland Avenue blocks alike.
A Level 2 camera inspection on a Gladstone ranch runs both flues, because the furnace flue nobody has thought about since the new furnace went in is where the damage hides, and the water heater still depends on it. On the early 1900s houses near Portland Avenue the same camera answers whether the fireplace flue was ever lined.
An orphaned furnace flue serving only a water heater gets a stainless liner sized to that one appliance, which brings the flue down to a size that stays warm and drafts, and an unlined fireplace flue on the older blocks gets a liner sized to the firebox. Where the water heater has been replaced by a power-vented unit, we seal the flue off instead.
The tile-lined fireplace flues in the 1950s to 1970s ranches burn wood all winter, and the yearly sweep with the Level 1 look-over is where we find the rusted damper, the cracked firebrick and the cap that blew off in the last storm. We photograph the flue before and after and check the furnace flue beside it on the same visit.
Throat dampers in the ranch-era fireplaces are sixty years old and often rusted so they neither seal nor swing freely, which costs heat all winter and smokes the first fire of fall, and we free, replace or swap them for a top-sealing damper on a cable. A damper that seals matters more in a house where the fireplace sits cold most of the week.
Crowns on many of the ranch chimneys were poured flush and thin, and after decades of rain and freezing nights plenty are cracked through and letting water run down between the tile and the brick, which is where the efflorescence and spalling start. We rebuild the crown with an overhang and a drip edge and reset or replace the cap at the same time.
McLoughlin Boulevard, OR 99E, runs along the west side of Gladstone, Portland Avenue is the spine through the middle of town, and I-205 touches the eastern edge for the drive from the Clackamas side.
Oatfield Road and Clackamas Boulevard reach the ranch streets, which are flat with wide driveways and chimneys on the gable end or the back of the house, easy to work from the yard. The blocks near Portland Avenue are tighter, with narrower lots and taller stacks, so say when you book whether the chimney is on the street side or the back.
Judge Harvey Cross founded Gladstone in 1889, and the city incorporated on January 10, 1911. Gladstone hosted the first Clackamas County Fair and the first Oregon State Fair.
Gladstone's Chautauqua park grew into the third-largest permanent Chautauqua assembly in the country, and William Jennings Bryan drew 6,000 people to it in 1896.
The Pow Wow Tree, a big maple on Clackamas Boulevard, is an Oregon Heritage Tree, and Meldrum Bar Park is the one city park in the region with a day-use fee.
The Clackamas River crested about 7 feet above flood stage in February 1996, and the community festival and parade come every first weekend of August.
Yes, every Gladstone address in 97027 is inside our area, from the Portland Avenue blocks to the ranch streets off Oatfield Road and along the Clackamas. Pricing is the posted figure for the job, and there is no trip charge when we do the work. A ranch chimney on a one-story roof is one of the easier setups we see, which helps keep a visit short.
Within the week in most cases, and sooner if the water heater is the only thing still venting through it. Flakes of tile or mortar at the cleanout of a Gladstone chimney mean the flue is breaking down from the inside, often because it was left too big and too cold after a furnace upgrade. Keep a carbon monoxide alarm near the water heater until we have scoped it.
The fireplace flue is brushed from firebox to cap with the vacuum running, and the smoke shelf, damper and firebox are cleaned. Photos from inside the flue, before and after, are yours to keep. The furnace flue beside it is inspected rather than brushed, and the Level 1 look covers the crown, cap and flashing on the roof. If the furnace flue looks wrong, the camera is the next step.
Not until a Level 2 camera inspection has looked at the fireplace flue and the old furnace flue beside it. Oil soot and a century of weather often leave an unlined Gladstone flue with open joints, and the camera shows whether a stainless liner can make it a continuous flue again. Keep it cold until you have the pictures and the answer.
No. Our research found no Gladstone wood burning ordinance and no Clackamas County red day program, so the Oregon DEQ advisory is the only guidance for a fireplace or stove in the city, and Clackamas Fire District 1 handles outdoor burning. Our wood burning rules guide explains how to read a DEQ advisory and which nearby counties call red days.
The seller, unless the buyer agrees in writing to take it on, and then the buyer has 30 days after closing. That only applies if the insert is uncertified; Oregon's home-sale removal law requires an uncertified stove or insert to be removed and destroyed at the sale. Either way, we recommend a Level 2 camera inspection of a Gladstone chimney before closing, because the furnace flue in the same stack is where the surprises are.
Begin with our Oregon contractor-check guide, which shows the state lookup and what to read in the result. Then ask any company two things: will I see the camera images of my own flues, both of them, and is the price posted before the visit. On a Gladstone ranch, a company that only looks at the fireplace flue is missing half the chimney.
Gladstone shares its crew with Oregon City across the Clackamas, Oak Grove and Jennings Lodge up McLoughlin, the town center at Clackamas, and West Linn and Canby beyond.
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.