Chimney sweep near you
We cover all of Montavilla, both sides of Burnside, and the two jobs that define it are camera inspections of the streetcar-era brick stacks near Stark and sweeps of the single end-wall fireplaces in the 1950s ranch blocks.
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Montavilla's homes are streetcar-era houses from the 1889 plat into the 1920s, many built after the line arrived in 1892, and early 1950s ranches, with the oldest carrying brick chimneys for an open fireplace and a basement furnace.
The 1920s bungalows around SE Stark St came next, with brick stacks that may or may not have clay tile inside, so two houses on the same street can have very different flues. In the early 1950s the Asbahr Addition filled a tract with ranch houses, most with one masonry fireplace on an end wall and a tile liner from the start.
Along NE 82nd Ave and SE Stark St, the apartments and infill houses mostly have gas fireplaces or none, and the calls from those buildings are for dryer vents and ducts. The streetcar stopped running in 1948, but the houses it brought are still here, and so are their chimneys.
Montavilla chimneys fall into two families: brick stacks on the streetcar-era houses, often unlined and built for a fireplace plus a furnace, and exterior end-wall chimneys on the 1950s ranches with a single tile-lined fireplace flue.
A common find in the older houses is a water heater venting alone into a flue built for an oil furnace. The furnace went to gas years ago, and a flue that size does not warm enough for the small exhaust to rise, so it condenses and eats the mortar. On the ranches the weak point is the exposed end-wall face and its crown.
Montavilla calls split by which side of 1950 the house was built on: inspections and liners for the streetcar-era stacks, sweeps and caps for the ranches.
A streetcar-era house near Stark or Glisan that is being sold, or whose fireplace has not been lit in years, gets a Level 2 camera inspection before anything else, because from the hearth you cannot tell an unlined 1900s flue from a lined 1920s one. The footage settles it and comes with the written report.
Unlined flues in the plat-era houses get a stainless liner sized to the fireplace, and the water heater left behind on an old furnace flue gets a smaller liner sized to it alone, which is the fix for the condensation and staining an oversized flue causes. Where nothing vents into the old flue anymore, we cap and close it instead.
An Asbahr Addition ranch with its one end-wall fireplace is the simplest chimney in Montavilla to keep up: a sweep each fall, a Level 1 look at the tile, damper and firebox, and photos of the flue before and after. The ranches that burn every weekend from November through March are the ones that reach the cleaning threshold first.
Exterior ranch chimneys on the end walls of the 1950s houses may have no cap at all, and an open tile at the top of a flue that faces the weather lets rain straight down onto the damper and the smoke shelf. A stainless cap with a spark screen keeps the water and the birds out.
The apartment buildings on 82nd and along Stark mostly have no chimney to speak of, but their dryer vents run through walls and ceilings to a hood that nobody looks at. A dryer that needs a second cycle to finish towels is the sign, and we clean the full run to the outside.
Montavilla is reached from I-84 (the Banfield) on the north or I-205 on the east, with E Burnside St, SE Stark St and NE Glisan St carrying us across the neighborhood and NE 82nd Ave and SE 76th Ave running north and south.
Montavilla straddles Burnside, so an address can carry an NE or an SE prefix; give us the full prefix when you book. On the Stark business district blocks near the Academy Theater and the farmers market, parking is at the curb and we may need to circle for a spot, while on the ranch blocks it helps to know which side of the house the end-wall chimney is on.
The name is a shortening of Mount Tabor Villa, an addition platted on June 11, 1889.
Electric streetcars served Montavilla from 1892 until 1948.
The Academy Theater was built in 1948 and restored in 2006.
The Asbahr Addition, a tract of mostly ranch houses, went up in the early to mid 1950s.
Portland Community College's Southeast Campus opened in 1981 and serves around 12,000 students a year; Montavilla Park, Harrison Park and the Montavilla Farmers Market are the other places people use for directions.
Yes, all four Montavilla ZIP codes get the same service. Montavilla crosses Burnside, so addresses carry both NE and SE prefixes, and whichever ZIP yours falls in, the posted price is the price, with no added charge for the drive when we do the work. Apartments on 82nd are covered as readily as the ranch blocks and the old streetcar grid, and so is the PCC side of the neighborhood.
With a Level 2 camera inspection, not a sweep. A 1900s Montavilla stack may have no liner at all, and a brush will not tell you that; the camera will, along with whether the furnace flue beside it still vents your water heater. Keep the fireplace cold until the footage comes back, then decide between a liner, repairs, or a sweep and a first fire.
Easier, mostly: an end-wall ranch chimney in Montavilla has one tile-lined flue serving one fireplace, so a yearly sweep with the Level 1 look-over covers it. The exposed outside face takes all the weather, though, so the crown, the cap and the mortar joints above the roof need a look each visit, and an early sign of trouble is white staining or a wet smell after heavy rain.
Most likely the water heater is venting alone into the old furnace flue. When the oil furnace was replaced with a gas unit vented out the wall, the water heater stayed on a brick flue far too big for it, and its small, cool exhaust condenses on the brick, runs back down and corrodes the connector. A liner sized to the water heater fixes it; our orphaned chimney guide explains why.
Only if you hold a current Multnomah County exemption. Wood being the only way to heat the main living space is one ground for an exemption, and so is income at or below the county threshold, but the exemption has to be applied for and renewed each year by September 30, and a permanently installed and connected furnace, even one you never run, defeats the sole-heat claim. Our wood burning rules guide has the detail.
Yes, and with few fireplaces in those buildings, the dryer vent is usually the job there. We disconnect the dryer, clean the duct from the transition hose to the outside hood, clear the hood and check that its flap closes, and show you the lint that came out. Property managers in Montavilla can book several units in one visit, which we schedule as a block.
Our contractor-check guide shows how to look any Oregon company up through the state and what the record tells you. Beyond that, ask for the price before the visit and for the camera images from your own flue; a Montavilla streetcar-era stack is exactly the kind of chimney where a company that guesses instead of looks will miss the missing liner.
From Montavilla the truck heads up the hill to Mt. Tabor, north to Roseway and Rose City Park, and east across 82nd to Hazelwood and Powellhurst-Gilbert.
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.