Chimney sweep near you
Yes, Richmond and the Division corridor are on our Southeast route, from 1890s streetcar houses near Clinton to 2010s apartments on Division. The uncapped flue is a frequent fix here: it lets in rain, raccoons and, in fall migration, Vaux's swifts hunting a roost.
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Richmond's homes are 1890s to 1910s streetcar-era houses and 1905 to 1930 Craftsman bungalows and foursquares on small, dense inner Southeast lots, in a neighborhood named for Richmond Kelly, son of an early Kentucky immigrant with a donation land claim here.
Richmond's older houses typically have brick chimneys built for a fireplace and an oil or coal furnace, unlined in the earlier ones, and the foursquares often carry a tall central stack rising through the middle of the house. On a block where the houses sit close, that stack is the tallest thing around, and its open flue is the first hole a bird or a squirrel finds.
About 60 percent of households owned their homes in 2010, so the calls split between owners keeping a fireplace going and managers of the older rentals, and the 2010s mixed-use buildings along SE Division St add a third kind: gas fireplaces or none, and dryer vents and ducts that need cleaning. Sewallcrest Park, Richmond Elementary and the Division restaurant row are the landmarks the whole neighborhood steers by.
The typical Richmond stack is streetcar-era brick, two flues for a fireplace and a furnace, tall and central on the foursquares, and the ones with nothing on top but a clay tile open to the sky are the ones that call us.
An open flue takes rain onto the smoke shelf, and it takes animals: raccoons that den on the shelf, squirrels that fall in, and, from mid-August to mid-October, Vaux's swifts, whose recent roosts have been school and church chimneys in the Northwest, Northeast and Southeast quadrants. Swifts are protected, so a flue with swifts in it waits until they leave; everything else is a reason to cap the flue now.
Open flues, tall foursquare stacks and the Division apartments set the Richmond call list, and here is where each one leads.
A stainless cap with a spark screen on every open flue is the first thing we recommend on a Richmond chimney, because it ends the rain on the smoke shelf and the raccoon in the flue, and keeps migrating swifts out before they arrive. We size it to the tile, bolt it on and, on a two-flue stack, cover both flues with one lid when the crown allows.
A raccoon on the smoke shelf or a squirrel that fell down a Richmond flue and could not get out is a removal job first and a cap job second, and we do both. The exception is swifts: a flue with swifts in it stays closed at the damper and untouched until the birds move on in the fall, and then it gets its cap.
A Richmond sweep is the yearly job for an owner who burns through the winter: brushes through the fireplace flue, the smoke shelf cleared of the tar that rain and soot make, the damper and firebox checked, the hearth sealed and a vacuum running throughout. On a tall foursquare stack the rods go up a long way, and the photos from the top come back with the invoice.
Richmond houses get a Level 2 camera inspection when they sell, when a fireplace is being woken up after years, or after an animal has been in the flue long enough to leave a nest. The camera finds the nest material, the cracked tile or open joint behind it, and whether the furnace flue beside the fireplace flue is still doing anything.
The apartment buildings that went up along Division in the 2010s mostly have gas fireplaces or none, so for them the call is a dryer vent packed with lint, or a duct system that has not been cleaned since the building opened. Managers can book the whole building at once, and a cleared vent shortens the drying time in each unit.
Richmond is reached from US 26 along SE Powell Blvd, from I-84 by way of SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd, or straight out SE Division St and SE Hawthorne Blvd from the river, with SE 26th and SE Clinton St threading the inside.
Division itself is restaurant row, so parking near the corridor can be tight; the residential blocks toward Clinton and Sewallcrest Park are easier. Tell us whether the chimney is the tall central stack of a foursquare or an outside-wall chimney, and whether a rear alley or a side yard gets us closer than the street does.
Richmond Elementary was the first of three schools in Portland Public Schools' Japanese Magnet Program.
The northern edge of Richmond is part of the Hawthorne District, home of the Bagdad Theater.
Sewallcrest Park dates to 1940, and Ivon Street Park is the neighborhood's other small green.
Salt and Straw, Cibo and Bollywood Theater are among the businesses on the Division restaurant row, and the Tomorrow Theater sits in the neighborhood too.
Richmond borders Sunnyside, Mt. Tabor, South Tabor, Creston-Kenilworth and Hosford-Abernethy, and its three ZIP codes are 97214, 97202 and 97215.
Yes, the whole Richmond neighborhood and the Division corridor through it, in all three ZIP codes, are part of our regular Southeast loop. A bungalow on Clinton, a foursquare near Sewallcrest Park and an apartment building on Division pay the posted job price, and the drive over is never billed separately when we do the work.
If they are Vaux's swifts, the answer is to wait. They are protected migratory birds that roost in Portland chimneys for a few weeks each fall, so the flue stays untouched, damper closed, until they move on. Once the roost is empty, we sweep out what they left and fit a screened cap so next fall they pick a different chimney. A raccoon or a squirrel is a different call, and that one we schedule.
Usually one stainless cap per flue, each bolted to its clay tile with a spark screen, because the two tiles on a foursquare stack often sit at different heights. When the crown is flat and the tiles are even, a single multi-flue cap that anchors to the crown covers both and looks cleaner from the street. Either way the screen keeps swifts, squirrels and embers where they belong, and our cap guide compares the styles.
Once a year for a fireplace in regular use, and before the first fire of the season rather than after. The national chimney standard calls for an annual inspection and cleaning as needed, and a Richmond fireplace that burns most evenings from November to March is likely to build enough soot in a season to need the brush. Burning only dry, seasoned wood slows the buildup; it does not replace the sweep.
Yes, the county rule covers Richmond in smoke season too, because it follows the air forecast rather than the calendar. A red day can be called in August for wildfire smoke, and then no wood fires burn in a fireplace, stove or fire pit from noon to the next noon unless your household holds an exemption. Smoke season is also a reason to keep the damper closed and the cap tight. Our wood burning rules guide covers the rest.
Ask for a Level 2 camera inspection report with the images, done before you waive contingencies. Read the part about the stack above the roof as closely as the flue section. On a 1908 Richmond foursquare the questions are whether the flue is lined, whether the tall central stack is tight and plumb, and whether an uncertified stove or insert is in the house, because Oregon's home-sale law makes an uncertified stove come out when the house changes hands.
Run the company's name through the state's contractor lookup; our contractor-check guide shows the screens without opinion. Then ask two practical things: whether you get the camera footage of your own flue, and whether the price was on the website before the truck came. For a Richmond house with an open flue and an animal problem, also ask how they handle swifts; the right answer is that they wait.
Richmond touches Sunnyside to the north and Mt. Tabor to the east, and the same Southeast run continues to Brooklyn, Foster-Powell and Eastmoreland.
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.