Chimney sweep near you
We cover Roseway and Madison South, and they send us three jobs above all: camera checks of older clay tile flues for cracked joints, stainless liners where the tile has failed, and tall stacks on houses climbing the slopes of Rocky Butte.
Updated
Roseway and Madison South homes are older bungalows and period cottages plus postwar houses and ranches. Roseway runs from Prescott to Sacramento between 62nd and 82nd, and Madison South from I-84 to Sandy between 65th and I-205.
The bungalows and period cottages here have flues that are mostly tile lined but not always, and a tile flue of that age can have a cracked joint where the sections meet that nobody has seen. The postwar houses and ranches usually have a single tile-lined fireplace.
Where Madison South climbs the lower slopes of Rocky Butte and the Alameda Ridge, houses stepped into the hill carry taller chimneys to clear their own uphill roofline, and a tall unreinforced stack is both a quake concern and a longer ladder. Near NE 82nd Ave and I-205 the apartments and duplexes mostly have gas fireplaces or none, so the calls there are dryer vents and ducts.
The chimney stock in Roseway and Madison South is clay tile in brick: an older bungalow stack with a tile fireplace flue and a furnace flue beside it, or a single tile-lined fireplace flue on a postwar house.
Clay tile fails at the joints. Heat shock, settling and water get into the mortar between sections, and a cracked or shifted tile lets gases out unseen, so the camera, not a flashlight, is the tool here. On the slopes, the tall stacks add the earthquake question, and the furnace flue in the older houses has often sat orphaned since the oil furnace left.
Cracked tile, tall stacks on the butte and the apartment blocks along 82nd put these five jobs on the Roseway and Madison South list.
A Level 2 camera inspection is the first job on many Roseway houses, because an older tile flue can look fine from the firebox while the cracks sit at the joints far above it. The camera goes up each flue in turn, the images are yours, and the written report says which joints are cracked, whether the tile has shifted, and what the furnace flue next door is doing.
When the camera finds cracked or shifted tile, the fix is a stainless liner inside the old flue, sized to the fireplace or stove and insulated where the clearances need it, which restores a continuous passage without rebuilding the stack. Furnace flues left to a water heater after a gas conversion get a smaller liner matched to that one appliance.
The postwar fireplaces in Madison South and the bungalow fireplaces in Roseway that still burn wood get the yearly sweep with a Level 1 look-over, and on a tile flue we photograph the joints as we go so a crack shows up in the pictures before it becomes a problem. Houses on the slopes get a longer ladder and the same visit.
Tall stacks on the houses stepped into Rocky Butte and the Alameda Ridge stand farther above the roof and take more weather, so open joints, spalled brick and a cracked crown show up sooner there, and an unbraced stack of that height is a quake concern. We repoint with matched mortar, replace spalled units, rebuild the crown, and talk through bracing or shortening when the stack calls for it.
A load that takes two runs to dry, or a hood flap stuck shut with lint, is the call from the apartments and duplexes near NE 82nd Ave and I-205, where a fireplace, if there is one, usually runs on gas. Their dryer ducts can travel a long way through the building to a roof or wall hood, and we clear each one along its full length, then show you the lint it held.
Roseway sits north of Sandy and Madison South between I-84 and Sandy, both east of the Hollywood district, and we come in off I-84 or I-205 onto NE 82nd Ave, NE Halsey St or NE Sandy Blvd, or along Prescott and Fremont from the west.
The grid streets off NE 72nd Ave are straightforward, and Glenhaven Park, Wellington Park and the Gregory Heights Library are the landmarks that put us on the right block. On the slopes of Rocky Butte the streets climb and curve, so say if the house is on the butte or the ridge, because a tall stack on a sloped lot means a longer ladder set from the yard.
Rocky Butte rises to 613 feet, and Joseph Wood Hill Park on its summit was built by WPA workers in the 1930s; the Rocky Butte Scenic Drive up the butte is a city historic district.
The Grotto, a 62-acre Catholic shrine at the base of Rocky Butte, was created in 1924.
Leodis V. McDaniel High School on NE 82nd Ave opened in 1957 as Madison High School and was renamed by the school board in 2021.
Glenhaven Park, acquired by the city in 1948, has a skatepark, sports fields and a wading pool, and Wellington Park and the Gregory Heights Library are the other landmarks people name.
About three-quarters of Roseway homes were owner-occupied in 2010, while Madison South has more renters and more postwar housing.
Yes, all three ZIP codes and every block of both neighborhoods, from Prescott down to I-84 and from the 60s out to I-205, including the houses on Rocky Butte. Bungalow, ranch, duplex or apartment, the booking works the same way: a posted price for the job, the drive covered once the work is on, and a texted photo of the chimney top if you can get one safely.
Keep it cold and we can usually get there within the week. The first cold snap in October is when every flue in Northeast gets lit at once and the calendar fills, so earlier is easier. A fireplace that smoked on the first fire of the year may just have a closed damper or a cold flue, but it can also mean a blockage or a cracked tile, which is why it gets a look before a second try.
The flue is brushed from firebox to cap with the opening sealed and a vacuum running, the smoke chamber and shelf are cleaned, and the damper is checked. The Level 1 look-over covers the firebox and what we can reach, and on a tile flue we photograph the joints during the sweep, because the joints are where a clay liner cracks. If a joint looks wrong, we say so and recommend the camera for a closer look.
Not until it is relined, because a cracked tile joint lets heat and gases out of the flue into the chimney structure and whatever framing is near it. The usual fix is a stainless liner run inside the old tile, sized to the fireplace and insulated as the clearances require. The camera first confirms where the cracks are and whether the tile has shifted.
No, the county rule is the one that applies. The Rocky Butte Scenic Drive historic district covers the road, not the houses, and says nothing about burning. A county red day stops fireplaces, wood and pellet stoves and outdoor wood fires from noon to noon unless your household holds an approved exemption, a yellow day asks you to consider limiting burning, and either can be called in any month. Our wood burning rules guide links the status page.
If it is uncertified, yes, under Oregon's home-sale law. The seller removes and destroys it before closing unless the buyer agrees in writing to take it on and then has 30 days after. The label on the back settles it; a DEQ or EPA label means it can stay. The fireplace it sits in should also get a Level 2 camera inspection, which is recommended at a sale even though no law calls for it.
Use our contractor-check guide to run the company through the state lookup, and read what each line of the result means before you book. Then ask whether the company names its price ahead of the visit and whether you keep the camera images from your own flue. For a tall stack on a sloped lot, ask how they reach the top safely and whether bracing or shortening is part of the conversation, because on the butte it should be.
Sandy, 82nd and Prescott run the same crew from Roseway and Madison South into Rose City Park, Cully, Montavilla and the neighborhoods east of I-205.
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.