Chimney sweep near you
Yes, we sweep, inspect and repair chimneys across St. Johns, from the 1900s cottages around Lombard and Philadelphia to the postwar houses farther out. The oldest of that housing calls for camera inspections of century-old brick flues and stainless liners for the ones never lined.
Updated
The oldest St. Johns homes are cottages and bungalows from its years as its own city, 1903 to 1915, on the blocks around N Lombard St and N Philadelphia Ave, still carrying their original brick chimneys.
St. Johns chimneys of that era were built for a fireplace and a basement coal or oil furnace, which means two flues in one brick stack, built unlined or with clay tile, and now more than a century old. A hundred winters of rain on the weather side and about 32 freezing nights a year have opened the mortar joints, spalled the brick faces and cracked the crowns through.
The small wartime and postwar houses farther out came with a single masonry fireplace, sometimes sharing the stack with the furnace flue, and the newer townhouses and apartments built near Lombard have gas fireplaces or none, so the job there is a dryer vent. North of N Columbia Blvd the peninsula becomes the Port of Portland's Rivergate Industrial District, and the houses sit south of Columbia.
The chimney stock in St. Johns is brick from the independent-city years: a fireplace flue and a furnace flue in one small stack, unlined in some houses and lined with clay tile in others, with a single tile-lined fireplace in the postwar houses.
What fails first here is the top: crowns cracked through, caps missing, and the weather side of the brick spalled where rain froze inside it. Inside, the furnace flue is the one to watch, because a gas furnace vented out the side wall leaves that old flue to a lone water heater or to nothing, and a cold, oversized flue condenses and eats its own mortar.
Century-old brick flues call for camera inspections and liners in St. Johns, and the rest of the list is repointing on the town-center blocks, sweeps of postwar fireplaces and dryer vents in new townhouses.
When an independent-city-era house in St. Johns is about to sell, or about to light its first fire in years, our first visit is the Level 2 inspection, camera and all, since nothing short of the camera can tell whether the flue has tile and whether that tile is cracked. An unreinforced brick stack above the roofline can also break and fall onto the roof of a 1910 cottage in an earthquake, so we talk through that while we are up there.
Unlined fireplace flues in the early 1900s cottages, and furnace flues left to a lone water heater after a gas conversion, both get a stainless liner sized to the appliance and insulated where the installation calls for it. A furnace flue that now serves nothing is capped and closed off so it stops pulling cold, wet air through the stack.
Century-old brick above the roofline on the blocks around Lombard and Philadelphia shows its age as open mortar joints, spalled faces on the rain side and a crown split across its width. We repoint the joints, swap the spalled brick and rebuild or patch the crown, then put a breathable water repellent on the brick rather than a sealer that traps water.
The postwar houses farther from the town center have one tile-lined fireplace built for a fire through the wet months, and a sweep with the Level 1 look-over is the yearly job there. On the older cottages we sweep the fireplace flue and look down the furnace flue in the same stack while the ladder is up.
Near Lombard, the townhouses and apartments built in recent decades burn gas if they have a fireplace at all, and what fills with lint in those units is the dryer duct, sometimes a long run to an outside hood. When one load needs two cycles to finish, that is the tell, and we clear the duct from the dryer collar to the hood.
We reach St. Johns along N Lombard St from the I-5 side, or along N Columbia Blvd when Lombard is crawling, and from the west side the US 30 Bypass brings us straight over the St. Johns Bridge.
From Lombard, the side streets, N Philadelphia Ave, N Ivanhoe St and N Fessenden St among them, put us on a residential block in a few turns. If your house is on a downtown block near the shops and the Twin Cinema, tell us when you book where a truck and a ladder can stand, and mention it if the chimney is easier to reach from a side yard.
St. Johns incorporated as its own city on February 19, 1903, and its annexation to Portland took effect on July 8, 1915; the oldest blocks around N Lombard and N Philadelphia predate the annexation.
The St. Johns Bridge opened on June 13, 1931, and its 400-foot towers make it the tallest bridge in Portland; the green paint color was announced on St. Patrick's Day of that year.
The neighborhood is named for James John, a settler who arrived in 1841.
St. Johns runs to the tip of the peninsula where the Willamette meets the Columbia, with Kelley Point Park, added in 1984, at the very end and the Port of Portland's Rivergate Industrial District covering the northern part of the neighborhood.
Residents give directions by the bridge, Pier Park, Roosevelt High School, the St. Johns Twin Cinema and the Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area.
Yes, every residential block of St. Johns in 97203, from the town center along Lombard to the houses south of Columbia Blvd, is inside the area we cover. The industrial district at the north end of the peninsula is commercial property, so for a house we book the same visit as anywhere else in North Portland, with the posted sweep price and no separate charge for the drive when we do the work.
Keep the fireplace cold and we will get you on the schedule, usually within the week outside the fall rush. October and November fill fastest across North Portland because the first cold snap sends everyone to the phone at once, so a St. Johns house that wants a sweep and camera check before the rain should book in late summer. Smoke in the room is not something to test again before we have looked.
A sweep in St. Johns covers the firebox, smoke chamber, damper and the full flue, with brushes sized to the flue and a vacuum running. The Level 1 look-over of what we can reach comes with it. You get the photos from inside the flue before and after, which on a 1910 cottage is usually the first look inside it in decades. If we spot a problem, the written note comes with the pictures.
Not until a Level 2 camera inspection has looked at it. An unlined brick flue lets heat and gases reach the framing through any open joint, and a hundred-year-old joint is rarely tight. The fix the trade uses is a stainless liner sized to the fireplace, insulated where the installation calls for it, which turns the old stack into a continuous flue. Keep it cold, book the camera, and decide from the pictures.
No, unless your household holds a county exemption, such as wood being the only way you heat the house. A Multnomah County red day runs from noon to noon and covers fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves and outdoor wood fires; a yellow day asks you to consider limiting burning. We know of no St. Johns rule on top of the county one. Our wood burning rules guide has the status line and the exemption details.
If the insert is uncertified, Oregon's home-sale law requires it to come out and be destroyed as part of the sale. The seller handles that unless a written agreement hands the job to the buyer, who then has 30 days after closing. Open masonry fireplaces and pellet stoves are exempt. A Level 2 camera inspection is also recommended, not required, when a home is sold, and on a St. Johns house with century-old brick it is the one to order.
Read our guide to checking an Oregon contractor before you book anyone; it walks through the state lookup step by step with no sales pitch. Then ask two questions of whoever you call: will you show me the camera images from my own flue, and is the price posted before you come out. On a St. Johns roof with a century-old stack, those two answers tell you most of what you need to know.
Leaving the peninsula, the same crew covers the North Portland neighborhoods along Lombard and, across the bridge, the west side.
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.