Chimney sweep near you
Yes, Woodstock is on our regular route, and the work here is sorting out which of three chimney generations a house has: an unlined 1890s stack, a bungalow stack with two flues, or a single tile-lined postwar fireplace, and then sweeping or relining it.
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Woodstock's homes come in three generations: 1880s and 1890s houses on the north end of the 1889 plat, early 1900s bungalows across the middle, and postwar houses in the northeast corner and southern panhandle.
The north end includes a Queen Anne on SE 40th that the trustee James Havely built in 1893, now a historic landmark. A typical bungalow stack pairs a fireplace flue with a furnace flue, now a century old or close to it, and the smaller postwar houses usually got one masonry fireplace and a clay tile liner.
Woodstock Blvd between Cesar Chavez and SE 52nd is the village center, where the multi-unit buildings have few fireplaces, and Reed College sits a couple of blocks west, down the hill. Johnson Creek draws the southern boundary. A sweep working Woodstock has to read the house before reading the flue, because the right job on an 1890s stack is the wrong job on a 1950s one.
Three chimney types sit within a few blocks of each other in Woodstock: often unlined brick on the north-end Victorians, two-flue brick stacks on the bungalows, and tile-lined single fireplaces on the postwar houses.
The failure that connects the older two is the furnace flue: when a 1920s bungalow traded its oil furnace for a gas unit vented through the wall, the flue that had carried hot exhaust went cold, and a cold brick flue still carrying a water heater condenses and sheds mortar. On the postwar houses the first thing we look for is a cracked crown letting water into the top courses.
Camera inspections, liners and crowns for the 1890s and bungalow stacks, sweeps for the postwar fireplaces and dryer vents near the village center make up the Woodstock list.
On a bungalow or north-end house in Woodstock that has changed hands or sat unused, we start with a Level 2 camera scan rather than a sweep, because the camera tells us whether there is tile in the flue and whether the second flue still serves anything. The images decide whether the next step is brushes, a liner or masonry.
North-end stacks from the 1890s with bare brick inside, and bungalow flues whose tile has cracked, get a stainless liner sized to the fireplace and insulated where the installation calls for it. A furnace flue left with only a water heater gets a liner matched to that small appliance so the exhaust stays warm enough to rise instead of condensing on the brick.
The postwar houses in the northeast corner and the panhandle usually have one tile-lined fireplace that gets used through the wet months, and a yearly sweep with the Level 1 look-over is usually the job there. We run the brushes top to bottom, vacuum the firebox and smoke shelf, and photograph the tile before and after.
A bungalow crown in Woodstock is often a thin mortar wash rather than a poured slab, and after a century of winters many have cracked across and let water into the brick below. We cut the failed crown off, form and pour a new one with an overhang and a drip edge, and seal the joint where the tile passes through it.
Houses around the village center that switched to gas heat and gas logs still run a dryer, and a dryer in an older house may vent through a long run to a hood on a far wall. We clean that run end to end and clear the hood so the flap can open.
We get to Woodstock from McLoughlin Blvd (OR 99E) by way of SE Bybee or SE Holgate, or from the I-205 side, coming west on SE Woodstock Blvd or SE Holgate Blvd, depending on which side of the neighborhood you are on.
SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd, SE 52nd Ave, SE Duke St and SE Steele St frame the grid, and we work the residential streets between them. If you live in one of the multi-unit buildings near the village center, tell us when you book which wall the dryer vent exits on so we park on the right side.
Woodstock was platted in 1889 and takes its name from Walter Scott's novel of 1826, not from the festival.
Trustee James Havely built one of the first houses in 1893, a Queen Anne on SE 40th Ave that is now a historic landmark.
The village center along Woodstock Blvd runs from Cesar Chavez Blvd to SE 52nd Ave, and the Woodstock Library, the community center, Woodstock Park and Lewis Elementary are the places residents give directions by.
Reed College is about two blocks west of the neighborhood, down the hill.
Johnson Creek marks the southern edge of Woodstock, with Holgate on the north, Cesar Chavez on the west and SE 45th and 60th on the east.
All of Woodstock, both ZIPs. The neighborhood splits between 97206 and 97202, and we treat Holgate to Johnson Creek and Cesar Chavez to SE 60th as one service area with one posted price and no separate charge for getting there when you have the work done. The Reed College side and the southern panhandle are included.
Sometimes, and the camera decides. We open the firebox, scan the flue from top to bottom and look for the three things that stop a reopening: no liner, a flue shared with another appliance, and brick that has shifted. A north-end Woodstock stack that passes those checks can be relined with stainless steel and put back to work; one that fails is better kept sealed and capped.
As needed, which for a fireplace burned through a Portland winter usually means once a year, with the Level 1 look-over that comes with every sweep. The national chimney standard calls for an annual inspection, and the trade cleans at an eighth of an inch of buildup. A tile-lined Woodstock fireplace burning dry wood with the damper wide open builds deposits more slowly than one smoldering wet wood overnight.
Because the furnace flue has nothing warm going up it anymore. When the new furnace vented out the side wall, the brick flue it left behind went cold, and a cold open flue pulls damp outside air down into the basement along with a century of soot smell. The fix is to cap and close that flue, or line it for the water heater if the water heater still uses it. Our orphaned chimney guide explains the choice.
Just the county one. We found no Woodstock-specific ordinance; the Multnomah County wood smoke program is what applies, with yellow days that ask you to consider limiting burning and red days that stop it from noon to noon unless your household holds an exemption. Restrictions can come in any month, including summer wildfire smoke. The county posts the status daily, and our guide to the metro wood burning rules covers the exemption details.
Yes, a 1920s Woodstock bungalow should get a Level 2 chimney inspection. A general home inspector looks at the chimney from the ground and the firebox from the hearth; the Level 2 puts a camera the full length of the flue, where the problems hide. It is the level the standard recommends for a sale, and the way to learn whether the furnace flue in that stack was ever lined or still carries a water heater.
Use our contractor-check guide, which walks through the public lookup the state provides. Then ask two practical questions: is the price posted before anyone comes out, and will you see the camera footage from your own flue. For a Woodstock bungalow with a two-flue stack, add a third: will you look at both flues, not just the fireplace side.
The crew that works Woodstock continues west to Eastmoreland and Reed, south into Brentwood-Darlington, northeast to Foster-Powell and over to Sellwood.
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.