Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Masonry repair
Gas fireplace serviceLevel 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
DuraFlex Chimney Cleaning in Lyons, IL | Wexford Chimney Sweep
We provide independent DuraFlex chimney cleaning and service across Lyons, IL. The thing that makes our DuraFlex work here different is simple: we service these liners inside short, original masonry chimneys on 1920s – 1950s houses, where the flue rarely has the draft clearance it was designed for. That changes how the liner runs, how creosote builds, and what we look for on every call. If you need a DuraFlex chimney sweep in Lyons, call (866) 361-2607 for a free estimate.
We’re an independent chimney company. Not a DuraFlex dealer, not an authorized rep. That independence means we diagnose your flue honestly before recommending any liner work. Most Lyons calls we handle start as a cleaning, and if the liner is sound, that’s where it ends. If it isn’t, we’ll show you the camera footage before we quote anything.
Why Lyons Residents Choose Us for DuraFlex Service
Norm Sulecki, who runs Wexford Chimney Sweep, grew up a few blocks from the Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero and has been working chimneys in this part of Cook County for going on two decades. That matters when the job is a DuraFlex liner tucked into a short Lyons bungalow chimney. We’ve seen how these liners behave after ten or fifteen Chicago winters, and we know what fails and what doesn’t. Our DuraFlex sales & service work covers the full range: cleaning, inspection, cap replacement, and relining when the flue actually needs it.
We stock genuine DuraFlex diameter-specific components for the liner sizes we see most in Lyons. Not a random shelf of box-store parts, and not cheap knockoffs. If your flue carries gas, it gets the real thing. That’s the only way we’ll do it.
Styles & brands we work with
Common DuraFlex Chimney Cleaning Problems We Solve in Lyons
Here’s what we routinely find in Lyons, and why it happens here specifically:
- Glazed creosote from an under-insulated liner. Many DuraFlex SW single-wall liners in Lyons were sized for a modern flue, then dropped into a 1930s terracotta tile that’s narrower than anyone realized. The liner runs cold, creosote condenses and glazes, and draft goes downhill. On short chimneys, there’s nowhere for the smoke to go but back into the house.
- Rusted appliance connectors on gas furnace and water heater flues. Lyons summers get humid, and humid air in a gas flue means condensation. Condensation pools at the appliance collar, the connector pitts out, and you get rust streaks and a failed connection. We see this constantly on two-flats where the DuraFlex liner vents a basement water heater.
- Water getting behind the liner at the top plate. Freeze-thaw cycles around the crown open gaps between the top plate and the masonry. Rain works its way down between the liner and the old tile, saturates the brick, and causes spalling. The liner itself might be fine; the top plate isn’t.
- Cracked terracotta tile behind an older DuraFlex install. Some Lyons liners were installed without a proper Level 2 inspection first. The installer dropped the liner, connected it, and called it done. Behind the liner, old tile was already cracked or shifted. That’s a gap a cleaning won’t fix, and it’s why we camera every flue before we clean it.
- Caps that loosened or rusted out around the rivet lines. Lyons wind patterns near the Des Plaines River work loose cap fasteners over a few seasons. A loose cap means down-draft, rain entry, and birds. We replace these routinely with fresh DuraFlex cap and top plate assemblies.
DuraFlex Service in Lyons: What Local Conditions Mean for Your Equipment
Here’s the Lyons-specific problem that most generic chimney pages never mention. On the older bungalows near the river and along the village’s original street grid, the short chimneys often sit below the roofline of later additions and neighboring two-flats. That roofline differential kills draft. A correctly installed DuraFlex liner can still down-draft when the cap opening sits lower than the peak of the house next door. Smoke, creosote smell, and carbon monoxide push back into the living space. So on nearly every Lyons call, we check cap height and top-plate sealing before we even look at the liner itself. In a place like Berwyn or Stickney where the lots are a little wider and the chimneys a little taller, that’s less of a factor. In Lyons, it’s a near-daily occurrence on the older blocks.
On a 1930s brick bungalow off the village’s original grid, our tech pulled a heavy glazed creosote load from a short DuraFlex-lined flue that had been dropping smoke back into the living room whenever the furnace ran. The cap sat below the neighboring two-flat’s roofline and its rusted top plate was letting water past the liner. We swept the flue, reseated and sealed the plate, and set a taller multi-flue cap. The down-draft and creosote odor complaints stopped.
DuraFlex Models & Products We Service in Lyons
We work on all the DuraFlex lines you’ll find in DuraFlex in Brookfield and Lyons homes. That includes DuraFlex SW single-wall flexible stainless relining kits, DuraFlex Pro double-wall and insulated liners, top plate and cap assemblies, and appliance connector kits for gas furnace and water heater venting. We stock the common diameter sweeps and brushes for these systems locally, which keeps Lyons turnaround tight. For flue-gas-path components like liner sections, insulation wrap, and top plates, we use genuine DuraFlex parts. For non-gas-path hardware like clamps and fasteners, a quality aftermarket part is fine. If the liner itself is intact, we clean, reseat, and re-cap. We recommend replacement only when there’s corrosion-through, broken tile behind the liner, or a mis-sized liner that no amount of cleaning will correct.
See the difference
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After
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AfterDuraFlex Service Pricing in Lyons
Chimney sweeping in Lyons typically runs $179 – $259 for a standard fireplace or gas flue. A Level 2 camera inspection, which we recommend on any older home with a DuraFlex liner we haven’t seen before, runs $249 – $399. Cap and top plate replacement runs $350 – $650 including parts. Glazed creosote removal, when the liner is heavily built up, generally starts around $250 and goes up from there depending on how extensive it is. A full DuraFlex reline in Lyons’ older masonry typically lands between $2,800 and $5,000, depending on flue height, diameter, and whether we’re pulling an old liner first. Every estimate is free and includes camera footage of what we found. Call (866) 361-2607 for an exact quote on your chimney.
Serving Lyons, IL — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Lyons area and know this community well, and we also provide North Riverside DuraFlex service. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs – DuraFlex Chimney Cleaning in Lyons
It’s usually the cap sitting below a neighboring roofline. We see this on nearly every block in the older section of Lyons. The liner itself may be fine. The cure is often a taller cap and a properly sealed top plate, not a new liner.
Yes, just less often. Gas flues don’t build creosote, but they do accumulate soot, rust scale, and in Lyons’ humid summers, condensed moisture at the appliance connector. We recommend a gas flue sweep and connector inspection every two to three years. Call (866) 361-2607 to schedule, or to get an honest recommendation on whether you’re due.
We can. That’s exactly what a Level 2 camera inspection is for. We run a camera down the flue and check the liner diameter against the old tile interior, the appliance BTU rating, and the flue height above the roofline. Mis-sized liners are common in Lyons’ 1920s – 1950s chimneys, and they cannot be fixed with a cleaning. Call (866) 361-2607 if you suspect yours was installed without a proper inspection.
Yes. Freeze-thaw around the crown is the leading cause of cap and top plate failure here. We stock DuraFlex cap and top plate assemblies in the common diameters and can normally have the work done in a single visit. A rusted cap doesn’t always mean the liner is bad; we’ll tell you after we look.
No. We are an independent chimney sweep serving Lyons, IL, and we are not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by DuraFlex. We recommend DuraFlex components because we’ve seen them hold up in this specific housing stock, not because anyone pays us to say so.
Service Areas Near Lyons
Besides Lyons itself, we regularly handle DuraFlex work in Cicero, Berwyn, Stickney, and the near southwest neighborhoods of South Lawndale and North Lawndale. If you’re in DuraFlex service in McKinley Park or DuraFlex service in Lower West Side, that’s our territory too. See our Lyons service area page for the full list.
Book Your DuraFlex Service in Lyons Today
A clean flue isn’t a luxury, it’s just how the thing is supposed to work. Call (866) 361-2607 for a free DuraFlex service estimate in Lyons. We’ll sweep it, camera it, and tell you exactly what we see.
Written by Norm Sulecki, Owner at Wexford Chimney Sweep, serving Lyons, IL and the surrounding Cook County area since 2005.