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.
Fast, Reliable Chimney Sweep Across Chicago
A chimney sweep in Chicago typically runs $189 to $340 for a standard fireplace cleaning and inspection, depending on what your flue is venting and how long it’s been since the last visit. Wexford Chimney Sweep serves the whole city from our base in Cicero, and we’re on Chicago rooftops every week from Edison Park down to South Shore. If you heat with wood, gas, or pellets, or you just haven’t had the stack looked at since you bought the place, call us at (866) 361-2607 for a free estimate. Chicago is a city built dense, and dense housing means shared chimneys, tight roof access, and neighbors whose appliances vent into the same stack you do. That’s exactly the kind of chimney we know best.
Why Wexford Chimney Sweep Is Chicago’s Preferred Chimney Sweep Company
We’ve been working in Chicago long enough to know what’s behind your walls before we even pull the ladder off the truck. A pre-war two-flat off 35th Street, a bungalow in Dunning, a top-floor unit in a courtyard building in 60608: each one has its own chimney anatomy, and we’ve seen most of it. Our customers in Chicago call us because we tell them what’s actually true about their flue, not what’s convenient. Norm Sulecki built this company on the idea that a sweep who leaves you with a clean answer is worth more than one who leaves you with an upsell list.
We’re a full-service specialist, so the person on your roof is the same company that can do the repair. That matters when a camera inspection finds an offset tile behind a first-floor wall in a two-flat and the fix requires our Chicago HeatShield service, not a sales pitch for a full reline that you may not need. Chicago homeowners keep our number because we won’t recommend a liner replacement when a repair is legitimate. That reputation travels block to block. The phone rings in McKinley Park because it worked for someone in East Garfield Park. That’s how a local chimney company should operate.
Styles & brands we work with
Chimney Sweep Services in Chicago
Chimney Sweep Services in Chicago start with the same thing every job starts with: figuring out what’s actually attached to the flue. In a single-family home that may mean one fireplace. In a brick three-flat in 60609 that could mean a furnace, a water heater, and a wood-burning fireplace on the first floor, all using the same stack. We don’t treat those the same, and neither should your sweep. Our Chimney Sweep team sweeps the flue, runs the camera, and gives you a straight report on what we found and what it means.
What’s included:
- Creosote Removal – First-degree creosote is a soft, sooty deposit we remove with brushes. Third-degree creosote is a hard, glazed tar that takes different tooling and sometimes chemical treatment. Chicago fireplaces burning wood through long winters build third-degree more often than people expect.
- Soot Removal – Gas and oil flues produce soot, not creosote. Soot removal keeps the draft steady and prevents that faint combustion smell when the furnace kicks on.
- Annual Sweep – The National Fire Protection Association standard is an annual inspection and cleaning as needed. We treat every visit as an inspection first and a sweep second.
- Fireplace Cleaning – Firebox, damper, smoke chamber, and flue. We clean what the fire actually moves through, not just what you can see from the living room.
- Level 1 Inspection – For chimneys in regular use with no changed conditions. Cleared of debris, visually checked with basic tools, and documented.
- Level 2 Inspection – Camera work. This is the standard for any home being sold, any chimney after a fire or weather event, and any pre-war Chicago stack whose joints haven’t been seen since the plaster went up.
A standard sweep and Level 1 inspection in Chicago runs $189 to $260. Add a camera inspection and you’re looking at $260 to $340 for most single-flue homes. Two-flats and three-flats with multiple flues cost more because you’re paying for multiple stacks and the roof time to inspect them properly.
Sweep Plus Camera
Every pre-war Chicago chimney should get a camera. Not because we want to sell you something, but because the joint behind the wall is the one place a brush can’t show you. Our techs run a camera on every shared or adjacent flue, every chimney that’s been relined without inspection records, and every stack showing exterior cracking or spalling.
Chimney Cap and Crown Work
While we’re up there we check the crown wash and cap. A cracked crown in Chicago soaks up snowmelt, freezes, and spalls by March. If the cap is rusted out or missing, rain goes straight down the flue. We stock professional-grade caps and crown materials so the fix happens on the same visit, not on a callback.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees — you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Chimney Cleaning in Chicago
Chimney Cleaning in Chicago is the service most people book, but it’s rarely the whole job once we’re on the roof. In a city this old, the flue has usually been cleaned before, inspected less often, and repaired… well, that depends on who owned the building and when. We clean the chimney, then we inspect it. If it’s dirty, we brush it. If it’s structurally failing, we tell you and we can fix it. Not a referral, not a subcontractor. Us.
What a cleaning involves in Chicago:
- Creosote Removal – Brushes sized to your flue, whether that’s a 6″ round steel liner off 60632 or a rectangular clay-tile stack in a 60608 two-flat. We clean the full run from firebox to chimney top.
- Fireplace Cleaning – Damper plate, smoke shelf, and firebox. The damper in a 1920s fireplace can be seized or half-rotted; we’ll tell you if it needs more than cleaning.
- Soot Removal – Gas logs leave soot on the glass and the walls of the flue over a season. We clean gas flues without disturbing the appliance seals.
A basic fireplace cleaning in Chicago with no camera inspection runs $189 to $260 for a typical single-family home. If a gas furnace or water heater is venting into the same stack, expect the job to run $240 to $300 because we’re cleaning two flues, not one. If you want the camera on a pre-war shared stack, add $60 to $90. It’s the cheapest money you’ll spend on that building all year.
What To Expect During a Cleaning
We lay drop cloths at the hearth, run a HEPA vacuum while we work, and keep the inside of your home clean. From the roof, we clean from the top down, then from the firebox up. It’s not a dust storm. It’s a controlled job done by a company that’s been in enough Chicago living rooms to know how to leave one.
Cleaning a Shared Stack
If you’re in a two-flat or three-flat with a shared chimney, we clean and inspect the whole stack, not just your unit’s flue. That means roof access, identification of which flue goes to which appliance, and confirming the draft after cleaning. When a neighbor’s water heater shares your stack and the flue tile is offset behind the wall, a cleaning that skips the camera leaves you with a false clean bill.
Trusted Brands We Service in Chicago
We stock and install the brands chimney contractors actually use: DuraFlex, Olympia Chimney, and Copperfield. No hardware-store substitutes. When a Chicago chimney needs a new stainless liner, a replacement cap, or a crown repair, we’re working with materials that carry the same specs as the ones installed on new commercial and custom chimneys nationwide. We keep common cap sizes and liner components in stock locally, so a rebuild on a Chicago two-flat doesn’t stall out waiting on a shipment from across the country.
Common Chimney Sweep Problems We See in Chicago Homes
- Offset or missing flue tile behind a first-floor wall – On the 1880s and 1920s brick two-flats across 60607, 60608, and 60609, clay tiles were mortared joint by joint as the chimney went up. A century of settling shifts them. You won’t see it from the firebox. The camera will.
- Shared furnace and water heater vent with no inspection record – Your furnace may vent fine while your neighbor’s water heater spills into the same stack. Cross-contamination doesn’t always smell like smoke. It shows up as draft failure, moisture, or a carbon monoxide reading. We check whose appliance is on which flue.
- Spalling brick and cracked crown wash from freeze-thaw cycling – Chicago winter water gets into the crown, freezes, and splits the concrete. Spring is when the damage becomes obvious. A March inspection after a hard winter catches a crown crack before another year of water does real structural damage.
- Third-degree creosote in wood-burning Chicago fireplaces – Long, low-burn fires in an old firebox produce glazed creosote that won’t brush off. It’s flammable, it’s dense, and it requires tooling and time. We see it most on fireplaces that burn wood all winter with a partially closed damper.
See the difference
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AfterPricing for Chimney Sweep in Chicago, IL
Honest numbers: a standard sweep and Level 1 inspection on a single-flue fireplace in Chicago runs $189 to $260. A Level 2 camera inspection runs $260 to $340 for a typical single-family home. Two-flats and three-flats with multiple flues, shared stacks, and difficult roof access start around $300 and go up from there based on how many flues you have and what the camera finds. If we find damage, you’ll see it on the screen, and we’ll give you a price for the repair before we leave. Estimates are free. Call (866) 361-2607 and we’ll talk through what you’ve got.
We Also Serve Cities Near Chicago
Wexford Chimney Sweep runs routes through Chimney Sweep in Chicago and the surrounding neighborhoods, including Lower West Side, East Garfield Park, McKinley Park, and the Near South Side. If you’re in a two-flat off Western, a bungalow in McKinley Park, or a courtyard building near Pilsen, the scheduling works the same: call us, we’ll give you a window, and a Wexford tech shows up on time.
Serving Chicago, IL — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Chicago area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Chimney Sweep in Chicago
Yes, and it happens more than most Chicago homeowners realize. Pre-war two- and three-flats were built with shared brick stacks where multiple flues run side by side inside one chimney. When flue tiles crack, offset, or were never properly aligned behind plaster walls, a neighbor’s furnace or water heater exhaust can find its way into adjacent flues. The only way to confirm it is a camera inspection of every flue in the stack, not just the one attached to your unit. We map which appliance vents into which flue, check for cross-vent contamination, and test the draft when we’re done. If your building has a shared chimney and no recent inspection records, book a Level 2 before the heating season starts. Call (866) 361-2607 and we’ll schedule it.
Yes, if your chimney vents a gas furnace, a water heater, or a dryer. Gas appliances don’t build creosote the way wood fireplaces do, but the flue still carries combustion gases, and the stack is still exposed to Chicago weather. Brick spalls, crowns crack, and a rusted-out cap lets rain in whether you burn wood or not. An annual inspection catches the crown before another Chicago freeze-thaw cycle splits it open. If you don’t burn wood, the sweep may be lighter, but the inspection is the same. Most gas-only Chicago chimneys run $189 to $240 to inspect and clean, and that’s a fraction of a masonry repair after years of water damage. Call (866) 361-2607 to book it.
Because Chicago winter water gets into small cracks, freezes, expands, and breaks the material apart. It happens faster in Chicago than in dryer, warmer climates because our freeze-thaw cycle runs dozens of times each winter. Snow melts into the crown during the day, refreezes at night, and within a few seasons the crown wash is cracked through and the top courses of brick are popping off their faces. The fix starts with a proper crown repair and sometimes a new chimney cap to keep water out. If the brick face is already spalling, we’ll tell you what’s structural and what can wait. A spring inspection after a hard Chicago winter catches this early. Call (866) 361-2607 and we’ll set it up.
First-degree creosote is a soft, flaky, sooty deposit that brushes off easily during a standard sweep. Third-degree creosote is a hard, shiny, tar-like glaze that forms when smoke from long, slow fires condenses and bakes onto the flue walls. Third-degree doesn’t brush off, it has to be chipped or chemically treated, and it burns like jet fuel if a chimney fire starts. Chicago wood burners who run long winter fires with a damped-down damper are the ones we see with third-degree buildup. Most of our Chicago customers have some of both depending on how they burn and what wood they’re using. The only way to know what’s in your flue is to look at it. Call (866) 361-2607 and we’ll tell you what you’ve got.
Yes. Tight street access on Chicago’s two-flat blocks – think a narrow gangway off Archer or a building crowded right up to the property line off Western – is normal work for us. We carry multiple ladder setups, including sectional ladders and standoff stabilizers, and our techs are trained for steep Chicago pitches. We won’t skip a roof inspection because it’s hard to get up there. That’s how freeze-thaw damage goes unchecked until a chimney crown is beyond simple repair. If you’ve been told by another company that they couldn’t reach your roof, call us. Chances are we can. (866) 361-2607.
Contact Wexford Chimney Sweep in Chicago
If you’re in Chicago, your chimney is either sharing a stack with another appliance, another unit, or both, and it’s been through at least one hard winter since the last person looked at it. Our Chimney Sweep specialists serve the whole city from Cicero, and we’ll give you an honest answer about what your flue needs and what it doesn’t. Call (866) 361-2607 for a free estimate, and we’ll schedule a Chicago route that works for you.
Written by Norm Sulecki, Owner at Wexford Chimney Sweep, serving Chicago since day one.