From the floor of the living room you can see almost nothing of what a chimney is actually doing, and from the ground a stack keeps the worst of its condition to itself, which is the entire reason an inspection is worth the appointment. Sullivan Chimney Sweep inspects chimneys across the Far Northeast, whether you are closing on a house, putting one up for sale, or simply want to know how much road the flue and the masonry have left. You get a camera run up the flue, a careful look at the stack and the flashing, photographs of whatever we find, and a plainspoken written report, with nobody leaning on you to buy a thing afterward.
- Camera sent the full length of the flue, not a flashlight from the firebox
- Liner, joints, smoke chamber, and damper all reviewed
- Crown, cap, brick, mortar, and flashing checked from the roof
- Gas furnace and water heater flues inspected for safe venting
- Photographs paired with a clear, plain written report
- Home-purchase and pre-sale inspections handled with no obligation
Reading a chimney before any tools come out
A worthwhile inspection takes in the chimney as a whole system, top to bottom, not just the part you can see from the hearth. Inside, we run a camera the full length of the flue and study the liner for cracks, gaps, pitting, and corrosion, look over the joints and the smoke chamber, and check that the damper opens and seals as it should. Outside and up on the roof, we examine the crown for cracks, the cap for damage or for the absence of one altogether, the brick and the mortar joints for spalling and erosion, and the flashing where the stack meets the roofing for the gaps that let water track inside. A chimney can look perfectly fine from the curb while a failed liner or a split crown is already at work where no one can see it.
Out in the Far Northeast we put particular weight on the details this housing and this climate go after first. The metal liners dropped into older masonry chimneys during oil-to-gas conversions, which corrode from the acidic exhaust on a timeline of their own. The crowns and the upper mortar joints on midcentury stacks, which the freeze and thaw cycle hollows out a little more every winter. And the flashing on the attached-garage and single-story sections where roof planes meet a chimney at an awkward angle. Knowing where these particular chimneys tend to give way first is the advantage of a crew that works them week in and week out.
What an honest inspection puts on the table for you
If you are buying a house in the Far Northeast, the chimney is one of the systems a general home inspection barely touches, and it can hide a liner replacement or a masonry rebuild that ought to shape what you offer. A proper camera inspection tells you whether you are inheriting a sound, safe chimney or a bill the seller never mentioned. If you are selling, getting ahead of it lets you handle the small stuff before it turns into a negotiating chip and gives you documentation that the chimney is in good order. And if you are simply living in the house and want to know where you stand, an inspection trades the low-grade worry of an aging chimney for a concrete picture and a realistic plan.
Whatever the reason you called, the payoff is the same one. The guessing stops. Instead of wondering whether the flue is safe to run another winter or whether that stain on the bedroom ceiling means trouble at the crown, you have camera images, a written assessment, and an honest read on how many good years are left, which is exactly the information you need to make a decision and to budget for it.
An honest report, and no sales pitch waiting at the end
A report is only as good as the candor that produced it, so ours states plainly what needs doing now, what can hold off for a year, and what is simply fine left alone. If the chimney is in good shape, that is what the report will say, because telling a homeowner their chimney is sound is how we earn the call when real work is finally needed. We do not manufacture urgency, and we do not recommend a single repair the camera images cannot back up. Everything in the report is something we can show you on a photo.
Nothing is owed for the inspection and there is no closing sales push waiting for you at the end of it. The written report and the camera images are yours to keep no matter what you decide to do, and you are welcome to hold our findings up against anyone else's. That is the point of doing it in the open. A homeowner who can study the evidence makes a sounder call, and a chimney company that invites that scrutiny is usually the one worth hiring. The smartest time to book one is late summer or early fall, before the heating season leans on the flue and while there is still time to fix anything the inspection turns up.
How this links to the rest of the work
A chimney is a system, so chimney inspection rarely stands alone, it connects to flue cleaning, crown repair, chimney caps, a new chimney liner, chimney masonry repair, and our crew handles all of it under one roof. We bring the same service to Somerton chimney inspection, Chimney Inspection in Bustleton, Chimney Inspection in Fox Chase, Chimney Inspection in Rhawnhurst and everywhere else across the Philadelphia area.
If you searched for a local chimney crew near you, you have reached a local crew, call 215-602-7627 any time. For background, read Why a Detached Far Northeast Chimney Takes More Weather Than a Rowhome Stack on our blog, or head back to our Philadelphia home page to see everything we do.