Chimney repair in Spring Lake Park, MN

Just bought the house?

A home inspector often can't get on the roof or inside the flue. We go up on the roof and inside the flue with a camera, and you get pictures of every side and a written report. If you're going to light a fire this winter, that's where to start.

What we usually find on a chimney this age

Mortar washing out of the joints, a crown with cracks across it, flashing that's been patched with tar, and brick above the roof that's started to flake. None of it fixes itself, and all of it is easier to fix before the water gets inside.

Bring us the inspection report

If your home inspection said "recommend evaluation by a chimney professional," that line is the reason to call. Send us the page or read it to Kari. We'll go look at exactly what the inspector flagged, plus everything they couldn't get to.

Check the flue you never light

The Census counts almost nobody in Spring Lake Park heating with wood, so the fireplace here mostly gets a fire on weekends and holidays. On a lot of houses built around 1972, the furnace or water heater vents up the same brick chimney through a flue of its own, and that one has run every winter since. When we inspect, every flue gets the camera, because the fireplace side looking fine tells you nothing about the furnace side next to it.

If it's a rental

About three in ten homes in Spring Lake Park are rented. If you own one, the chimney is your responsibility, not the tenant's. We can meet whoever lets us in, and send the report and the pictures to you.

What the weather's been doing to it

We don't have a weather station in Spring Lake Park, so we use the nearest one with a long record, at Vadnais Lake, almost 9 miles southeast. It averaged 74 freeze-thaw days a winter and 18 nights at zero or colder over seven full winters. Its first freeze usually comes near October 27 and its last near April 22, and the stations north of town run a little colder than that. The Andover station, about 10 miles north, averaged 41 inches of snow a winter, and every thaw melts that snow into the crown.

Why a new owner should care

The typical Spring Lake Park house has taken about fifty of those winters, and you've been there for one. Whatever the last owner fixed, patched or ignored is up on the roof now, and freeze-thaw keeps working on it whether anybody's watching or not. The first inspection tells you what you actually bought.

Chimney inspection in Spring Lake Park

On a house this age, we go up on the roof and photograph every side of the chimney, the crown and the flashing, and look for tar patches that say somebody chased a leak there before. Then the camera goes down every flue. You get a written report with the pictures, so you know what's safe to use this winter and what can wait.

What four in ten of our inspections find

Since 2022 we've done 773 inspections, and 328 of them, a little over four in ten, turned up work that needed a repair estimate. That's across all of our customers, not just this town. On an older house you just moved into, it's better to find out now than after the first fire.

What's in the report

The report covers the crown, the brick and joints above the roof, the flashing, the cap, the firebox and damper, and every flue from the inside, each with a picture. If something needs work, it says what and why, and the estimate comes with it. If it's all good, it says that too, and you'll have pictures to prove it the day you sell.

Chimney sweep in Spring Lake Park

You don't know when the chimney was last swept, and you don't know what the last owner burned in it. So before the first fire, we inspect it, and if any flue has more than an eighth of an inch of buildup, we sweep it that same visit. After that, once a year before the burning season keeps you ahead of it.