Gas fireplace insert with a lit log set framed by a glass mosaic tile surround and a stone hearth

A Fireplace Store and More · Downers Grove, IL

Bolingbrook, Illinois41.70° N, 88.07° Wabout 18 minutes from the showroom

Chimney and fireplace service in Bolingbrook, IL.

Bolingbrook is about 18 minutes from our shop on 75th Street in Downers Grove, and one visit there covers the chimney sweep, the chimney inspection and any chimney repair, and the builder gas fireplace under it, serviced. Most Bolingbrook chimneys are metal flues in framed chases, and the model failing in your family room is failing up and down your street.

Call (630) 241‑1919Request an estimate

A gas insert in a glass mosaic tile surround with a stone hearth, one way a dated Bolingbrook builder fireplace gets a new face. The metal flue behind it still needs its yearly look.

  • Drive time18minRoute 53 to 75th Street, or I-355 from Boughton Road
  • From the showroom6mi1202-B 75th Street to Village Hall on Briarcliff Road
  • Call-back1daya fireplace service request gets a time within one business day
  • Days a week7the phone and the floor on 75th Street are open all seven
About A Fireplace Store and More

A Fireplace Store and More cleans, inspects and repairs chimneys in Bolingbrook, Illinois — liners, crowns, caps and masonry repair — from its showroom at 1202-B 75th Street in Downers Grove, open seven days (Mon–Fri 10–5, Sat 11–4, Sun 1–4). Book online or call (630) 241-1919.

A subdivision at a time

Why a Bolingbrook builder fireplace and its chase get looked at every year

Bolingbrook grew up a subdivision at a time, from the first streets of the late 1950s and 1960s, through the boom of the 1970s, to the newer neighborhoods on the west side. Each builder put the same factory fireplace in every house of that phase: a metal firebox behind a brick or tile face, a metal flue inside a wood-framed chase, and a metal cover on top. Wood-burning in the older homes, gas in the newer ones. Those chimneys do not crumble. They rust, at the chase cover and the cap, the firebox panels crack, and once the cover rusts through, rain runs down the outside of the flue into the wall with nothing to show for it until the drywall stains.

The first subdivisions also have wood-burning fireplaces with a real brick chimney, and those age the way brick does anywhere: water in the crown and the mortar joints, frost in winter, a joint opened a little more every year. A clay tile liner cracks in a chimney fire, and a fireplace that has been turned over to vented gas logs keeps using that same tile with its damper clamped open, while the log set’s pilot and valve age underneath.

A wood fire leaves creosote behind on the flue walls, and a chimney fire cracks the tile. Gas is the cleaner fuel, not the one that looks after itself: the moisture in its exhaust works at old mortar and liners, and a blocked or crumbling vent can push carbon monoxide back into the house with no smoke to warn you. NFPA 211, the national standard for chimneys and vents, makes the yearly inspection the rule whatever the fuel; in Bolingbrook that visit opens the builder gas unit too.

The Bolingbrook visit

Clean. Inspect. Report. Open the builder unit.

Clean

Drop cloths and the vacuum, then the roof and the cover

Drop cloths go down, the opening is sealed, and a vacuum runs from the first brush to the last. We brush the flue, clean the smoke shelf and the firebox, check the damper, and look at the cap and the cover from the roof. Masonry chimneys, factory-built fireplaces, wood stoves, gas fireplaces and inserts: we clean all of them, and on a builder fireplace we check the firebox panels and the gaps in the flue pipe while we are in there.

Black fireplace door with a fire burning behind it in a brick fireplace with a television above
A glass door on a brick fireplace with the television above. Doors stop the draft from a flue whose damper is clamped open for vented gas logs; the flue still gets inspected, the logs still get their service.

Inspect

One of three levels in NFPA 211, named first

Every cleaning comes with an inspection on the same visit. Which of the three NFPA 211 levels a Bolingbrook chimney needs depends on what has changed since the last one; we say which before we start, and why, and on a builder unit the cover on the chase is part of every level.

  • 1
    Level 1: the yearly look at the chaseFor a Bolingbrook house where nothing has changed: same fireplace, same fuel, no trouble. Firebox, damper, flue, cap, cover, and the face of the chase from outside: everything the ladder and a light can reach.
  • 2
    Level 2: something changedA wood fireplace being converted to gas logs or an insert, a chimney fire, storm damage, or a Bolingbrook house going on the market. The camera goes up the whole flue, and the write-up is one a buyer or an inspector can act on.
  • 3
    Level 3: rare, and we tell you firstA serious fault is suspected inside the chase or the wall and part of it has to come open to be seen.

Report

Photos of the flue, the cover, the panels and the burner

What we found goes into a written report with photos, in three groups, now, can wait and leave alone, with the figure for the first group. On a builder fireplace whose maker has stopped making parts, the report also says plainly whether the unit is worth keeping, and names the replacement that fits the opening. Our chimney cleaning and maintenance guide goes into the rest.

  • What the Bolingbrook report sorts your fireplace into
  • Needs doing now
  • Can wait until next season
  • Worth leaving alone

Fireplace

The builder gas unit, serviced or replaced

The builder gas fireplace is most of what we service in Bolingbrook, and the technician who sweeps the flue is the one who opens it. Whatever make the builder chose, gas, wood or pellet, fireplace, insert or stove; the electric units we service are the ones we installed.

  • 1
    The six builder-unit faultsA pilot that will not hold, a weak or yellow flame, a remote or wall switch that does nothing, filmed glass and cracked panels, a blower that rattles or will not start, and a unit that lights with a thump. Most are one visit with the parts on the van.
  • 2
    The yearly hourIt runs: glass off, cleaned; gasket checked, replaced if hard; burner and pilot cleaned; logs and embers to the maker’s drawing; thermopile tested under load; remote and receiver batteries changed; blower cleaned; vent and cover checked; carbon monoxide reading.
  • 3
    The neighbor’s repairSame phase, same unit, same failure: tell us what was done two doors down and the same thermopile, receiver or panel set rides out on the first trip.
  • 4
    No parts leftWhen the maker of a forty-year-old unit is gone, the honest answer is a new direct-vent gas fireplace in the same opening with a new cover on the chase. We do that too, and the choices are on our floor at full size.

Seven things the same street shows

Signs a Bolingbrook fireplace and chimney need attention

Any of these at your Bolingbrook house is a reason to call:

  • 01Smoke in the room, or a fire that never gets going
  • 02A sour, smoky smell in the family room in August, or after a heavy rain
  • 03Black flakes around the opening, or a crack across the back panel you can slide a coin into
  • 04Drywall stained beside the fireplace, or rust running down the chase after a storm
  • 05A gas fireplace that lights with a thump, or a flame that has gone weak and yellow
  • 06Scratching or chirping in the flue
  • 07More than a year since anyone looked at it, or opened the lower grille

None of these means the fireplace is unsafe tonight. All of them mean it is time for someone to look, and a rusted cover, a cracked panel or a tired thermopile stays a small job only when it is caught early.

One crew, one truck, both trades

What we repair in Bolingbrook

Your Bolingbrook chimney is cleaned and repaired by one crew, with fireplace repair on the same truck, 18 minutes from your street.

Chase covers, caps, panels, brick

On the builder fireplaces the list is nearly always the same: a stainless steel chase cover, a cap, a set of firebox panels and a flue pipe with a gap at a joint. The brick chimneys of the first subdivisions get caps, crowns and tuckpointing, and a stainless steel liner when the clay tiles have cracked or a new appliance wants a smaller flue. Either kind of chimney takes a new damper, throat or top-sealing.

The Village of Bolingbrook Building Division permits and inspects liners, rebuilds above the roof and new gas lines. A cover, a cap or a damper on its own usually does not, and if your job sits in between we check with the village before the estimate is written. The masonry side is on the chimney installation and repair page.

Pilots, thermopiles, panels, blowers

Any make of gas fireplace, insert or log set is repaired at the part that failed: pilot assemblies and thermopiles most often, then ignition modules and electrodes, valves, wall switches, remotes and their receivers, blowers and snap switches, glass, gaskets and refractory panels. On wood and pellet stoves and inserts: gaskets, glass, firebrick, augers, igniters and controls. On outdoor fireplaces, fire pits and gas grills: burners and ignition.

A builder unit with no parts left is replaced in the same opening by the crew that inspected it, chosen on our floor 18 minutes away. Send the make and model from the plate behind the lower grille with your service request and we call back within one business day with a time. A gas smell comes before any of this: out of the house, then Nicor at 888-642-6748 or 911, from outside.

Route 53 or Boughton Road

How a Bolingbrook visit gets booked

Chimney and fireplace work is done at your house, from Route 53 or Boughton Road. The truck takes 75th Street west through Woodridge to Route 53, or I-355 south to Boughton Road, and is in Bolingbrook in about 18 minutes. Call (630) 241‑1919 or book online, and have ready what you burn, the last cleaning you know of, and the make and model from the plate behind the lower grille if the fireplace came with the house. A gas unit that has stopped working is a service request: add what changed, and we call back within one business day.

The first thing Bolingbrook callers ask is whether the fireplace that came with the house is worth fixing. The visit answers it: the flue, the cover, the panels and the burner get looked at together, and the report says repair or replace. If it is replace, the showroom is about 18 minutes away: Route 53 north to 75th Street, then east through Woodridge to 1202-B at Lemont Road, with parking at the door. You can walk the floor there past direct-vent fireplaces, inserts and doors, and the electric ones are lit.

Asked in Bolingbrook

Questions we get from Bolingbrook

The fireplace came with our Bolingbrook house in the 1980s and the maker is gone. Can you still clean and inspect it?

Yes. The flue, the cap and the chase cover are standard parts whatever the maker, and we clean and check them like any other. What the maker’s absence changes is the repair: firebox panels and glass for a discontinued unit may not exist, and the report says so plainly, with the replacement that drops into the same opening if that is the better answer.

There is a brown stain on the drywall next to our fireplace. Is that the chimney?

Usually, yes. On a builder fireplace the metal cover on top of the framed chase rusts through, rain runs down the outside of the flue and shows up as a stain on the wall beside the fireplace, sometimes a floor below. A new stainless steel chase cover stops it, and the inspection checks the framing inside the chase for damage the stain may be hiding.

Our builder gas fireplace lights with a bang and the flame is lazy. Is it safe to keep using?

Stop using it until it is looked at, and if you ever smell gas, leave and call Nicor. Delayed ignition with a thump means gas is pooling before it lights, usually from clogged burner ports, a pilot flame too small to catch, or logs sitting over the ports where the builder left them. The service cleans the burner and the pilot, resets the logs to the maker’s drawing and checks the pressure, and it is the most common Bolingbrook call in October.

Our townhome has a shared wall. Does chimney work bother the neighbors?

No more than any other visit. The cleaning happens from inside your house and from your own roof, the vacuum runs the whole time, and a chase cover or a cap is a roof job of an hour or two. If two units share one chase, which happens in some Bolingbrook townhomes, we tell you and the association what we found on both sides.

We want to turn the wood fireplace in our first-subdivision house into gas logs. Does the chimney need anything?

A Level 2 inspection with a camera first, because vented gas logs use the old flue and the exhaust is wetter than a wood fire. If the tile is sound, the logs go in and the damper is clamped open; if it is cracked, a liner goes in first. The village wants a permit for the gas line, and we pull it and book the inspection as part of the job.

Does a gas fireplace need a chimney?

Not a masonry one. A direct-vent gas fireplace vents through the wall or the roof in its own sealed pipe. That is how a new gas fireplace goes into a Bolingbrook family room, bedroom or basement with no chimney at all, and how a worn builder unit is replaced in the same opening. Vented gas logs are different: they sit in an existing fireplace and use its flue, so that chimney still gets its yearly look.

The towns around Bolingbrook

The same crew covers the rest of DuPage and Will County around Bolingbrook, and Bolingbrook has its own fireplace page.

Bolingbrook chimney and fireplace · the cover, the flue and the burner on one visit, written report

Call (630) 241‑1919Book online

A Fireplace Store and MoreA Fireplace Store and More · Downers Grove, IL

Ready when you are.

The chimney behind a Bolingbrook builder fireplace rusts before it crumbles, and the burner under it wears out first. Book the visit now and catch both before the drywall does.

Call (630) 241‑1919Request an estimate

Showroom hoursMon–Fri 10–5Sat 11–4Sun 1–41202-B 75th St, Downers Grove

The showroom aisle at A Fireplace Store and More in Downers Grove — a linear gas fireplace set into a display wall

Our showroom, 75th Street, Downers Grove