Chimney cleaning and fireplace repair in Downers Grove, IL.

Downers Grove has every kind of chimney because it has every kind of house. Near downtown and the Main Street station, the bungalows, foursquares and Sears catalog houses of the 1920s carry their first brick chimney: soft brick, lime mortar, a clay tile liner if one was ever put in, and a century of freeze and thaw. Rain finds the crown and the mortar joints, the frost opens them, and each winter takes a little more of the brick. Many of those fireplaces have not had a fire in years, and the flue above them has not had a look in longer.

South of 63rd Street and out toward 75th, the ranches, split-levels and colonials of the 1950s to the 1970s came with a factory-built fireplace: a metal firebox in a wood-framed chase with a metal flue inside it. That kind of chimney does not crumble, it rusts, the chase cover first and then the cap, while the firebox panels crack from the heat. The rebuilt lots between Ogden Avenue and 55th Street have a new unit and a new cover, sometimes set on in a hurry at the end of the build, and a gas fireplace that has never had its yearly service.

Inside the flue, a wood fire leaves creosote, and a chimney fire cracks the tile. Gas has its own habits: a vented log set or an insert in an old brick fireplace breathes through the old flue, and gas exhaust is wet enough to eat at mortar and liners a little each season. A blocked or crumbling vent can push carbon monoxide back into the house with no smoke to warn anyone. NFPA 211, the national standard for chimneys and vents, asks for an inspection every year no matter what you burn, and a gas fireplace wants its own yearly service for the same reason.

For chimney and fireplace work we come to you, and in Downers Grove that is a short drive from 75th and Lemont: north on Main Street reaches the station streets in about ten minutes, and 75th, 63rd and Ogden reach the rest of town. Call (630) 241‑1919 or book online, and tell us three things: what you burn, when the chimney was last cleaned, and which side of town you are on, so the right truck comes. For a gas fireplace that has stopped working, add the make and what changed, and we call you back within one business day with a time.

The first thing Downers Grove callers ask is whether the fireplace they inherited with the house can take gas. That is a camera question as much as a showroom question, and the visit answers it. When the answer is an insert or a log set, the showroom is at 1202-B 75th Street, unit B, with parking at the door; walk in any day we are open. Inserts, log sets and doors are there on the floor, with the electric ones lit.