Black gas fireplace insert in a white painted brick fireplace with flowers on the hearth

A Fireplace Store and More · Downers Grove, IL

Elmhurst, Illinois41.90° N, 87.94° Wsome 25 minutes from the showroom

Chimney and fireplace repair in Elmhurst, IL.

Elmhurst is about 25 minutes from our shop on 75th Street in Downers Grove, and the trip covers the chimney sweep, the inspection and any chimney repair, and the gas fireplace under it, serviced. Elmhurst has some of the oldest brick we work on and some of the newest gas fireplaces, in the houses that have replaced old ones on many blocks.

Call (630) 241‑1919Request an estimate

A black gas insert in a painted brick fireplace in Elmhurst. The paint is new and the brick is old; the flue above it came with the house and gets its yearly look with the insert.

  • Drive time25minI-355 and Route 83 north to York Street
  • Counties2DuPage, with a small part of the city in Cook
  • Inspection levels3from NFPA 211; a 1920s flue near York Street gets the second
  • Brands on our floor19and the technicians service the makes the builders used as well
About A Fireplace Store and More

A Fireplace Store and More cleans, inspects and repairs chimneys in Elmhurst, 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.

The city that tripled in a decade

Why the yearly look matters more in Elmhurst than most places

Elmhurst grew from 4,594 people in 1920 to 14,055 in 1930, and the brick houses of that decade line the streets on both sides of York Street and around the university: fireplaces laid for wood, clay tile liners with a century of open joints, soft brick and lime mortar that take water every spring and freeze every winter. A good many of those fireplaces have been cold for years, and the chimney above has not been looked at since the previous owner. The 1950s brought the next wave, 21,273 people in 1950 to 36,991 in 1960, with brick chimneys of a harder kind whose crowns and caps are seventy years old now.

Then there are the new houses. On many Elmhurst blocks a 1950s house has been replaced by a new one, and the new ones came with a factory-built fireplace, usually gas: a metal firebox in a framed chase with a metal flue inside it, and a chase cover that was sometimes set on in a hurry at the end of the build. A metal chimney does not crumble, it rusts, cover first and cap second, and once the cover has gone the rain follows the outside of the flue into the wall, unseen. The gas unit below runs on the builder’s settings until someone opens it.

A wood fire leaves creosote on the walls of the flue, and a chimney fire cracks the tile. Gas is kinder to a chimney but not harmless: the water in its exhaust eats slowly at old mortar and liners, and a blocked or crumbling vent can push carbon monoxide back into the house with no smoke to give it away. The national standard for chimneys and vents, NFPA 211, calls for a yearly inspection regardless of fuel, and the gas fireplace gets its service on the same visit.

The Elmhurst visit

Clean. Inspect. Report. Open the fireplace.

Clean

Drop cloths, brushes and the vacuum, then the roof

We lay drop cloths from the door to the hearth, close off the opening, and run a vacuum the whole time we sweep. Brushes through the flue, the smoke shelf and the firebox cleaned out, the damper tried, and the cap and the crown looked at from the roof. Masonry chimneys, factory-built fireplaces, wood stoves, gas fireplaces and inserts: we clean all of them, the 1920s brick and the new chases alike.

Arched gas fireplace insert burning in a brick fireplace under a wood beam mantel
An arched gas insert in a brick fireplace under a beam mantel, the job we do most in the 1920s and 1930s houses near downtown. It vents through a stainless steel liner in the original flue.

Inspect

The camera for the 1920s brick, Level 1 for the rest

The inspection comes with every cleaning, on the same visit. Which of the three NFPA 211 levels an Elmhurst chimney needs depends on its age and on what has changed since the last one; an older house near York Street usually gets the camera, and we say which before we start, and why.

  • 1
    Level 1: the yearly lookAn Elmhurst house with last year’s fireplace, last year’s fuel and nothing to report. Everything reachable without tools: firebox, damper, flue, cap, crown, and the brick from outside.
  • 2
    Level 2: something changed, or the brick is oldAn insert or a log set going into a 1920s wood fireplace, a chimney fire, lightning or storm damage, or a sale with an Elmhurst inspector on the way. The camera covers every foot of the flue and the report is one an inspector can accept.
  • 3
    Level 3: only with a reason, and only after we say soFor a serious problem that cannot be judged without opening part of a wall or the chimney.

Report

Written with photos, sorted three ways

You leave the visit with a written report and photos: what needs doing now, what can wait, what we would leave alone, and the figure for the first list. For a house being sold, the report is written so the buyer’s inspector can read it as it is; for a new house, it carries the first service note the builder never left. Our chimney cleaning and maintenance guide explains the report’s terms in full.

  • How an Elmhurst report is sorted
  • Now
  • Can wait, until a date
  • Leave alone, and why

Fireplace

The new-build gas fireplace, serviced on the same trip

In the new houses on the rebuilt Elmhurst blocks the gas fireplace is the first thing we open, and the technician who sweeps a 1920s flue services the log set in it. Gas, wood and pellet units of every make; electric only where we did the installing.

  • 1
    The builder’s settingsA new-build gas fireplace ships with the logs where the installer left them and the pilot on the factory setting. The first service sets the logs to the maker’s drawing, checks the vent termination on the roof, tests the thermopile and writes the baseline down.
  • 2
    Every year after thatThe same hour: the glass cleaned, the gasket checked, the burner and pilot cleaned, the embers reset, the thermocouple or thermopile tested under load, the wall switch, remote and receiver checked with fresh batteries, the blower cleaned, the venting looked at and a carbon monoxide check at the unit.
  • 3
    What stops working firstA pilot that will not stay lit, a remote that has gone dead, a blower that rattles or runs on, a white film on the glass, a gasket that has hardened: tested and fixed with the maker’s parts, most on the first visit.
  • 4
    The 1920s fireplace, back in useA cold brick fireplace near York Street takes a gas insert on a stainless liner, or a vented log set once the flue is cleared, chosen at the showroom and installed by the crew that ran the camera.

Seven things to notice in Elmhurst

Signs an Elmhurst chimney needs attention

These are the seven we hear about most from Elmhurst; any one is enough to call:

  • 01A fire that fills the room before the flue takes it
  • 02Mortar dust on the hearth after a windy day, or a crown you can see daylight through
  • 03A wet smell from a fireplace nobody has used in years
  • 04White bloom on the brick above the roof, or faces of brick lying in the yard after a freeze
  • 05Rust streaks down the siding of a new chase, or a stain on the drywall beside it
  • 06A new-build gas fireplace nobody has opened since the closing
  • 07Twelve months without a look at the top or the inside

None of these condemns the chimney on its own. All of them mean it is time for someone to look, and on a hundred-year-old flue a small repair stays small only when it is done early.

One crew for the flue and the fire

What we repair in Elmhurst

The people who clean your Elmhurst chimney are the people who repair it, and the technician who services the gas fireplace rides the same 25 minutes up Route 83.

The century brick and the new chases

Near York Street and the university the brick work is caps, rebuilt crowns and tuckpointing, with a stainless steel liner wherever the clay tile has cracked or a new insert needs a smaller flue than the old one. On the newer houses it is chase covers, caps and cracked firebox panels on the builder units. Dampers, top-sealing or throat, go in anywhere.

In Elmhurst a liner, a rebuild above the roof or a new gas line is permit work through the city’s Community Development Department, which takes every application through its online Citizen Self-Service Portal; we file it there, set up the inspection and are on site when the inspector comes. The chimney installation and repair page has the rest.

The gas fireplaces, new and converted

A gas fireplace of any make is repaired at the failed part: on a new-build unit that is most often the thermopile or the receiver; on a converted brick fireplace the pilot assembly or the valve; and on either the ignition module, the wall switch, the remote, the blower, the glass, the gaskets or the refractory panels. Wood and pellet stoves and inserts: gaskets, glass and firebrick, plus augers, igniters and controls on the pellet units. An outdoor fireplace, a fire pit or a gas grill is the same call: burners and igniters.

A unit past repair is replaced in the same opening by the crew that inspected it, chosen from our floor at 75th and Lemont. Send the rating plate’s make and model with the request and the call-back, with a time, comes within one business day. Gas smell first, everything else after: leave the house, call Nicor at 888-642-6748 or 911 from outside, and call us once that is done.

Route 83 north

Setting a date from Elmhurst

For chimney and fireplace work the truck comes to Elmhurst. It leaves 75th Street for I-355 north and Route 83, and is at York Street in about 25 minutes in normal traffic. Call (630) 241‑1919 or book online, and tell us three things: what you burn, when the chimney was last cleaned, and whether the house is one of the older brick ones or a newer build with the fireplace it came with. A dead gas fireplace is a service request: the make, what changed, and a call back from us within one business day.

The first thing Elmhurst callers ask is whether the old fireplace can take gas without tearing out the brick. Usually it can, and the visit says so: a camera up the flue, a liner if the tile is cracked, then an insert or a log set sized to the opening. The showroom for choosing it is at 1202-B 75th Street in Downers Grove, unit B, with parking at the door; walk in any day we are open, Sunday afternoons included. Inserts, log sets and doors stand on the floor there at full size; the electric ones are lit.

Asked in Elmhurst

Questions we get from Elmhurst

Our 1920s Elmhurst house has its original brick chimney. Can we use the fireplace?

Not until it has been on camera. A 1920s flue can have a clay tile liner with a century of open joints, or no liner at all, and heat reaches the framing either way. Where the tile is cracked or missing, a stainless steel liner puts the chimney back to work with the street-side brick untouched, and it carries an insert or a log set as readily as a wood fire.

The house is new but the fireplace already smells. Can a new chimney have a problem?

Yes. A new factory-built fireplace lives inside a framed chase with a metal flue and a cover on top, and a cover set on at the end of the build without a sealed seam lets rain straight down the outside of the flue. The smell is wet insulation or framing, not the fire. The inspection checks the cover, the cap and the chase, and a stainless steel cover with a proper drip edge is the usual fix.

Our new gas fireplace has never been serviced. What does the first service do?

It gives the unit the baseline the builder never did: the logs set to the maker’s drawing, the pilot and burner cleaned of construction dust, the thermopile tested under load, the remote and the receiver paired with fresh batteries, the blower cleaned, the vent termination checked from the roof, and a carbon monoxide reading at the unit. After that it is once a year, before the season.

We have a buyer for our Elmhurst house. What does their inspector need on the chimney?

A Level 2 inspection: the camera through the whole flue, every reachable part looked at, and a written report with photos that the buyer’s inspector can take as it is. If it calls for a liner or a crown, we quote the work on the same visit and can do it before closing.

Does the city need a permit for chimney work?

Not for a cleaning, an inspection or a fireplace service. A new liner, a rebuild above the roof or a new gas line goes through the city’s Community Development Department, and the paperwork is ours. Elmhurst takes every permit application through its online Citizen Self-Service Portal; we file it there, set up the inspection and are on site when the inspector comes.

What does a chimney inspection include?

Every part we can reach, looked at and photographed: the firebox and its panels or firebrick, the damper, the smoke chamber, the flue as far as a light shows, the cap, the crown or the chase cover, the flashing and the outside brick or siding. A Level 2 adds a camera run through the whole flue and a look at the attic or crawl space the chimney passes through. What we find goes into a written report sorted into what needs doing now, what can wait and what we would leave alone.

The towns around Elmhurst

These towns around Elmhurst are served by the same crew, and each has its own page.

Elmhurst chimney and fireplace · the old brick and the new gas unit 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.

A hundred-year-old chimney has earned a look, and a new gas fireplace its first service. Book an Elmhurst visit now, before the first cold night.

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