Arched gas fireplace insert burning in a brick fireplace under a wood beam mantel

A Fireplace Store and More · Downers Grove, IL

Hinsdale, Illinois41.80° N, 87.94° W8.1 miles from the showroom

Chimney repair and fireplace service in Hinsdale, IL.

Hinsdale has the oldest chimneys we work on and some of the newest fireplaces, often on the same block. From our shop on 75th Street in Downers Grove, 8.1 miles away, the crew sweeps and inspects the flue, services the gas unit under it, and leaves a written report with photos, whether the house dates from the 1890s or was finished last spring on a teardown lot.

Call (630) 241‑1919Request an estimate

An arched gas insert in an old brick fireplace under a beam mantel, the Hinsdale job: the insert is new, the chimney above it is a century old, and both get their yearly look.

  • From the showroom8.1mi1202-B 75th Street to the middle of Hinsdale
  • Drive time16minin normal traffic, Route 83 or Ogden and York
  • Customers served10k+from the showroom on 75th Street, over more than thirty years
  • Inspection levels3under NFPA 211; the old brick near Robbins Park usually earns the second
About A Fireplace Store and More

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

Three kinds of chimney

Why Hinsdale chimneys, old and new, get a yearly look

Hinsdale has three kinds of chimney. Between the train station and Robbins Park the houses go back to the 1890s, and many still have their first chimney: soft brick, lime mortar, a clay tile liner if there is one at all, and more than a century of freeze and thaw. Water finds the crown and the mortar joints, freezes there, and each winter pushes the brick a little further apart.

The houses from the 1960s and 1970s usually have a factory-built fireplace behind the brick face, with a metal flue inside a framed chase. Those do not crumble; they rust, at the chase cover and the cap, and the firebox panels crack. The teardown rebuilds have a new unit and a new chase cover, often put on in a hurry, and a gas fireplace that has run three winters without anyone opening it.

A wood fire coats the flue with creosote, and a chimney fire cracks the tile. Gas is cleaner but not maintenance-free: the moisture in gas exhaust slowly eats at old mortar and liners, the thermopile under the logs weakens on its own schedule, 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, sets the yearly inspection as the minimum for any fuel; we service the gas unit while we are there.

The Hinsdale visit

Clean. Inspect. Report. Service the fire.

Clean

Brush, vacuum and drop cloths, then the roof

Drop cloths first, then the opening is sealed and the vacuum runs until the brushes are back in the truck. Brushes up the flue, then the smoke shelf and the firebox cleaned, the damper tried, and the cap and the crown looked over from the roof. The 1890s brick between the station and Robbins Park, the factory-built units of the 1970s, the new chases on the rebuilt lots, wood stoves, gas fireplaces and inserts: we clean all of them.

Black gas fireplace insert in a white painted brick fireplace with flowers on the hearth
A painted brick fireplace with a gas insert in it. A vented insert breathes through a liner run up the old flue, and that liner is checked with the chimney, the burner with the insert.

Inspect

Which of the three levels, decided before the ladder

The inspection is done on the same visit as the cleaning, to one of the three levels NFPA 211 sets out. Which one a Hinsdale chimney needs depends on its age and on what has changed since the last look; we say which before we start, and why.

  • 1
    Level 1: same house, same fuel, no troubleThe yearly look for a Hinsdale chimney where nothing has changed: firebox, damper and flue from below, cap and crown from the roof, brick from the yard.
  • 2
    Level 2: the camera through the whole flueOld brick taking gas logs or an insert, a chimney fire, a storm or a lightning strike, or a Hinsdale house being sold. What it finds is written up for the buyer’s side to read.
  • 3
    Level 3: we tell you before we go thereRare: a fault serious enough that part of a wall or the chimney is opened to reach it.

Report

A report the buyer’s inspector can read

Before we leave you have the report in writing, with photos, sorted into now, later and leave alone, and the figure for anything in the first group. On a house between the station and the park the report usually carries the camera stills of the liner, because that is the question. The terms are explained in our guide to chimney cleaning and maintenance.

  • What a Hinsdale report sorts the chimney into
  • Now
  • Before next winter
  • Leave alone

Fireplace

The new-build gas unit and the old brick alike

The gas fireplace in a rebuilt Hinsdale house and the log set in an 1890s firebox are serviced by the technician who sweeps the flue. Gas, wood and pellet units of any make, ours or another dealer’s; electric fireplaces only when we installed them.

  • 1
    The new house whose fireplace has never been openedA rebuild’s gas fireplace runs on the builder’s settings until someone services it. The first visit resets the logs to the maker’s drawing, tests the thermopile, checks the vent termination on the roof and the cover on the chase.
  • 2
    The service, once a yearGlass off and cleaned, the gasket checked and replaced if hardened, burner and pilot cleaned, embers and media reset, the thermocouple or thermopile tested under load, wall switch, remote and receiver checked with new batteries, the blower cleaned, the venting looked at inside and out, a carbon monoxide check at the unit.
  • 3
    Faults we fix on the first visitA pilot that will not stay lit, a flame that has gone weak or yellow, a remote that does nothing, a blower that rattles, a white film on the glass: the van carries the common parts, and the technician tells you what it is before anything is replaced.
  • 4
    The 1890s firebox, warm againA cold wood fireplace near Robbins Park becomes a gas insert vented through a stainless liner in the original flue, or keeps burning wood on a new liner if that is what you want. Either way the same crew does the flue and the fireplace.

Seven things the house will show you

When a Hinsdale chimney, or the gas fireplace in it, is asking for a visit

Seen any of these at your Hinsdale house? Call:

  • 01Smoke hanging in the room when the wind is from the east
  • 02A wet, sour smell from the firebox after a summer storm
  • 03Pieces of clay tile on the smoke shelf, or a dusting of mortar on the hearth
  • 04Brick faces spalling off the chimney after a hard freeze, or a white bloom on the brick
  • 05Rust streaks down a new chase, or a puddle on the chase cover you can see from an upstairs window
  • 06A gas fireplace in a new house that has never been serviced since the builder left
  • 07No one on the roof, and no one inside the firebox, for a year or more

Taken one at a time these are not emergencies. Taken as a hint, they are the chimney asking for someone to look, and on a hundred-year-old stack a small masonry repair stays small only when it is done early.

The crew that cleans it repairs it

What we repair in Hinsdale

Hinsdale gets one crew for the chimney sweep and the repair, with fireplace repair on the same truck up Route 83.

Masonry, liners, covers

Between the station and Robbins Park it is masonry work: a cap, a crown rebuilt, joints repointed, and a stainless steel liner where the tile has cracked or a new appliance calls for a smaller flue. On the 1960s and 1970s houses it is chase covers, caps and cracked firebox panels, and on the newer rebuilds a chase cover that was never sealed. Dampers, throat and top-sealing, go in on any of them.

For a new liner or a rebuild above the roof the permit comes from the Village of Hinsdale Community Development Department; we pull it and book the inspection as part of the work. The chimney installation and repair page lists the masonry work in full.

Gas fireplaces, inserts, log sets

Pilot assemblies, thermocouples and thermopiles, ignition modules and electrodes, gas valves, wall switches, thermostatic remotes and the receivers behind the louver, blowers and their speed controls, glass, gaskets and refractory panels, on gas fireplaces, inserts and log sets of any make. Wood and pellet stoves and inserts get door gaskets, glass, firebrick, augers, igniters and controls; outdoor fireplaces, fire pits and gas grills get burners and ignition.

If the unit is beyond repair, the same crew installs its replacement in the same opening, and the floor at 75th and Lemont is where you choose it. Give us the make and model from the rating plate when you request service; we are back to you with a time inside one business day. A smell of gas is not a service call: get everyone out and call Nicor, 888-642-6748, or 911 from the driveway.

Up Route 83

A Hinsdale booking, and the road to the showroom

Chimney and fireplace work happens at your house, not at the shop. The truck comes up Route 83 from 75th Street, or along Ogden Avenue and York Road, and is in Hinsdale in about 16 minutes. Call (630) 241‑1919 or book online, and give us three facts: the fuel, when the chimney was last cleaned, and anything that has changed since. If it is the gas fireplace that has quit, that is a service request: send the make and what changed and expect our call within one business day.

The first thing Hinsdale callers ask is whether the original chimney can still take a wood fire. That is a camera question, and the visit answers it. If the answer is an insert or a gas log set, the showroom is 8.1 miles away: Route 83 south to 75th Street, then west to Lemont Road, and we are at 1202-B on the corner, with parking at the door. Every insert, log set and door on the floor is at full size, and the electric ones are lit.

Asked in Hinsdale

Questions we get from Hinsdale

Our house near Robbins Park is from the 1890s. Can the original chimney still take a wood fire?

Not until a camera has been inside it. At that age the tile liner may have open joints, or there may be no liner, and heat reaches the framing either way. If it needs one, a stainless steel liner makes it a wood chimney again without changing the brick you see from the street.

We bought a new house on a teardown lot. Does a brand-new fireplace need a chimney visit?

Yes, once a year, the same as an old one, and the fireplace itself needs its service. Inside the framed chase of a factory-built fireplace is a metal flue, and the cover on top and the cap are what fail, usually because they went on quickly during the build. Rust streaks down the chase are the first sign, and the yearly look catches that early; the service resets the logs and tests the thermopile the builder never touched.

The gas fireplace in our family room lights but the flame is small and yellow. Is that dangerous?

It is a call, not an emergency, unless you smell gas, in which case leave the house and call Nicor first. A yellow, lazy flame usually means dirty burner ports, an air shutter that has drifted, logs out of position or low gas pressure, and it soots the glass and the room. The service cleans the burner and the pilot, resets the logs to the maker’s drawing and checks the vent, and the carbon monoxide reading at the unit is part of the visit.

We are selling our Hinsdale house. What does the buyer get from a chimney inspection?

The Level 2, which is the inspection a sale calls for: the flue on camera from top to bottom, every reachable part looked at, and a written report with photos. The buyer’s side can use it as it stands, and any liner or crown it calls for is quoted on the same visit.

We have gas logs in the old fireplace. Can we close the damper to stop the cold draft?

Not with vented logs, and nearly all of the older sets in Hinsdale are vented. Their exhaust goes up the flue, which is why the damper is clamped open. That open damper is why the room feels cold with the logs off; glass doors stop the draft without blocking the vent, and the flue keeps its yearly look.

How long does the visit take, and how much mess is there?

A cleaning and a Level 1 inspection take about an hour to an hour and a half, and a gas fireplace service about an hour more. The floor is covered from the door to the hearth, the opening sealed, and the vacuum runs throughout the sweep. No fire for a day before we come, and an adult needs to be home to walk through the report.

Nearby towns we also serve from 75th Street

The same crew covers the rest of DuPage County and the Cook County edge of Hinsdale, and Hinsdale has its own fireplace page.

Hinsdale chimney and fireplace · 1890s brick and new-build gas units, 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.

Hinsdale chimneys are the oldest we see, and the yearly look is what keeps them in service. Book the cleaning, the inspection and the fireplace service now and know what is up there.

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