Close-up of a gas log set burning in a brick fireplace behind a mesh screen

A Fireplace Store and More · Downers Grove, IL

Lisle, Illinois41.80° N, 88.07° Wabout ten minutes from the showroom

Chimney cleaning and fireplace service in Lisle, IL.

Lisle is about ten minutes north of our shop on 75th Street, close enough that we look after its chimneys and fireplaces the way we do our own town’s: the chimney sweep, the chimney inspection and, on the gas ones, the yearly service on a single visit, written up with photos, whether the house is a 1970s builder unit or brick near the station.

Call (630) 241‑1919Request an estimate

A gas log set burning behind a mesh screen in a Lisle brick fireplace. The brick is the original chimney and takes the weather; the logs only changed what burns inside it.

  • Drive time10minnorth from 75th and Lemont to Village Hall on Burlington Avenue
  • One visit1visitthe cleaning, the inspection and the gas fireplace service, at your house
  • Inspection levels3the three that NFPA 211 sets out, and we name yours first
  • Showroom open7daysweekdays ten to five, Saturday eleven to four, Sunday one to four
About A Fireplace Store and More

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

Ten minutes north

Why Lisle chimneys and fireplaces need a look every year

The railroad reached Lisle in 1864 and the village grew up around its depot, so the streets near Main Street and the station carry the oldest chimneys in town: brick laid for wood, clay tile liners with a century of open joints, crowns that have shed their mortar a winter at a time. A good many of those fireplaces have been cold for years, and the flue above them has gone longer still without a look.

Most of Lisle, though, was built after the village was incorporated in 1956, and the population more than doubled in the 1970s. The houses of that decade, in the subdivisions on both sides of Ogden Avenue, came with a factory-built fireplace: a metal firebox in a wood-framed chase with a metal flue inside it, wood-burning at first and often converted to gas since. Those do not crumble, they rust, at the chase cover on top and the cap, while fifty winters of fires crack the firebox panels and the gas valve behind the grille ages on its own schedule.

Inside, a wood fire leaves creosote and a chimney fire cracks the tile, while gas exhaust, which is mostly water, corrodes an old liner from within. A vent that is blocked or rusted through can send carbon monoxide back into the house with nothing to smell. NFPA 211, the national standard for chimneys and vents, wants an inspection every year whatever you burn, and the gas unit itself wants its own yearly hour.

The Lisle visit, start to finish

Swept. Inspected. Reported. Serviced.

Clean

Brushes, drop cloths and a vacuum, on the same visit

We spread drop cloths from the door to the hearth, seal the opening, and keep a vacuum running while the brushes are in the flue. After the flue, the smoke shelf and the firebox are cleaned out and the damper tried; the cap and the crown are checked from the ladder. The brick flues near the station and the metal ones in the subdivisions, wood stoves, gas fireplaces and inserts: every kind gets the same treatment.

Gas fireplace insert burning behind a traditional oak mantel with a light stone surround
A gas insert under a traditional oak mantel in a light stone surround: what a 1970s wood fireplace that nobody lights any more usually becomes. It vents through a liner in the old flue, checked with it.

Inspect

The three NFPA 211 levels, and which one is yours

The inspection happens on the cleaning visit, not on a second trip. Which of the three NFPA 211 levels a Lisle chimney needs depends on what has changed since the last one, and we say which, and why, before the brushes come out.

  • 1
    Level 1: the usual yearly lookFor a Lisle house where nothing has changed since last year, same fireplace and same fuel: every part we can reach, the firebox, the damper, the flue, the cap, the crown and the outside brick or chase.
  • 2
    Level 2: with the cameraA log set or an insert going into an old wood fireplace, a chimney fire, damage from a storm or lightning, or a house near the station changing hands. The flue is filmed top to bottom and the report is written with the buyer’s inspector in mind.
  • 3
    Level 3: only when a Level 2 finds a reasonA serious problem suspected inside a wall or the chimney structure. Part of it has to be opened to see, and we tell you what and why before we go there.

Report

Photographs and three lists, left with you

The written report, with photos, is in your hand before we leave: what needs doing now, what can wait, what we would leave alone, and the figure for anything on the first list. Because Lisle is ten minutes from the shop, a chimney repair the report calls for is usually scheduled within days, by the same crew. The report’s terms are explained in our chimney cleaning and maintenance guide.

  • What a Lisle report tells you
  • This needs doing now
  • This can wait, and until when
  • This is fine as it is

Fireplace

Gas, wood or pellet, any maker

The gas fireplace or log set in a Lisle house gets its yearly service from the same technician who sweeps the flue. Every make of gas, wood and pellet fireplace, insert and stove, ours or anyone else’s; electric only if we installed it.

  • 1
    Lights, then drops outA flame that goes out after a minute is usually a thermopile that has aged out or a pilot clogged with dust. On the 1970s conversions in Lisle it is sometimes the valve. The part is tested before it is replaced.
  • 2
    The hour before the seasonGlass off and cleaned, gasket checked, burner and pilot cleaned, logs and embers reset to the maker’s drawing, the wall switch, the remote and the receiver checked with new batteries, the blower cleaned, the vent looked at, a carbon monoxide check at the unit, and a written note of what to watch.
  • 3
    A weak yellow flame and soot on the glassBurner ports, the air shutter, log placement and the gas pressure are where we look. The logs of a vented set out of position soot the glass and the room; set back to the drawing they burn clean.
  • 4
    Turning the cold fireplace into a warm oneA 1970s Lisle wood fireplace that nobody lights becomes a gas insert or a log set, sized to the opening, vented through a liner in the old flue. The showroom on 75th Street has the choices at full size, and the same people install it.

Seven things worth a call

How a Lisle chimney asks for attention

Call us if any of these has shown up at your Lisle house:

  • 01A fire that smolders and smokes rather than catching
  • 02A musty, wet-ash smell in the room after a week of rain
  • 03Flakes of black creosote on the hearth after a windy night
  • 04Salt-white streaks on the brick near the top of the chimney
  • 05A damper that sticks half open, or a draft from a fireplace that has been cold for years
  • 06A gas fireplace that needs three tries to light, or a flame that has turned lazy and yellow
  • 07A cap missing since the last big storm, or no memory of the last inspection

No single one of these means danger tonight. All of them mean the chimney or the fireplace is asking for a look, and in Lisle that look is ten minutes away.

One crew, both trades

Repairs we do in Lisle

The crew that sweeps a Lisle chimney is the crew that repairs it, and the fireplace repair technician rides on the same truck. Here is what we do most often in the village.

Brick and metal chimneys

The brick chimneys by Main Street and the station take a new cap, a rebuilt crown and tuckpointing, and a stainless steel liner goes in where the clay tiles have cracked or a new insert needs a smaller flue. On the 1970s builder fireplaces: chase covers, caps and cracked firebox panels, and a unit whose maker has stopped making parts is replaced rather than patched. Dampers, including the top-sealing kind, go in anywhere.

Relining, rebuilding above the roof and new gas lines need Lisle’s permit, which comes from the village’s Development Services Department, whose online permit portal is where the application goes; we submit it, book the inspection and meet the inspector on site. Chimney installation and repair covers the masonry work in detail.

Gas, wood and pellet fireplaces

The gas repairs, on any make, run from the pilot assembly and the thermopile through the ignition module, the valve, the wall switch, the remote and its receiver, to the blower, the glass, the gaskets and the firebox panels. Wood stoves and inserts are door gaskets, glass and firebrick; pellet stoves add augers, igniters and controls. Outdoor fireplaces, fire pits and gas grills are serviced too, burners and ignition.

When the report says a unit is past saving, the replacement goes in by the same hands, and you choose it ten minutes south at the showroom. Put the make and model from the rating plate in the request; the call back with a time comes within one business day. A smell of gas is not something to wait on: get out, call Nicor at 888-642-6748 or 911 from outside, and then call us.

Booking from Lisle

Getting us to Lisle, and getting to the showroom

For chimney and fireplace work we come to you, and Lisle is about ten minutes north of 75th and Lemont. Call (630) 241‑1919 or book online, and give us the fuel, the last cleaning date, and a word on the house: older, near the station, or a subdivision house with the fireplace it came with. When it is the gas fireplace that has stopped, add the make and what changed and the call-back comes within one business day.

The first thing Lisle callers ask is whether the wood fireplace nobody uses can take gas. It is a camera question before it is a showroom question, and the first visit answers it. If the answer is an insert or a log set, come ten minutes south to the showroom, 1202-B 75th Street, unit B; there is parking at the door and it is open every day. The floor there has inserts, log sets and doors at full size, and the electric ones are lit.

Asked in Lisle

Questions Lisle homeowners bring us

Our house near the Lisle station has its original brick chimney. Can we use the fireplace?

Not before the camera has been up it. A flue from the early 1900s can have clay tiles with open joints, or no liner at all, and either one lets heat reach the framing. Our first visit puts the camera up that flue. Cracked or missing tile means a stainless steel liner, which brings the chimney back into service with the brick untouched from the street and takes a log set or an insert as readily as a wood fire.

The fireplace in our 1970s Lisle ranch has a metal box and a metal chimney. Do you clean those?

Yes; in Lisle they are the bulk of the work. The metal box vents through a metal flue inside a framed chase; the chase cover, the cap and the firebox panels are what give out. We sweep the flue and check the panels and the cover, and when the maker of a fifty-year-old unit is gone the report says, in writing, keep it or replace it with an insert sized to the opening.

Our gas log set in Lisle has a lazy yellow flame and the glass doors are turning black. What is wrong?

The logs are probably out of position, or the burner ports and the air shutter are dirty. A vented log set burns clean only when the logs sit where the maker’s drawing puts them; moved for a photo or a cleaning, they cook in the flame and throw soot. The service resets them, cleans the burner and the pilot, and checks the flue above, because a sooting set is also a set the chimney is not drawing well for.

We are putting our Lisle house up for sale. What does a buyer expect from the chimney report?

The Level 2 report: the camera through the length of the flue, photographs of every reachable part, and a written verdict the buyer’s inspector can take as it stands. Any liner or crown it calls for is quoted there and then, and the closing date is one we can work to.

Does Lisle need a permit for chimney work?

Not for a cleaning or an inspection. Liners, rebuilds above the roof and new gas lines go through the village’s Development Services Department, with the paperwork on us. Lisle takes permit applications through its online portal; we file it, set up the inspection and are there when the inspector comes, so the job is signed off before we call it finished.

How long does a chimney cleaning take in Lisle, and can the gas fireplace be serviced on the same trip?

About an hour to an hour and a half for a cleaning with a Level 1 inspection; a camera run or a second flue adds to it, and a gas fireplace service adds about an hour on the same trip. Drop cloths go down from the door to the hearth, the opening is sealed and the vacuum runs the whole time we sweep, so the room is as we found it when we leave. Let the fireplace go cold for a day before we come, and have an adult home to walk through the report with us.

Nearby, from the same shop

Around Lisle the same crew serves these towns, and each one has its own page.

Lisle chimney and fireplace · ten minutes away, one visit, a written report with photos

Call (630) 241‑1919Book online

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

Ready when you are.

Ten minutes from our shop, and the first cold night is closer than it looks. Book a Lisle cleaning, inspection and fireplace service now.

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