Gas fireplace insert burning in a stone surround under a wood beam mantel with a raised stone hearth

A Fireplace Store and More · Downers Grove, IL

Wheaton, Illinois41.87° N, 88.11° Wabout 25 minutes from the showroom, our longest regular drive

Chimney cleaning and fireplace repair in Wheaton, IL.

Wheaton gets its chimney sweep, chimney inspection and chimney repair from our shop on 75th Street in Downers Grove, about 25 minutes away, and the gas fireplace service from the same technician on the same trip. Wheaton gives us two very different jobs: the 1920s brick near the college and downtown, and the metal flues and builder gas units behind the fireplaces in Danada.

Call (630) 241‑1919 Request an estimate

A gas insert in a stone fireplace under a beam mantel. The insert is sealed and vents through a liner; the masonry around it is still a chimney, and still gets the yearly look.

Drive time25minNaperville Road, Butterfield Road and I-355 to 75th Street
Years of service30+the same shop on 75th Street, sweeping, repairing and installing
Inspection levels3NFPA 211; the brick near the college usually earns the camera
Call-back1daythe longest a Wheaton service request waits for a call with a time

About A Fireplace Store and More

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

Old brick, Danada chases

Why both kinds of Wheaton chimney get a yearly look

Around downtown Wheaton and the college, the streets off Main, Front and College Avenue are lined with 1920s and 1930s houses whose brick fireplaces were laid for wood. A good many have gone unused for years: the damper leaks, nobody wants to haul logs, and the chimney above has had no attention since. Soft brick and lime mortar take water every spring, freeze every winter, and open up a joint at a time. A clay tile liner from that era has open joints of its own, and on some houses there was never a liner at all.

South and west of Roosevelt Road, toward Danada and the subdivisions off Naperville and Butterfield Roads, most houses came with a builder-grade factory-built fireplace, wood-burning or gas: a metal firebox in a framed chase with a metal flue inside it. Danada West went up between 1985 and 1990, so those covers, caps and gas valves have seen thirty-five winters. The chimneys do not crumble; they rust, at the chase cover on top and the cap, and after twenty or thirty winters the firebox panels crack, the glass clouds and the fan gets loud.

Wood smoke lines the flue with creosote, and a chimney fire cracks the clay. Gas is easier on the chimney but not harmless to it: the water in gas exhaust works at old mortar and liners season by season, and a vent that is blocked or crumbling can push carbon monoxide back into the house without smoke to warn you. That is what NFPA 211, the national standard for chimneys and vents, is for: an inspection every year whatever you burn, with the gas unit’s service on the same visit.

The Wheaton visit, one long trip

Clean. Inspect. Report. Service the Danada unit.

Clean

Brushes, drop cloths and the vacuum, one long drive

Drop cloths go down, the opening is closed off, and the vacuum runs the whole time the brushes work. Flue brushed, smoke shelf and firebox cleaned, damper checked, cap and crown looked at from the roof. Masonry chimneys, factory-built fireplaces, wood stoves, gas fireplaces and inserts: we clean all of them, the brick flues near the college and the metal ones in Danada alike.

Black gas fireplace insert in a red brick fireplace under a wood beam mantel with a tile hearth — Under a beam mantel, a gas insert set into red brick. In the 1920s houses near the college the liner runs up the original flue, and that flue is checked with it while the burner gets its service.

Inspect

One of three NFPA 211 levels, chosen for the house

Every cleaning comes with an inspection on the same visit, to one of the three levels NFPA 211 sets out. Which level a Wheaton chimney needs depends on its age and what has changed since the last one; we say which before we start, and why.

1
Level 1: the yearly look, nothing changedFor a Wheaton house with the same fireplace and the same fuel as last year and no trouble: a look at everything that can be reached, from the firebox up to the cap and the crown and around to the brick outside.
2
Level 2: with the cameraA 1920s wood fireplace taking gas logs or an insert, a chimney fire, storm or lightning damage, or a Wheaton house with a sale pending. Written for the buyer’s inspector as much as for you.
3
Level 3: rare, and never without telling youSomething serious is suspected and part of a wall or the chimney is opened to look at it.

Report

Photographs and three lists, written on site

The report is written at the house, with photos: three lists, now, later and leave alone, and the figure for the first. For a house being sold near the college, the report is written so the buyer’s inspector can read it as it is. Our chimney cleaning and maintenance guide fills in the background.

What the Wheaton report sorts your chimney into
Now, before the next fire
Can wait, and we say how long
Leave it be

Fireplace

The Danada gas unit, serviced or replaced

The builder gas fireplace in a Danada house and the log set in a 1920s firebox off Front Street are serviced by the technician who sweeps the flue. Gas, wood and pellet fireplaces, inserts and stoves of every make; electric units, only the ones we put in.

1
Cloudy glass, a loud fan, a pilot that quitsThe three Danada complaints. The glass is cleaned or replaced, the blower gets a new bearing or a new fan, the pilot assembly is cleaned and the thermopile tested, and if the maker has stopped making parts the report says so.
2
The yearly service on the unitOn a Danada unit or a log set near the college: glass off and cleaned, gasket checked, burner and pilot cleaned, logs and embers reset to the maker’s drawing, thermocouple or thermopile tested under load, switch, remote and receiver on fresh batteries, blower cleaned, venting looked at, and a carbon monoxide check to finish.
3
Gas logs into the old brickA wood fireplace near the college takes a vented log set once the camera has cleared the flue and a liner has gone in if the tile is cracked; the city’s permit for the gas line is ours to pull.
4
Replace, in the same openingA thirty-five-year-old builder unit with no parts left becomes a new direct-vent fireplace or an insert in the same opening, with a new cover on the chase. The replacement stands on our floor at full size, and the crew that inspected the old unit installs the new one.

Seven Wheaton tells

Signs a Wheaton chimney or fireplace needs attention

From Wheaton, these are the seven calls we get; any one is enough:

01A fire near the college that smokes until the flue warms up
02A smoky, sour smell in the front room after a humid week
03Black flakes on the hearth, or a piece of clay tile in the firebox
04White salts on the brick above the roof, or brick faces spalling off after a freeze
05Cloudy glass, a fan that has gone loud, or a pilot that will not hold on a Danada fireplace
06Scratching or chirping in the flue in spring
07A year or more since the chimney was looked at or the unit opened

No one of these means the chimney is unsafe tonight. Each is a reason for a look, and a cover or a thermopile caught early is a small job rather than a large one.

Cleaned and repaired by the same crew

What we repair in Wheaton

Your Wheaton chimney is repaired by the people who cleaned it, and the fireplace technician is on the same truck for the same 25 minutes.

Brick near the college, chases in Danada

Off Main, Front and College Avenue the work is masonry: caps, crowns rebuilt, joints repointed, and a stainless steel liner where the clay tile has cracked or a new insert needs a smaller flue. In Danada and the subdivisions off Naperville and Butterfield Roads it is chase covers, caps and cracked firebox panels on the builder units, and a fireplace whose maker has stopped making parts is replaced rather than patched. Dampers, top-sealing or throat, go into either kind.

In Wheaton the City of Wheaton Building Department permits relining, rebuilding above the roof and new gas lines, and it takes the paperwork at City Hall on Wesley Street rather than online. That trip, the inspection date and the inspector’s walk-through are ours. The chimney installation and repair page has the masonry list.

Builder gas units and old-brick log sets

On a Danada gas unit or a log set near the college, any make, the repair is one of these: pilot assembly, thermocouple or thermopile, ignition module, valve, wall switch, remote and receiver, blower and its switch, glass, gasket or firebox panel. For a wood or pellet stove or insert it is gaskets, glass and firebrick, and the pellet side adds augers, igniters and controls. Outdoor fire pits, fireplaces and grills are burners and ignition.

A Danada unit that is done gets a replacement in the same opening from the crew that wrote the report, chosen on our floor at 75th and Lemont. Put the make and model from the rating plate in the request and the parts ride out on the first trip; the call with a time comes within one business day. Never book a visit for a gas smell: leave the house and call Nicor, 888-642-6748, or 911 from outside.

Twenty-five minutes each way

Scheduling from Wheaton, our longest drive

Chimney and fireplace work is done at your house in Wheaton. The truck leaves 75th Street for I-355, comes off at Butterfield Road and follows Naperville Road into town, about 25 minutes in normal traffic and a few less to the Danada end. 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 old brick ones near the college or a builder fireplace in a subdivision. A gas fireplace that has quit is a service request: give us the make and what changed, and the call-back with a time comes within one business day.

Wheaton callers want to know whether we really make the trip, and we do, for the cleaning, the inspection, the service and any repair, all at your house. The showroom trip is only for choosing an insert, a log set or a door once the report says the flue can take one. It is Naperville Road south to Butterfield, I-355 south to 75th Street, then east to 1202-B at Lemont Road, with parking at the door. Full-size inserts, log sets and doors fill the floor, and the electric ones are lit.

Our Downers Grove floor, 25 minutes from Wheaton, where an arched gas fireplace with an iron front sits in an oak mantel at full size.

A Fireplace Store and More

1202-B 75th Street, Downers Grove, IL 60516

Showroom hours
Monday – Friday	10 am – 5 pm
Saturday	11 am – 4 pm
Sunday	1 pm – 4 pm

Get directions (630) 241‑1919

Answers for Wheaton

Questions we get from Wheaton

Our 1920s house off Front Street has a brick fireplace we have never used. Is the chimney safe to try?

Not until someone has seen the inside of it. A chimney from that era may have a clay tile liner with open joints, or none at all, and a wood fire in it can heat the framing behind the brick. We run a camera up the flue first; if the tile is cracked or missing, a stainless steel liner makes it usable again without touching the brick you see from the street.

The gas fireplace in our Danada house has cloudy glass and a loud fan. Is that a chimney problem?

Partly. The glass and the fan belong to the unit, but the metal flue above it, its cap and the chase cover on top are the chimney, and they rust while the unit wears out. On the visit we clean and check the flue and the cover, service or fix the unit, and the report says whether it is worth repairing or whether a new direct-vent fireplace in the same opening, with a new cover, is the better answer.

We want gas logs in the old brick fireplace near the college. What has to happen to the chimney before that?

A Level 2 with the camera, since vented logs use the old flue and gas exhaust is wetter than wood smoke. Sound tile, and the logs go in with the damper clamped open; cracked tile, and a liner comes first. Either way the City of Wheaton permits the gas line, and pulling that permit and booking its inspection is part of what you hire.

Do you clean the chimney of a wood stove in a Wheaton basement?

Yes. A wood stove makes more creosote than an open fireplace because it burns slower, so its flue usually needs a cleaning every year rather than just the look. We clean the stove pipe and the chimney it connects to, check the cap, replace door and glass gaskets that have hardened, and note the clearances around the stove in the report.

Our condo near the Wheaton Metra station has an electric fireplace. Does it need any of this?

No chimney work, because an electric fireplace has no flue and no exhaust. As for service, we look after the electric units we installed ourselves and not others; if the condo building has a shared masonry chimney from an older use, the association looks after that, and we can inspect it for them.

How often should a chimney be inspected or cleaned?

Every year for the inspection; the cleaning whenever that inspection finds creosote, a blockage or a nest. NFPA 211, the national standard for chimneys and vents, puts it that way for every fuel. A Wheaton house that burns wood most winter evenings usually needs the cleaning every year; a gas log set or a sealed gas unit may go longer between cleanings, but the flue, the cap and the cover still get the yearly look, and the unit its yearly service.

Other towns on the same run

Wheaton has a fireplace page of its own; the crew that serves it works the rest of DuPage County too.

Wheaton chimney and fireplace · the brick, the chase and the gas unit on one visit, written report

Call (630) 241‑1919 Book online