Gas log set burning in a stone arched fireplace with mesh doors folded open

A Fireplace Store and More · Downers Grove, IL

Woodridge, Illinois41.75° N, 88.05° Wabout five minutes from the showroom

Chimney cleaning and fireplace service in Woodridge, IL.

Woodridge is the next town west on 75th Street, about five minutes from our shop at 75th and Lemont. Most of its fireplaces came with the house, and the same model failing in your family room is failing up and down the street. We do the chimney sweep and the chimney inspection, service the gas unit and write it all up with photos on one visit.

Call (630) 241‑1919Request an estimate

A vented gas log set in a stone fireplace with the mesh doors folded back, the kind of update a 1970s Woodridge fireplace gets. The flue above it was built with the house and still gets its look.

  • Drive time5min75th Street west from Lemont Road to Village Hall on Plaza Drive
  • Counties3DuPage, with corners of the village in Will and Cook
  • Brands on our floor19and the technicians service the makes we do not sell as well
  • Call-back1daya service request gets a call with a time within one business day
About A Fireplace Store and More

A Fireplace Store and More cleans, inspects and repairs chimneys in Woodridge, 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 next town west

Why the fireplace that came with a Woodridge house needs a yearly look

Almost every house in Woodridge went up after the village was incorporated in 1959, and the population climbed from 542 in 1960 to 11,028 in 1970 and 21,763 in 1980. The ranches, split-levels and colonials of those two decades came with whatever fireplace the builder offered: usually a metal firebox in a wood-framed chase with a metal flue inside it, sometimes a brick chimney on the earlier streets. A metal chimney never crumbles, it rusts. The chase cover on top goes first, then the cap, while the firebox panels crack from forty winters of fires and the refractory behind them turns to powder.

The houses that followed in the 1980s and 1990s, in Seven Bridges west of the river and in the subdivisions along 75th and Janes, carry the next generation of builder fireplace, many of them gas, and many townhomes and condos share one chase between two units. Those covers, caps and gas valves have twenty-five to thirty-five winters on them now, and a cover that was set on in a hurry at the end of the build is the first thing we check.

What happens inside is the same on both sides of town: a wood fire leaves creosote on the flue walls and a chimney fire warps a metal flue, while a gas fire leaves moisture that rusts the vent and the damper from the inside. A blocked or corroded vent can send carbon monoxide back into the room without a wisp of smoke to warn you. NFPA 211, the national standard for chimneys and vents, calls for an inspection every year whatever you burn, and the gas unit itself earns a yearly service on the same visit.

One Woodridge visit, four jobs

Sweep it. Inspect it. Write it up. Fix the fire.

Clean

Same trip as the inspection, five minutes from the shop

The drop cloths go down from the door to the hearth, the opening is closed off, and the vacuum runs from the first brush stroke to the last. The brushes go up the flue, the smoke shelf and the firebox are cleaned, the damper is tried, and the cap and the chase cover get their look from the roof. Brick chimneys on the older Woodridge streets, metal flues in the chases everywhere else, wood stoves, gas fireplaces and inserts: all of them, and a shared townhome chase gets both sides looked at.

Close view of a gas fireplace insert burning behind a black frame in a tile surround
A gas insert behind a black frame in a tile surround: the answer to a builder firebox whose panels have cracked. Its liner runs up the old chase, and that chase is checked with it.

Inspect

One of three NFPA 211 levels, named before we start

The inspection rides along with the cleaning; there is no second appointment for it. Which of the three NFPA 211 levels a Woodridge chimney needs turns on what has changed since the last look, and you hear which one, and why, before we start.

  • 1
    Level 1: the fireplace you had last yearFor a Woodridge house with the same fireplace and the same fuel and no trouble to report: firebox, damper and flue from inside, cap and cover from the roof, chase or brick from outside, all of it that can be reached.
  • 2
    Level 2: a change, a fire, a saleAn insert or a log set going into the fireplace the house came with, a chimney fire, a storm, or a Woodridge house on the market. The camera goes through the whole flue and the report is written for the buyer’s inspector as much as for you.
  • 3
    Level 3: opening something upRare, and never a surprise: when a serious problem is suspected behind a wall or inside the chase, we say what we expect to find and what has to be opened before it happens.

Report

Written and photographed before the truck leaves

You get the report before we pull out of the driveway: photos of the flue, the cover, the panels and the burner, and three short lists. On a builder fireplace whose maker has stopped making parts, the report says plainly whether the unit is worth keeping or whether an insert sized to the opening is the better answer, and the figure for either is on the page. The terms it uses are explained in our chimney cleaning and maintenance guide.

  • Three lists on a Woodridge report
  • Do it now
  • Do it before next season
  • Leave it, and here is why

Fireplace

The builder unit, serviced or replaced

The gas fireplace that came with a Woodridge house is the one we service most, and the technician who sweeps the flue is the one who opens the unit. Every make of gas, wood and pellet fireplace, insert and stove, sold by us or not; electric units, only the ones we installed.

  • 1
    The pilot that will not holdOn a 1980s or 1990s builder unit the thermocouple or the thermopile has usually aged out, or the pilot assembly is full of dust. It is tested under load before it is replaced, and the common ones ride on the van.
  • 2
    Before the season, the whole unitThe yearly service: glass off and cleaned, the gasket checked, burner and pilot cleaned, the logs and embers set back to the maker’s drawing, the wall switch and the remote checked with fresh batteries, the blower cleaned, the vent and the cap looked at, a carbon monoxide check at the unit.
  • 3
    Cloudy glass, a loud fan, a dead remoteThe white film on the glass is cleaned or the glass replaced, a blower that rattles gets its snap switch or the fan itself, and we carry the receivers and remotes the common makers used, so most control faults end on the first visit.
  • 4
    The maker is goneWhen a fifty-year-old unit has no panels or glass left to buy, the honest answer is a new direct-vent fireplace or an insert in the same opening, with a new chase cover on top. We do that too, and the showroom is five minutes east.

The seven Woodridge tells

What a builder fireplace shows before it fails

Call if any of these has turned up at your Woodridge house:

  • 01A fire that will not draw until the window is cracked open
  • 02A brown stain on the drywall beside the fireplace, or rust streaks down the siding of the chase after a storm
  • 03Soot and black flakes gathering around the opening of the firebox
  • 04Cracks across the back panel of a builder fireplace that you can fit a coin into
  • 05A pilot light that goes out overnight, or a remote that has stopped answering
  • 06Chirping or scratching from behind the damper in spring
  • 07A year or more since the last time anyone climbed onto the roof to look

None of these makes the fireplace unsafe by itself. Each of them means it is time for a look, and a cover or a thermopile caught early is a small job on a five-minute drive.

Cleaned, inspected, repaired by one crew

Chimney and fireplace repairs we make in Woodridge

The people who clean your Woodridge chimney repair it, and the fireplace repair technician is on the same truck, which starts the day five minutes from you.

On the chimney

On the builder fireplaces the usual list is a new stainless steel chase cover, a cap, cracked firebox panels and a flue pipe with a gap at a joint. The brick chimneys on the older Woodridge streets take a cap, a rebuilt crown and tuckpointing, and a stainless steel liner where the clay tile has cracked or a new appliance needs a smaller flue. A damper, top-sealing or throat, goes in on any Woodridge chimney.

A liner, a rebuild above the roof or a new gas line is permit work in Woodridge, and the permit comes from the village’s Community Development Department, which takes applications in person at Village Hall on Plaza Drive or by mail rather than online; that trip, the inspection date and the inspector’s walk-through are ours. Chimney installation and repair goes into the masonry side.

On the fireplace

On the gas side of a Woodridge fireplace, any make, the repairs run pilot, thermocouple, thermopile, ignition module, valve, wall switch, remote and receiver, blower, glass, gasket, refractory panel, and the van carries the common ones. Wood and pellet stoves and inserts are gaskets, glass and firebrick, with augers, igniters and controls on the pellet side. And outdoors, fire pits, fireplaces and grills: burners and ignition.

A Woodridge unit that has outlived its maker is replaced by the same people who condemned it, in the same opening, and the replacement is on our floor at full size. Send a photo of the rating plate when you request service and we call back within one business day with a time and, where the description says so, the likely fix. Smell gas? Leave the house and call Nicor at 888-642-6748 or 911 from outside before you call us.

Five minutes west

Reaching us from Woodridge, and what to have ready

For chimney and fireplace work we come to you, and in Woodridge that is a five-minute drive west on 75th Street from Lemont Road. Call (630) 241‑1919 or book online, and say what you burn, when the chimney was last swept, and whether the fireplace came with the house or was put in later. For a gas unit that has stopped working, add what changed and when, and the technician arrives with the likely parts.

The question we hear first from Woodridge is whether the builder’s fireplace is worth repairing. One visit settles it: flue, cover, panels and burner are looked at together, and the report says repair or replace. If it is replace, the showroom is five minutes back east at 1202-B 75th Street, unit B, with parking at the door. The floor carries direct-vent fireplaces, inserts and doors at full size, with the electric ones lit.

Asked in Woodridge

Questions from the next town over

Our Woodridge split-level has the fireplace it was built with in the 1970s. Do you clean and inspect those?

Yes, and in Woodridge they are nearly all of it. Inside the framed chase is a metal flue, and the parts that fail are the cover on top, the cap and the panels in the firebox. Flue cleaned, panels and cover checked, and if the maker of the unit is gone the report gives you the keep-or-replace answer, with an insert sized to the opening as the replacement.

A brown stain has come through the wall beside our fireplace. Is the chimney doing that?

Usually, yes. Rust has opened the metal cover on the chase, rain is running down the outside of the flue, and the drywall beside the fireplace, sometimes a floor below, is where it finally shows. A stainless steel chase cover stops it for good, and the inspection looks at the framing inside the chase for the damage the stain may be hiding.

Our gas fireplace in Seven Bridges clicks but never lights. Can you fix that on the first visit?

Most times. Clicking with no flame on an electronic-ignition unit points to the module, the spark electrode or the battery backup, and on a standing-pilot unit to a pilot that is not lit or a thermopile that has failed. The van carries the common parts for the makes that went into the Seven Bridges houses, the technician tests before replacing, and the vent and the cap get their look while the unit is open.

We are in a townhome off Janes Avenue with a shared chase. How does that work?

We work from inside your unit and from your own roof, the vacuum runs the whole time, and a cover or a cap is an hour or two on the roof. If two units share one chase, we tell you and the association what we found on both sides, and the report is written so it can go to the board.

We want gas logs in the wood fireplace. Does the chimney need anything first?

A camera run first, a Level 2, because vented gas logs breathe through the old flue and their exhaust is wetter than a wood fire’s. A sound flue takes the logs, damper clamped open; a cracked tile means a liner before the logs. The village permits the gas line; we file at Village Hall and book the inspection as part of the job.

How often does a gas fireplace need service if we only run it in December?

Once a year, before the season, however little it runs. Dust settles in the pilot assembly and the burner ports whether the fire is on or off, gaskets harden with age rather than use, and the thermopile ages out on a calendar, not a meter. An hour in October, with the vent and the cap checked at the same time, is what keeps a lightly used Woodridge fireplace lighting on the first cold night.

Around Woodridge, the same crew

Around Woodridge, the same crew serves these towns; every one has its own page.

Woodridge chimney and fireplace · five minutes from the shop, 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.

Five minutes from our shop, and the same fireplace as your neighbors. Book the cleaning, the inspection and the gas service now, before the furnace and the fireplace both come on.

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