The Queen Annes, Tudors and center-hall Colonials on this ridge were built with fireplaces in nearly every room — and flues that have outlived three furnaces apiece. From Orange Road we keep those chimneys clean, tight and true, with hours long enough for commuters: weekdays, seven in the morning to eight at night.
A 1905 chimney deserves better than a 2005 shortcut. The crew mixes traditional masonry sense with modern liners, cameras and containment — the whole trade, tuned for houses with history.
Six flues in one chimney is a Tuesday around here. Each run gets its own full-length brushing with sealed recovery — parlor fireplace to attic bedroom, nothing skipped because it's "probably fine."
The whole house in one visit, at no charge — every firebox, every flue, every stack, explained in plain English. The $149 documented copy exists for sales, appraisals and claims.
When a hundred-year stack finally gives, we rebuild it to look like it never did — reclaimed or matched brick, correct corbelling, and a crown engineered to buy the next hundred.
Pre-war walls want lime-soft mortar, tinted and struck to match the original joints. Our repointing disappears into the wall — the only visible change is that the sand stops falling.
Original clay pots preserved and rebedded, screened caps fitted where flues sit open, and welded covers for the newer chase-built fireplaces around town — the top of the system, done right.
Water in an old house travels farther than gossip. We follow the stain back through plaster, framing and slate to the actual opening — then close that seam in metal, permanently.
Handsome outside, hollow inside — many ridge chimneys still run bare brick or cracked terracotta. Insulated stainless liners give each appliance its own sealed, correctly sized path out.
The marble surrounds, glazed tile and carved mantels in these houses are irreplaceable — literally. We rebuild the fireboxes behind them without disturbing what a century has preserved.
Old houses communicate constantly. The owners who listen spend hundreds; the ones who don't spend thousands.
A process built on the radical idea that you should understand your own house before spending money on it.
Weekdays until eight — describe the house, its fireplaces, and whatever prompted the call. Old-house questions welcome.
Every fireplace, flue and stack evaluated in one visit and explained plainly. The $149 documented copy is there when paperwork matters.
Needed work is itemized by urgency, priced in writing, and left with you to decide — no countdown pricing, no theater.
The work done to period standards, the rooms left spotless, the warranty on paper, the pots still pointing at the sky.
An unhurried evaluation now — of all of them, free — beats discovering in December which ones actually work. Evening calls welcome; we answer until eight.
(862) 210-6883A look through recent work — from sunrise sweeps to fireplaces glowing again by evening.
Home base on Orange Road in Montclair, with daily rounds through the neighboring towns of Essex and Passaic County.
Somewhere nearby but unlisted? (862) 210-6883 — good chimneys travel well.
Truly. If your Queen Anne has five fireplaces, all five get examined in the same visit — fireboxes, dampers, the flues that serve them, and the stacks above the slate — and you hear the complete picture before we leave, without a bill. The one thing that costs money is the documented copy: the findings issued as a dated document with photographs for $149, which becomes relevant the moment a sale, appraisal or insurance claim needs facts in writing rather than in conversation.
Weekdays from seven in the morning until eight at night — deliberately long, because half this town gets off the train at 6:40. Evening appointments are real appointments here, not favors. Saturdays and Sundays the crew stays home; urgent weekend messages get Monday's first truck.
Because dormant flues don't stay neutral — they collect nests, moisture and debris, and several probably share a stack with the one flue your boiler works hard every night. Knowing the condition of all six (and capping the dead ones properly) is cheaper than discovering their condition through a ceiling stain. The knowing part, conveniently, is free.
Not when it's done as restoration rather than patching. We match color, aggregate texture, joint profile and — critically — hardness, using lime-forward blends compatible with soft antique brick. Portland-heavy mortar on old walls fails twice: once aesthetically the day it dries, and once structurally when it pops the brick faces in frost.
In most cases, yes — and we push to. Original pots belong to the house's silhouette, and a sound pot with a screened guard protects the flue as well as any modern cap. We rebed loose ones in fresh mortar and retire only the genuinely shattered. When one must go, we hunt salvage yards before settling for reproduction.
Before listing, ideally — Montclair buyers arrive with sharp inspectors, and a chimney surprise during attorney review costs more leverage than it ever costs money. Order the free evaluation early, decide on repairs at your own pace, and take the $149 documented copy so your listing agent holds dated proof of condition.
Padded hook ladders, walk boards that spread the load, and crews trained to treat slate as the century-old material it is — cracked slates from careless boots are an old-house horror story we refuse to star in. Insurance certificates covering the work go out by email before the visit on request.
Say the word urgent when you call (862) 210-6883 — indoor smoke, a leaning pot over the sidewalk, water cascading during a nor'easter all rearrange the day's schedule. Between eight at night and seven in the morning, leave the message and it's first answered at seven sharp. Open flame or suspected carbon monoxide: leave the house and make 911 the first call.
One phone number, answered by people who can tell a Queen Anne from a Foursquare by its chimneys alone.
Year built, number of fireplaces, what the flues are doing — or just "we bought a Victorian and have no idea." All valid openings.
(862) 210-6883 Call Orange Road