Chimney sweep near you
Bridlemile is on our route on both sides of the city line along SW Thomas St, and under this much tree canopy the work is mossy crowns and caps on 1950s and 1960s ranch chimneys and rusted chase covers on the later hillside houses.
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Bridlemile was built in two waves, 1950s and 1960s ranches and split-levels first, then 1970s and later houses pushed up into the wooded slopes, and about half the neighborhood sits under tree canopy.
The ranches usually have a masonry fireplace with a clay tile liner, and because few houses here predate 1940 a bare unlined flue is the exception. A 1970s hillside house may have a factory-built metal fireplace in a framed chase or a masonry chimney on its downhill end; we find out which from the roof and the firebox before quoting a repair.
The canopy is what makes Bridlemile different from the flatland ranch neighborhoods. Shade keeps crowns, caps and the north face of the brick damp much of the year, moss takes hold in the crown cracks, sheet-metal chase covers rust through, and when an ice storm like January 2024's comes, falling limbs can land on chases and caps.
Bridlemile's chimneys are mostly postwar: tile-lined brick on the ranches and split-levels, and on the 1970s and later hillside houses either a metal flue inside a sided chase or a masonry stack climbing the downhill wall.
Water from above is the failure, not age. A shaded crown cracks and grows moss in the crack, the cap screen clogs with needles, and the chase cover rusts at the seams until it drips onto the flue pipe. On a sloped lot that top is a long way up, so these problems can run for years unseen, and the first visit is photos before a quote.
Trees, slopes and sheet metal shape the Bridlemile call list.
A ranch chimney crown under the Bridlemile canopy holds needles and moss, often cracks along the flue tile, and sends water into the brick below without anyone seeing it from the yard. We clear and kill the moss, cast a new crown with a drip edge that overhangs the brick, and seal the joint where the tile passes through, so the top sheds water the way it was meant to.
On the later hillside houses with a sided chase, the leak that shows up as a stain beside the fireplace is often a rusted chase cover or lifted flashing where the chase meets the roof, not the roof itself. We replace the cover with a fabricated stainless or galvanized one with a cross break so water runs off, and reseal or replace the flashing while we are up there.
The tile-lined ranch fireplaces off SW Hamilton St and around Bridlemile Elementary get real use through the wet months, and a yearly sweep with its Level 1 look-over is where we catch the cap screen packed with fir needles and the damper that no longer seats. We photograph the flue before and after, and on a split-level we check the cleanout at the base too.
After a storm has dropped a limb across a roof, or before a 1970s house with a metal fireplace changes hands, a Level 2 camera inspection tells you whether the flue pipe, the chase cover and the refractory panels survived. Ice storms linger on Bridlemile's shaded streets, and a dented cover from the January 2024 storm is the kind of thing nobody notices until it leaks.
A cap on a Bridlemile chimney has two jobs the flatland cap does not: shed a steady fall of needles and cones without clogging, and stay put when a limb glances off it. We fit stainless caps with a taller screen and a solid lid, bolted into sound masonry or to the chase cover collar, and on the shaded side we check that the screen is not already a moss shelf.
We get to Bridlemile along the Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, OR 10, from either Hillsdale or Beaverton, and from the Sunset Highway when we are coming off the west side; SW Shattuck Rd, SW Dosch Rd, SW Hamilton St and SW 45th Ave do the rest.
The hillside streets climb, and the canopy means a wet, needle-covered roof even in a dry week. Tell us whether the chimney is brick or a sided chase and which side of the house it is on, and send a photo from the yard if you can; it decides what ladders and sheet metal ride out with us.
The Portland city line follows SW Thomas St through Bridlemile, so the north side of the neighborhood is unincorporated Multnomah County and the south side is city.
About half of Bridlemile is covered by tree canopy, which is why the shaded side of a chimney here is often green.
A Southern Pacific station called Glencullen served the area from 1923 to 1925.
Bridlemile Elementary School is on SW 47th Dr, and Hamilton Park and the Fanno Creek Greenway Trail are the landmarks residents use.
About 68 percent of Bridlemile homes were owner-occupied in 2020, and the commercial strip is on the Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy.
Yes, all of Bridlemile is in our area, on both sides of the city line and across the single 97221 ZIP code. The line can matter for which permit rules and fees apply to a rebuild, not for whether we come or what it costs: the posted price is the same on both sides and the drive is not a separate charge when we do the work.
Usually within the week, and sooner in a dry spell when we can see the leak path clearly, though the fall sweep rush stretches that out. Put a bucket under the drip, stop using the fireplace until we have looked, and if you can see the top of the chimney or chase from the yard, send us a photo. A stain beside a Bridlemile fireplace is often a chase cover or crown problem rather than a roof problem.
The sweep covers the firebox, the damper and smoke shelf, the smoke chamber and the full length of the clay tile flue. We brush with the hearth opening sealed off and a vacuum running, then do the Level 1 look-over of everything we can reach, which on a Bridlemile ranch always includes the crown and cap, because under the trees that is where the trouble often starts. You get before and after photos of the flue.
Yes, a rusted chase cover is a common way water gets into a factory-built fireplace, and it does damage long before it drips. Rust at the seams and around the flue collar lets rain run down the outside of the flue pipe into the firebox, where it rusts the pipe and ruins the refractory panels. We replace the cover with a fabricated one that has a cross break and a storm collar, and camera the pipe and panels.
Yes, on both sides of the line. The county restriction is written for the whole of Multnomah County, so a red day means the same thing north and south of SW Thomas St: no wood or pellet burning from noon to noon unless the county has granted your household an exemption, such as for sole-source heat or income. Yellow asks people to consider limiting burning. Our wood burning rules guide lists the status page and the exemption steps.
An insert with no DEQ or EPA label falls under Oregon's home-sale rule and has to be removed and destroyed. The seller handles removal before closing, or the buyer within 30 days after closing if the two sides put that in writing. A sale is also when the standard recommends a Level 2 camera inspection, which a buyer may ask for. Our stove removal guide covers the receipt and the DEQ notification.
Start with the state lookup described in our contractor-check guide, which tells you who you are really dealing with before any ladder goes up. Then ask the two questions that sort companies quickly: is the price posted before the visit, and will the report include photos of my crown, cap or chase cover from the roof. In Bridlemile the top of the chimney is where the money goes, so you want to see it.
The same truck that climbs Bridlemile's wooded streets covers six nearby areas on the west side, from Hillsdale, Multnomah Village and Raleigh Hills to the Southwest Hills, West Slope and the Northwest District.
Call with what the fireplace is doing, or text a photo of the opening and one of the chimney top, and we will name the service and its posted price before we come out.