Chimney sweep near you
Yes, Cornelius is on our route, from the early 1900s houses by the highway and the railroad to the 1970s streets and the newest tracts. The work there runs from sweeps on 1970s masonry fireplaces to caps on older open flues.
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Cornelius homes come in three layers with chimneys to match: a small early 1900s core near the Tualatin Valley Highway and the rail line, the 1970s streets from when the population more than doubled, and the 2010s and 2020s subdivisions on the edges.
The oldest houses stand close to where Thomas R. Cornelius put his store and creamery beside the railroad in 1871, and their brick chimneys were built as the era built them, often with no clay liner, a flue for the stove and sometimes a second one for a wood or oil furnace. The Albert S. Sholes House is the town's one listing on the National Register.
The 1970s subdivisions often came with a masonry fireplace or one of the early factory-built metal boxes, and both are now fifty years old, which is when dampers rust, refractory panels crack and crowns start to pass water. The 2010s and 2020s houses commonly have gas or no fireplace, so the vent we are called about there is usually the dryer's.
Cornelius has three kinds of chimney: often unlined brick from the early 1900s, 1970s masonry or early factory-built fireplaces, and new gas units with no masonry at all.
The brick ones fail at the top, with crowns cracked and caps missing, and inside they need a camera because an open joint in an unlined flue is a path for heat into the framing. The 1970s fireplaces fail at the throat and firebox, a damper rusted stiff and firebrick joints washed out, while the factory-built units of that decade crack their refractory panels and rust their chase covers.
Cornelius calls run from camera inspections on the early 1900s brick and sweeps and caps on the 1970s fireplaces to stove sweeps on the farms and dryer vents in the newest tracts.
A 1970s masonry fireplace in Cornelius that burns through the wet months gets a sweep and a Level 1 look-over once a year, and that visit is where a rusted damper or a washed-out firebrick joint gets caught early. We photograph the flue before and after so you can see what came out of it.
The early 1900s houses near the highway and the rail line get a Level 2 camera inspection when they sell or when a fireplace that has sat cold is coming back into use, because an unlined flue hides its open joints from anyone looking up from the hearth. The report comes with the images, which is what a buyer and a seller both want in hand.
Open flues on the older houses in Cornelius let rain down the brick and let birds and squirrels in, and a stainless cap with a spark screen closes both doors at once. On a 1970s factory-built unit the equivalent job is a new chase cover when the old galvanized one has rusted through at the seams.
The farm and nursery properties around Cornelius that heat with a wood stove run it from the first frost until spring, and a stove sweep means the baffle out, the connector pipe apart and the flue brushed to the cap. We read the stove's label while it is open, since an uncertified stove has to come out when the property sells.
In the 2010s and 2020s subdivisions a fireplace burns gas if there is one at all, so what clogs is the dryer exhaust, which can snake through an interior wall or climb to a roof cap. Towels that need a second cycle are the sign. We brush and vacuum that line from the back of the machine out to its hood and check that the outside flap opens freely.
The Tualatin Valley Highway, OR 8, runs straight through Cornelius as its main street, and that is how we arrive, west from Hillsboro or east from Forest Grove, with US 26 feeding Hillsboro from the Portland side.
The older blocks sit on both sides of the highway within a few turns of it, and the 1970s and newer streets fan out north and south, flat and easy to park on. Highway parking is the one thing to plan: if the house fronts OR 8, tell us where a truck can stand clear of the traffic lane, and we will come in from the side street.
Benjamin Cornelius settled here in 1845, when the place was still called Free Orchards. Thomas R. Cornelius built a store, warehouse, creamery and sawmills beside the railroad in 1871, and the town incorporated in April 1893.
The Cornelius Public Library was founded in 1912, and Veterans Memorial Park and the Virginia Garcia health center are the landmarks a newcomer learns first.
Cornelius calls itself Oregon's Family Town. The Albert S. Sholes House is the Cornelius entry on the National Register of Historic Places.
Yes, Cornelius and the 97113 addresses outside the city limits are both inside our area. The price is the posted one for the job, with no trip fee when we do the work. The farm properties often mean a wood stove rather than a fireplace, so say which you have when you book and we bring the stove tools. A shop or barn stove with its own flue can go on the same visit.
No, unless your household holds an exemption, because Washington County reports that Cornelius adopted a similar ordinance for its city limits. Between November 1 and March 1 a red day bars fireplaces and wood stoves until the alert lifts; pellet stoves are not covered, and a yellow day is a request rather than a ban. The wood burning rules guide on this site lists the county alert line and who qualifies for an exemption.
Usually within the week, and sooner in spring and summer than in October, when the first cold nights fill the calendar across Washington County. A cold fireplace that smells of smoke in Cornelius is telling you about creosote, a damper that no longer seals or rain coming down an uncapped flue, and all three show up on a sweep with the Level 1 look-over. Leave the damper closed until we come.
The metal flue gets brushed with a brush made for it, and the firebox and the space behind the refractory panels get cleaned. The damper, the panels and the chase cover get a Level 1 look. You get the before and after photos. Cracked panels and a rusted chase cover are the two findings worth asking about on that decade of fireplace, and both are repairable.
Only after a Level 2 camera inspection and, if the camera confirms bare brick, a stainless liner. An unlined flue in a 1910 Cornelius house has had a century of heat and rain working on its joints, and heat and gas go through any open one into the wall framing. The liner is sized to your fireplace and the old stack becomes its casing. Until then, keep the fireplace cold.
Yes, the home-sale removal law counts stoves in shops along with the one in the house. If the stove is uncertified, it has to be removed and destroyed when the property sells, with DEQ told, and the seller carries that unless the buyer takes it on in writing and does it within 30 days of closing. A pellet stove or an ornate antique built before 1940 is exempt.
Use our contractor-check guide for Oregon; it shows how to run the state lookup and what the result means. After that, two questions sort most companies: do I get the camera images of my own flue, and is the price posted before the truck leaves. A Cornelius house with 1900s brick deserves a company that answers yes to both without hesitation.
Cornelius sits between Forest Grove and Hillsboro on the highway, and the crew that covers it runs the whole corridor east to Beaverton.
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.