Chimney sweep near you
We cover Forest Heights from NW Miller Rd to Skyline, and because the houses date from the late 1980s on, the work is gas vent checks, camera inspections of metal flues in sided chases, and chase covers and caps rusted by forest damp.
Updated
Most Forest Heights houses date from the late 1980s onward, because the subdivision, planned in the early 1970s as Forest Park Estate, stalled over land-use fights until it was bought and renamed in 1988.
Most Forest Heights houses were built with a factory-built metal fireplace and a metal flue inside a sided chase, or with a gas fireplace, and the townhomes and condos at The Village at Forest Heights have gas or none. Old brick is rare here; the masonry chimneys, and the occasional wood stove, belong to the scattered older houses on NW Cornell Rd and NW Skyline Blvd above the park.
The setting does the damage. Steep lots put a chase two or three stories above grade on the downhill side, the forest keeps chase covers, caps and crowns wet and mossy, ice stays on the shaded streets long after it has melted below, and Forest Park next door is treated by the city as a wildfire hazard zone, which makes a spark arrestor on every cap more than a formality.
A Forest Heights chimney is usually not a chimney at all but a chase: a framed, sided box around a metal flue from a factory-built fireplace or a direct-vent gas unit, with a sheet-metal cover on top.
What fails is the top and the inside of the box. A plain galvanized chase cover can rust through at its seams under the canopy and drips onto the flue pipe; a cover holding a puddle is the first thing we photograph. Inside, refractory panels crack and the flue pipe rusts where water reached it, and a gas unit's vent and termination cap need checking for corrosion and blockage.
Forest Heights houses are built around metal, not brick, so the list below runs to chases, gas vents and the covers and caps that protect them.
A Level 2 camera inspection on a Forest Heights factory-built fireplace runs the camera up the metal flue to look for rust, separated sections and a crushed or missing cap, and pairs it with a look at the refractory panels and the chase cover from the roof. It is the right first step before a sale, after a limb has hit the chase, or when a 1990s unit is about to burn its first fire in years.
A stain on the ceiling beside a Forest Heights fireplace often traces to the chase top: a rusted cover, a failed storm collar around the flue pipe, or flashing lifted where the chase meets a steep roof. A new fabricated cover that sheds water goes on, the collar and flashing get resealed, and we check that the chase siding is not wicking water in from below.
Every flue on this hill needs a cap with a spark arrestor screen, because the neighborhood borders a forest the city has designated a wildfire hazard zone, and a missing or rusted cap on a wood-burning unit is an open path for embers. We fit listed caps matched to the flue pipe on factory-built units and stainless caps on the masonry chimneys along Skyline and Cornell, and scrape the moss off the cover on the same trip.
The townhomes and condos at The Village at Forest Heights can have dryers a long way from an outside wall, and the vent runs may climb through framing to a roof or soffit termination that fills with lint and, under the trees, with needles and nests. We clean the full run, check the termination flap and tell you if the run is foil, crushed or longer than a dryer can push through.
The older houses along NW Skyline Blvd and NW Cornell Rd are where we expect the occasional wood stove, and a stove that burns all winter above the park needs its liner swept and its connector pipe and cap checked every year. We sweep through the liner where there is one, and if the stove is an older uncertified unit we mention Oregon's home-sale rule before it becomes a surprise.
We reach Forest Heights from the Sunset Highway by NW Barnes Rd or NW Miller Rd, from the Northwest District up NW Cornell Rd, or along NW Skyline Blvd when we are already on the ridge.
Inside the neighborhood, NW Miller Rd and NW Thompson Rd feed side streets that drop off the ridge, so a chase on the downhill side can be three stories up. Tell us which side the fireplace is on and whether the house backs onto the park, and if a limb has come down on the roof, say so, because that changes what we bring.
Forest Heights started as Forest Park Estate, a subdivision planned in the early 1970s that stalled over land-use issues until 1988, when it was bought on behalf of the Pacific island nation of Nauru and renamed.
Forest Park covers more than 5,100 acres, was dedicated on September 23, 1948, and climbs from about 50 feet near US 30 to about 1,100 feet along the Skyline ridge.
Forest Park Elementary School sits at 9935 NW Durrett St, and the Wildwood Trail runs about 30 miles, roughly 27 of them inside the park.
A campfire blaze burned 1,600 acres near the park's western end in 1951, and in 2021 and 2022 the city designated the park and the areas around it a high-risk wildfire hazard zone where camping is banned during fire season.
The head of the city's disaster-preparedness bureau said in 2021 that more than 70,000 residents live in areas a Forest Park fire would directly threaten.
Yes, the whole Forest Park neighborhood that includes Forest Heights is in our area, across 97229, 97210 and 97231. That runs from The Village up to the ridge and takes in the older houses along NW Skyline Blvd and NW Cornell Rd. Steep lots and chases on the downhill side are normal here and do not change the posted price, and the trip up the hill is part of the job when we do the work.
A vent inspection, yes; a brush, no. Gas burns clean of soot but its exhaust is wet and acidic, so the metal vent, the termination cap on the chase and the seals around the firebox corrode over time, and spiders, needles and nests block terminations under the trees. We inspect and clean the vent path, check the cap and the glass, and refer the gas valve and burner work to a gas technician.
A Level 2 inspection runs a camera up the metal flue and checks the refractory panels, damper, screen and chase cover; a sweep only brushes the flue. On a unit around thirty years old the questions are rust in the pipe, cracked panels and a chase cover that has let water in, none of which a brush reveals. If the pipe or firebox has rusted through, the honest answer is replacement, and the report says so.
Because it sits under dripping trees in a neighborhood that stays damp longer than the flats, and a plain galvanized cover was never going to last there. The replacement is a fabricated cover in stainless or heavier coated steel with a raised center so water sheds, a proper storm collar at the flue pipe, and a drip edge past the siding. Fitted right, it ends the cycle of patching the old cover every year.
Yes, the county rule applies in Forest Heights, and the park adds a fire-season concern of its own. A red day means wood and pellet fires stay out from noon to noon without a county exemption, and a yellow day is a county request to consider limiting burning. Because of the park next door, we want a spark arrestor screen on every wood-burning flue on this hill and no open fires near the tree line.
Ask for a Level 2 inspection with the camera run up the metal flue, the level advised at a sale, though no Oregon law demands it. Make sure it covers the chase cover and the refractory panels in the firebox; a 1994 unit may be fine or at the end of its life, and only the camera tells you which. If an uncertified wood stove sits in an outbuilding or shop, Oregon's home-sale removal rule covers that too.
Begin with the state lookup our contractor-check guide explains. Then ask three questions specific to a factory-built fireplace: have they worked on prefab units and chase covers, will the report include camera images of the flue pipe, and is the price set before the visit. A company that only talks about brick may not be the right fit for a 1990s chase, and one that quotes before seeing the pipe is guessing.
Off the ridge the same truck drops into the Northwest District, crosses to the St. Johns side of the river, and works the hill neighborhoods to the south.
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.