Chimney sweep near you
We sweep, inspect and reline chimneys across Sellwood-Moreland, from the 1880s houses of old Sellwood to the Craftsman bungalows between Milwaukie and 13th. Camera inspections before a sale and stainless liners for flues that were never lined come up often here.
Updated
Most of Sellwood-Moreland went up between 1905 and 1930 as Craftsman bungalows, typically with a brick stack for an open fireplace and a basement furnace, around older houses from Sellwood's years as a separate town, 1889 to 1893.
Houses left from Sellwood's town years, before Portland annexed it in 1893, carry some of the oldest brick chimneys on the east side of the river. Many bungalow flues were built without clay tile, and the ones that have tile have taken close to a century of Portland rain through the crown and down the joints.
Along SE Milwaukie Ave and SE 13th Ave the apartment and mixed-use buildings of the 2010s have gas fireplaces or none at all, so there the call is usually a dryer vent. Close to half of Sellwood-Moreland households rented at the 2010 count, so a chimney here is as likely to be checked for a landlord or a pending sale as for the people living with it.
The chimneys of Sellwood-Moreland are brick from two eras: tall, narrow stacks on the Victorian-era houses of old Sellwood, built for a parlor fireplace and a kitchen stove or coal furnace, and squatter bungalow stacks with a fireplace flue beside a furnace flue.
Neither era came with a liner you can count on. On the bungalows the furnace flue has often been abandoned by an oil-to-gas conversion, and an abandoned flue open at the top pulls damp air down through the brick all winter. Above the roof, the face that takes the weather is where the mortar opens first, and a thin crown from the bungalow years is often split by now.
Pre-sale camera inspections, liners for unlined flues, fall sweeps, repointing on the town-era brick and dryer vents in the new buildings make up the Sellwood-Moreland list.
With close to half the neighborhood renting and houses turning over on blocks where the chimneys predate 1900, the pre-sale camera inspection is a frequent request in Sellwood-Moreland. The buyer gets video of the flue interior and a written note on whether the stack can be used as it stands, needs a liner, or needs masonry work first.
An 1890s or bungalow-era flue that has no clay tile, or whose tile has cracked and shifted, gets a stainless steel liner matched to the fireplace or stove it serves. On the furnace side of the stack, a flue that lost its furnace to a sidewall-vented gas unit gets either a correctly sized liner for the water heater that remains or a permanent cap and closure.
The bungalows that still burn wood through the wet months get a sweep each fall, with brushes run the full height of the fireplace flue and a Level 1 look at the firebox, damper and smoke chamber. On the 1880s houses we also check whether an old kitchen stove thimble was ever sealed, because an open thimble behind a wall is a hidden path for smoke.
Brick that has stood since the Sellwood town years has open joints and spalled faces, most of all above the roofline where nothing shelters it. We grind and repoint the failed joints, replace broken brick to match, rebuild the crown where it has split, and finish with a breathable repellent so the wall can dry out between storms.
The 2010s buildings along Milwaukie and 13th rarely have a wood fireplace, but in-unit dryers are another matter, and the vent runs inside a multi-story building can be long with several elbows. We clean the duct from the dryer connection to the exterior hood and confirm the flap swings free.
We reach Sellwood-Moreland from McLoughlin Blvd (OR 99E), turning west at SE Tacoma St or SE Bybee Blvd, or from the west side by crossing the Sellwood Bridge from Macadam Ave on OR 43.
SE Milwaukie Ave, SE 13th Ave and SE 17th Ave carry us north and south through the neighborhood, and parking on the side streets off them varies by block. Near the antique shops on 13th and Milwaukie, tell us when you book where a van can pull in and whether the chimney is easier to ladder from the back of the lot.
Sellwood incorporated as a town on February 25, 1889, and gave up its independence to Portland four years later, in 1893.
The first Sellwood Bridge opened on December 15, 1925; its replacement, a steel deck arch close to 2,000 feet long, opened to traffic on February 29, 2016.
During the rebuild, in January 2013, crews slid the entire old bridge, all 6.8 million pounds of it, onto temporary supports, where it carried traffic for more than three years.
Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge below the bluff dates from 1988, with Oaks Amusement Park beside it on the river.
Residents orient by the bridge, Sellwood Park, Westmoreland Park, the Moreland Theater and the antique stores along SE 13th and SE Milwaukie.
Yes, every residential street in the 97202 part of Sellwood-Moreland is on our regular route, from the bluff above Oaks Bottom to the Westmoreland blocks east of Milwaukie. The price you see posted is the price for the visit, with nothing added for the drive when we do the work. Apartment buildings along 13th and Milwaukie are covered too, usually for dryer vents.
Not until a camera has been down it. In a flue that old we tend to find open joints and missing brick that rule out a fire until a liner goes in. Keep it cold for now and book a Level 2 inspection; the images will show whether a stainless liner is all it needs or whether the brick above the roof needs attention first. A liner turns an 1890s stack into a continuous flue without rebuilding it.
Yes, we schedule several units in one block of time and write up each flue separately, with photos, so you can decide unit by unit. In older Sellwood rentals we come across fireplaces that were bricked in or boarded over decades ago with the flue left open at the top; those get a cap and a sealed damper so they stop pulling weather into the building. Working fireplaces get a sweep and a Level 1 note.
No, not without a county exemption. A Multnomah County red day shuts down fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves and backyard fires from noon until noon the following day, and exemptions cover cases such as households that heat solely with wood or qualify by income. A yellow day is voluntary, the county asking households to consider limiting burning. The status can change in any month, including wildfire season, so check before you light. Our wood burning rules guide walks through it.
If the insert is an uncertified model, yes, it has to come out. Oregon's rule is that the uncertified unit is taken out and destroyed when the house changes hands, by the seller unless a written agreement lets the buyer do it within 30 days of closing. Open fireplaces and pellet stoves are exempt. Order a Level 2 inspection at the same time, since an insert should vent through its own liner and the camera confirms that.
Outside the fall rush, usually the same week. October and November are the exception, when the first cold evening fills the calendar across Southeast Portland, so if you want the flue swept and photographed before the first fire of the season, book in August or September. A chimney that smoked back into the room or dropped debris into the firebox stays unused until we have looked at it.
Start with our guide to checking an Oregon contractor, which shows how to run the state lookup on any company. Then ask whoever you call whether the price is posted before the truck rolls and whether you will see your own flue on camera. On an 1890s or bungalow-era Sellwood-Moreland chimney, a company that cannot show you the inside of the flue is guessing about the part that matters most.
From the Sellwood blocks the same truck works north through Brooklyn and east past the golf course to Eastmoreland, Woodstock and Brentwood-Darlington.
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.