Chimney sweep near you
West Slope and Sylvan are in our area, and the calls come from tall hillside brick stacks: sweeps from a long ladder, caps and repointing on mossy shaded faces, and camera inspections of the orphaned furnace flue.
Updated
West Slope and Sylvan sit on the west face of the hills along the Sunset Highway, and the chimneys are hillside chimneys on mid-century houses, built on sloped lots where the downhill wall can be a full story taller than the uphill one.
A brick stack on the downhill side of one of those houses can stand well above grade before it clears the eave, and the mature firs around it keep the shaded faces wet, so moss, open joints and a damp firebox are what the setting produces. The furnaces that once shared those stacks have often been replaced, and where they have, the flue they used now sits cold and open.
The newer houses squeezed onto the steep parcels near Skyline Boulevard and Scholls Ferry Road tend to have factory-built fireplaces in tall chases, or gas, and the few pre-war houses cluster near where the old Sylvan post office stood, at today's interchange. Sylvan also straddles the county line, which changes the wood burning rule from one side to the other.
Many West Slope and Sylvan chimneys are mid-century brick stacks carrying a fireplace flue and an old furnace flue, and they stand tall where the roof they come through sits above a daylight basement on the downhill side.
Height and shade decide what fails. A tall stack catches more wind-driven rain on its west face, moss holds that water against the shaded brick, and the crown and the top courses go first; inside, the orphaned furnace flue condenses and sheds mortar. The tall chases on the newer houses have their own weak points at the chase cover and the termination cap.
On West Slope and Sylvan the ladder, the moss and the orphaned flue show up across the calls below.
A mid-century fireplace on the hill that still burns through the winter gets a yearly sweep that starts with the setup: the extension ladder set on the uphill side, roof hooks on the pitch, and a decision about whether the top of a tall stack is safe to work from or whether the brushes go up from the hearth with the vacuum sealed at the opening. The brushwork, the damper check and the photos are the same as anywhere.
An uncapped flue high on a west-facing wall takes rain sideways, and the smoke shelf, the damper and the firebox below it stay wet all winter; a screened stainless cap is the simplest fix on this list and the one that saves the damper. On a two-flue stack the idle furnace flue gets a cap of its own.
Mossy joints on the dark side of a West Slope stack wash out a little every winter until the brick is sitting on sand, and on a chimney that tall the repair is worth doing before the top courses loosen. We remove the moss, rake and repoint the joints, swap out spalled brick and finish with a repellent that lets the brick dry.
On a Sylvan or West Slope house a Level 2 camera inspection covers both flues in the stack, the orphaned furnace flue included, and it is the right first call before a sale, after years without a fire, or when the furnace has just been replaced. From the roof we also look at how a tall unreinforced stack is tied to the house, because tall, slender chimneys are the most vulnerable in a quake.
The old furnace flue gets relined if it still serves the water heater, or capped and closed off if it serves nothing, and a cracked fireplace tile calls for a stainless liner of its own, sized for the firebox. On a stack this tall the liner run is long, so the camera inspection comes first and the liner is priced from what it shows.
The Sunset Highway's Sylvan interchange drops us onto Scholls Ferry Road and Skyline Boulevard at the top of the hill, and Canyon Road and Barnes Road cover the slopes between.
From the Beaverton side, OR 217 to Canyon Road or Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway reaches West Slope. The streets are steep and some of the driveways are steeper, so tell us if the chimney climbs the uphill or the downhill wall and where a van can park without rolling; it decides which ladder comes off the rack before we leave.
The Sylvan name honors Silvanus, the Roman god of the woods, and the Sylvan post office operated from 1890 to 1906 at what is now the interchange of the Sunset Highway, Scholls Ferry Road and Skyline Boulevard.
Settler Nathan B. Jones platted Zion Town here in 1850 and hoped it would become Oregon's capital. West Slope was scheduled for annexation into Beaverton by 2010 under a county and city plan, yet it remains unincorporated.
The Oregon Zoo sits in the Sylvan-Highlands neighborhood on the Portland side of Sylvan, and the West Haven-Sylvan community spans the line between Washington County and Multnomah County.
Residents give directions by Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, Catlin Gabel School and West Sylvan Middle School, and the West Slope elementary schools include Raleigh Park, Ridgewood and William Walker.
Yes, both ZIPs and both sides of the county line are inside our area. The visit, the posted price and the rule that the trip is not an extra line when we do the work are the same whether the house is in Washington County or across the line in Multnomah County. Which county you are in decides the wood burning rule and nothing else about the job.
Because a tall stack on the west face of the hill takes rain sideways. Sideways rain finds what a drizzle misses: an open joint high on the stack, a crack in the crown, flashing that has lifted on the exposed side, or an uncapped flue. Hard rain also drives water through moss-softened joints that look fine in a dry week. We find the entry from the roof and fix that, rather than caulking the symptom.
It depends which county the house sits in, and in Sylvan that can change within a few blocks. On the Washington County side the county program is in effect November 1 through March 1, and on a red day the fireplace and the wood stove stay cold, exemptions aside. A Sylvan address in Multnomah County follows that county's program instead. Our wood burning rules guide covers both, with how each county posts the day.
Both, working together. The moss grows because the shaded face under the firs never dries, and once it is established it holds water in the brick through every freeze, so the faces spall and the joints wash out behind it. On a tall hillside stack that process runs faster at the top, where the rain hits hardest. The fix is to remove the moss, repoint and replace what has failed, and treat the brick with a breathable repellent.
Yes, it can be, because an unused flue is not a sealed flue. Its top is open to the rain, and if the water heater still vents into it, that small appliance cannot keep a flue that size warm, so the gases condense and the acid loosens the mortar from inside. The camera settles whether it needs a water-heater-sized liner or a cap and a seal, and the orphaned chimney guide explains the choice.
A Level 2 camera inspection, both flues, from the roof and from the hearth. On a hillside house that means the tile liner of the fireplace flue, the condition of the idle furnace flue, the crown, cap and flashing on a stack you cannot see well from the ground, moss and spalling on the shaded face, and how the tall unreinforced brick is tied to the house. The photos and a written note reach you before you sign anything.
West Slope and Sylvan sit at the top of the hill between Beaverton and Portland, so the same crew covers Raleigh Hills below, Cedar Mill up Barnes Road and the Portland hills over the ridge.
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.