Chimney sweep near you
Woodlawn is in our Northeast coverage, and its small early-1900s bungalows put the work at the top of a short brick stack: a cracked crown, a missing cap and the first courses gone soft, plus a camera look down the old flue.
Updated
Woodlawn is a neighborhood of small working-class bungalows from the early 1900s, smaller than the houses next door in King and Piedmont, and a small house got a small chimney: one brick stack, usually on an outside wall, with a short run above the roof.
Short is not the same as simple. That stack still carried two flues, one for the fireplace and one for the coal or oil furnace, usually with no liner in either, and because so little of it stands above the roof, the crown and the top few courses take the full force of the weather with no room to spare before the damage reaches the roofline.
When the oil furnace left, the furnace flue was handed to a gas water heater or to nothing, and it has been cooling and condensing ever since. The newer infill houses scattered through the neighborhood have gas fireplaces or none, and Woodlawn is one of Portland's six conservation districts, so visible exterior changes to a contributing house can come with a city question before the work.
Woodlawn's chimney is the small bungalow stack: brick, two flues, on an outside wall, often unlined, with a crown that may be little more than a skim of mortar and a top that sits only a few courses above the shingles.
Those top courses are where every Woodlawn job starts: a thin crown cracks, water gets into the core, winter freezes it, and the brick faces pop off on the weather side, and on a short stack the water reaches the flashing and the roof deck fast. Inside, the orphaned furnace flue is the slower problem, because a water heater cannot keep it warm, so condensate collects and the joints soften.
Small stacks, thin crowns and an old furnace flue give Woodlawn a short, repeating list of calls.
The crown on a Woodlawn bungalow stack was often a thin mortar wash with no overhang, and after a century it is cracked through or gone, so rain runs straight into the brick core. We form and pour a new crown with a drip edge past the brick and a bond break around the flue, or patch and seal a crown that is still mostly sound, which stops most of the water before it starts the spalling.
A short stack with two open flues and no cap is a funnel, and in Woodlawn that usually means a wet smoke shelf, a rusting damper and water in the basement cleanout under the old furnace flue. A stainless cap with a screen over each flue, sized so it does not choke the draft, ends that and keeps raccoons and squirrels out; we check for birds first in late summer and September.
The fireplaces still in use on these small houses get a yearly sweep from firebox to cap with the opening sealed and a vacuum running, and a Level 1 look-over of the damper, smoke chamber and firebox, which on a short flue is a quicker visit than most. The before and after photos show you the inside of a flue that is close enough to the roof to inspect well.
A Woodlawn furnace flue that now vents only a gas water heater is too big and too cold for that one appliance, and the camera usually shows the wet, flaking joints that result; a stainless liner sized to the water heater fixes the draft and stops the condensation. An unlined fireplace flue gets its own liner, sized to the firebox, when the camera shows bare brick.
A Level 2 camera inspection is what we recommend when a Woodlawn bungalow changes hands, when a fireplace that has sat cold is going back into use, or when the owner simply wants to know what is inside before another winter. The camera shows tile, joints and the furnace flue on the same visit, and the written report comes with the images.
We reach Woodlawn from I-5 along NE Rosa Parks Way or NE Killingsworth St, with NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd running down its west side and NE Dekum St running into the center at the shops and the park.
The streets around Woodlawn Park at NE 13th and Dekum are residential and we park at the curb, and on a short stack the ladder usually goes up from the yard on the chimney side. If your house is an infill build with a gas fireplace or none, say so when you book, because the visit is then a dryer vent or a vent check rather than a brush job.
Woodlawn Park, 8.23 acres at NE 13th Ave and Dekum St, was acquired by the city in 1975 and is the center of the neighborhood along with the Dekum shops.
Most of Woodlawn's homes are small working-class bungalows, in contrast to the larger houses next door in King and Piedmont.
Woodlawn borders Sunderland to the north, Concordia to the east, King and Vernon to the south and Piedmont to the west.
Woodlawn is one of six city conservation districts created from the 1993 Albina Community Plan.
About two-thirds of Woodlawn households owned their homes at the 2010 census, and Woodlawn Methodist Church is one of the landmarks residents name.
Yes, all of Woodlawn, from the Martin Luther King side to the Concordia line and from Killingsworth up to the Sunderland edge, is inside the area we work. Small houses do not get a smaller welcome: a one-flue bungalow is booked against the same posted price list as a big house, with the drive included once the job is on.
If you call in late summer, within a couple of weeks. By late October we are into the fall rush and the dry days for pouring a crown get scarce. Crown work wants a dry stretch so the new concrete cures, which is why September is the month to book it in Woodlawn. A tarp over the top can hold a bad crown through a storm until we get there.
The same as a big one. The fireplace flue is brushed from firebox to cap with the opening sealed and a vacuum running, the smoke chamber and smoke shelf cleaned, the damper checked. A Level 1 look at everything we can reach without tools comes with it, and the furnace flue gets a light down it. You get the inside photos before and after and a written note, and on a short Woodlawn stack the whole thing is quick.
Hold off until a camera has been through it. A short flue is easy to inspect, and that is good news, but bare brick from 1908 with open joints lets heat and flue gases into the wall framing it runs through. If the camera finds no liner, a stainless liner matched to the firebox makes the fireplace usable again, and on a Woodlawn stack that is a shorter liner and a smaller job than most.
Yes on yellow, which is Multnomah County asking you to consider limiting burning. On red, fireplaces, wood and pellet stoves and fire pits are off from noon to noon unless your household holds a county exemption. The county posts the color by late morning and can call one in any month when poor air is expected. Our wood burning rules guide links the county status page and explains the exemptions.
It can add a step. Woodlawn is a city conservation district, so visible exterior changes on a contributing house may need historic resource review, and which repairs are exempt is a question we put to the city for your address before quoting. Repointing, a new crown and a cap change little of what shows from the street; a full rebuild above the roof is where we check most carefully.
Our contractor-check guide shows how to run any Oregon contractor through the state lookup and what each part of the result means. Then ask whoever you call for the price up front, and whether the camera images from your own flue come with the visit. On a Woodlawn bungalow the job is small enough that a straight answer to both is easy to give.
Dekum, Killingsworth and Rosa Parks Way link the same crew to Piedmont, Alberta and Kenton within a few turns of Woodlawn Park.
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.