Famco Chimney Liner & Rebuild Nationwide

Famco Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Brooklyn: What to Know First

We install and rebuild Famco chimney liners across Brooklyn for $1,100 to $4,800, depending on liner length, home height, and whether the flue needs a partial or full rebuild. Most Famco liner jobs are done in one day, with the heavier rebuilds running two to three. You’ll get a straight price before we start, and the number on the invoice matches the number on the phone.

Call (516) 289-9316

This page is for Brooklyn homeowners with a Famco liner already in the flue or a Famco liner on an estimate that just landed in your hand. We’re an independent Famco service provider. We work on these liners every season, and we’ll tell you plainly what needs doing and what can wait. Call (516) 289-9316 and you’ll get a live person, likely Wendell Pike himself, not a call center.

How Famco Products Fail - and How We Fix Them

• Famco flexible liner seams pulling apart at the corrugation points. We see this most on the standard flexible stainless liners that Brooklyn brownstones and row houses have had in place for ten or fifteen years. The corrugated ridges give the liner its flex, but they’re also the thinnest part of the steel. Creosote sits in those grooves, the heating and cooling cycles work against the welds, and eventually the seam starts to separate. We fix this with a liner replacement when the separation runs more than a few inches, or a targeted Famco-compatible repair collar when it’s caught early. If it doesn’t need replacing, we’ll say so.
• Famco rigid liner sections losing their mechanical joint at the mid-flue connection. The rigid stainless sections feed into a masonry flue tile, and the joint between sections is a slip-fit with a locking band. On taller Brooklyn chimneys, especially the three- and four-story walk-ups off Flatbush Avenue, wind load and thermal expansion slowly work that band loose. The symptom is a rattling you can hear from inside the house when the wind hits the chimney. The fix is re-seating the sections and installing new locking bands, and we check every other joint in the run while we’re in there.
• Famco stainless liner pitting from Brooklyn’s coastal air and flue gas condensation. Salt air comes in off the ocean and mixes with the acidic condensation inside a flue that isn’t drafting hot enough. Over years, you get pitting and pinholes, particularly on the lower third of the liner where the condensation pools. Homeowners usually don’t know until a gas appliance starts acting up or a sweep’s camera finds it. We replace the affected run, and we’ll give you the camera footage so you can see the pitting yourself. Your flue doesn’t care how the fire looks. It cares how it breathes.
• Famco liner improperly sized for the original Brooklyn masonry flue. This is the one we see most often on homes where a previous contractor or a previous homeowner installed an off-the-shelf kit without measuring the actual flue dimensions. An oversized liner drafts poorly because the gases cool too fast. An undersized liner chokes the draft and loads up with creosote. Brooklyn flues run all over the place, especially in older brownstones where the flue tiles are irregular. We measure the actual internal dimensions at three points, not just the top.
• Famco liner crown termination letting water in around the top plate. The top plate and storm collar seal where the liner exits the crown. The sealant that comes with the kit works fine for a while, but Brooklyn’s freeze-thaw cycle opens a gap, and water runs down the outside of the liner and into the flue chase. The fix is a new storm collar, fresh high-temperature sealant, and usually a new concrete crown or a cast-in-place crown cap. Water is the slow killer on a Brooklyn chimney, and the top of the liner is where it usually starts.

Our Famco Chimney Liner & Rebuild Process

1. 1
   Call and a real conversation. You get Wendell or a live person who knows chimneys. We ask about your house height, the appliance type, and what you’re seeing. You get a ballpark on the phone, not a switch-and-bait.
2. 2
   On-site inspection and camera run. We run the camera down the full flue before touching a single tool. You see the footage with us, and we give you the plain-English verdict: clean it, repair it, or replace it. Camera footage and a straight answer, every time, no exceptions.
3. 3
   The parts decision. For a Famco liner, we check what’s still serviceable. If a section can be repaired with a quality aftermarket collar and the rest of the liner is sound, we do that. If the liner is end-of-life, we price the replacement with Famco-compatible stainless or a comparable line like DuraFlex. You hear the price before work starts, written down.
4. 4
   The work itself. Liner pull and replace, targeted repair, or full masonry rebuild. We cover the floors, run the dust containment, and keep the soot where it belongs. For a rebuild, this means staging the brickwork from the roof line up or the throat to the top, depending on what the camera showed.
5. 5
   Draft test and combustion check. We don’t call it done until the draft is moving the way it should and the appliance is running safely. Then we show you the final camera run so you can see what we saw.
6. 6
   90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If something isn’t right, one call brings us back at no additional cost. That’s stamped on every Famco job we do in Brooklyn.

What Famco Chimney Liner & Rebuild Costs in Brooklyn

Here’s the honest range based on the Famco jobs we’ve done across Brooklyn over the past few seasons:

• Famco liner repair (single-section patch, collar, or band replacement): $400-$850
• Famco flexible liner replacement, standard two-story home: $1,100-$2,300
• Famco flexible liner replacement, three-to-four-story brownstone or walk-up: $2,200-$3,800
• Famco liner replacement plus partial masonry rebuild (top 10-15 courses): $3,500-$4,800
• Full chimney rebuild with new Famco-compatible liner: $5,000-$9,500, depending on height and brick access

The price moves on three things: the height of the house, the condition of the masonry around the flue, and whether we’re pulling an old liner or going into a clean flue. Brooklyn roof access, parapet walls, and cornice work can add a half-day on taller homes off Flatbush. You’ll get the exact number before any work starts. Call (516) 289-9316 for a free estimate, and remember: we offer $40 off any repair over $200, a free second opinion on any written estimate, and 10% off always for seniors and veterans.

Why Brooklyn Homeowners Call Top Hat Chimney for Famco Work

Wendell Pike has been on Brooklyn rooftops for the better part of two decades, from the old brownstones off Flatbush Avenue to the row houses on the quieter blocks of Carroll Gardens. He learned the mechanical side at Palomar College and figured out the rest on the roof. That’s the difference. When we show up for a Famco liner job, we know what we’re looking at because we’ve pulled dozens of these liners out of Brooklyn flues already.

We’re the locally owned, owner-operated alternative to the national outfits that quote one price on the phone and another at the door. Wendell publishes his name, his license number, and his address. You’ll see him again on Saturday at the hardware store. If the flue needs a liner, we tell you. If it doesn’t need doing, we’ll tell you that too. When Famco-compatible stainless is the right call, we use it. When another line fits better, we work with DuraFlex, HeatShield, and Gelco, and we’ll explain the difference in plain English. The 90-Day Done Right Promise is in writing on every job. One call brings us back.

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