Meet the Team - Top Hat Chimney

Meet the Brooklyn Team Behind Top Hat Chimney

Top Hat Chimney has been working Brooklyn rooftops since 1999, and the crew that rolls up in our truck today isn’t a rotating cast of subcontractors. These are the people who answer the phone, climb the ladder, and put their names on the invoice. Most have been with Wendell for over a decade. They know brownstone flues, pre-war fireplaces, and the particular way a Park Slope chimney cap takes a beating from Atlantic wind. What unites them is simple: they treat your house like it’s on their own street, because in Brooklyn, it usually is.

Our People

Maria Delgado, Lead Technician

Maria has been sweeping and repairing chimneys with Top Hat since 2009, which makes her the longest-serving member of the crew after Wendell himself. She is CSIA certified and handles most of the complex liner work we do, including HeatShield and DuraFlex installations across Brooklyn heights, brownstones, and newer builds alike. Maria grew up in Sunset Park and still lives there, a fact she mentions whenever a job takes her within five blocks of her mother’s apartment. Her specialty is diagnosing draft problems that other companies write off as “just how old flues behave.” Usually, it isn’t.

Robert Chen, Senior Installer

Robert joined Top Hat in 2012 after a decade in general contracting, and he runs our cap, crown, and masonry repair work. He’s the one who will tell you, straight up, whether your crown needs repointing or can wait another season, and he won’t recommend a rebuild unless the camera footage backs it up. Robert lives in Bensonhurst and has strong opinions about the right way to flash a chimney on a flat roof. He’s also the crew’s resident expert on Olympia Chimney and Copperfield products, having installed more of them in Brooklyn than he can count, though he’s happy to show you the photos.

Denise Okafor, Service Coordinator

Denise is the voice you’ll hear most often when you call Top Hat. She’s been answering our phones since 2015 and knows the Brooklyn service area like the back of her hand, from Bay Ridge to Brownsville to Williamsburg. She books every job with a real arrival window and calls if anything shifts, which means you’re never left wondering where the truck is. Denise grew up in Flatbush and has a talent for talking anxious first-time homeowners through what a sweep actually involves before we ever show up. If you call at 2 a.m. with a question, it’s probably Denise who answers, and she’ll be more awake than you are.

Kevin O’Brien, Apprentice

Kevin came to Top Hat in 2023 after two years working residential roofing, and he’s spending his apprenticeship learning the full scope of chimney work from Maria and Robert. He shadows every sweep, handles tool staging and rooftop prep, and is working toward his own CSIA certification. Kevin lives in Sheepshead Bay and still gets a kick out of the view from a 4-story walkup roof on a clear day. His role on the crew is simple: he does the groundwork so the senior techs can focus on the chimney, and he’s getting good enough that Wendell lets him run the vacuum on small jobs.

One Standard, Every Job

Wendell Pike founded Top Hat Chimney in 1999 with a rule that hasn’t changed since: the number on the phone quote is the number on the invoice, and if the work isn’t done right, one call brings the crew back at no charge. That’s the 90-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s stamped on every job we complete in Brooklyn. Every technician is background-checked, uniformed, and trained to show you the camera footage before recommending any repair. We don’t sell liners you don’t need, and we don’t scare-sell chimney fires. We tell you what we found, show you the proof, and let you decide. That’s how a local crew keeps working the same neighborhoods for 29 years. Ask anyone on your street.

Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Brooklyn since 1999.