Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
Olympia Chimney Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Brooklyn: What to Know First
We rebuild and reline Olympia Chimney systems all over Brooklyn, from the brownstones off Flatbush to the row houses in Carroll Gardens and Bay Ridge. Most liner replacements take a single day once we’re on the roof, and we quote the real number before a single tool comes off the truck. You’ll know exactly what it costs before we start, because that’s how Wendell Pike has run Top Hat Chimney since 1999.
This page is for Brooklyn homeowners with an Olympia Chimney liner, cap, or crown system that’s showing its age. If you’re seeing rust flakes in the firebox, noticing a sulfur smell after rain, or you’ve been told by another company that you need a rebuild and you want a second set of eyes, call (516) 289-9316. We’ll come out, put a camera up the flue, and show you what we see.
How Olympia Chimney Products Fail - and How We Fix Them
Olympia Chimney builds solid stainless steel systems, but Brooklyn’s weather and decades of use expose weak points just like any other brand. Here’s what we see most often on Olympia jobs in this borough:
- Flexible liner kinking at the smoke shelf. On Olympia’s flexible stainless liners, we regularly find kinks where the liner bends through the smoke shelf into the clay tile. It’s not a manufacturing defect. It’s what happens when someone pulls the liner too hard during installation, or when years of thermal expansion and contraction work the bend against the old tile. A kinked liner restricts draft and traps creosote. The fix is a new liner, correctly sized, pulled with the right tension. We’ve fixed more of these in Brooklyn than we can count.
- Pinhole corrosion on older Olympia rigid sections. Olympia’s early rigid liners hold up well, but after 20-plus years near the Atlantic’s salt air, we see pinholes forming at the seam welds, especially on exterior chimneys in Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park. Condensation gets in the gap between the liner and the masonry, eats at the weld, and you end up with moisture in the firebox and a faint metallic smell. The fix is a liner replacement with proper insulation wrap. On homes within a few blocks of the water, we recommend insulation every time.
- Cap screen clogging on Olympia chimney caps. Olympia makes a tight mesh screen that keeps animals out, but Brooklyn’s pigeons, starlings, and maple seed pods clog them faster than anywhere else we’ve worked. A clogged cap screen strangles draft and pushes smoke back into the house. That one is a cleaning or cap replacement, not a full liner job. Ask anyone on your street how often they think about their chimney cap. Exactly.
- Crown separation at the liner collar. We see Olympia liners on Brooklyn homes where the original installer used the wrong crown collar or skipped it entirely. Water gets between the liner and the crown, freezes through our January thaw-freeze cycles, and cracks the crown right at the collar. The liner itself may still be sound, but water is getting behind it and will eventually eat the masonry. The fix is a new poured crown with the right collar, and sometimes a partial rebuild if the freeze damage went deep.
- Warped oval-to-round adapters on Olympia conversions. When a Brooklyn homeowner converts an old fireplace to a wood stove or insert, the adapter from Olympia’s oval to round pipe takes the most heat stress. We replace warped adapters regularly. It’s a parts swap, not a full liner replacement, but it has to be done with high-temp alloy and proper sealing, or you’ll be back in two years with the same problem.
Your flue doesn’t care how the fire looks. It cares how it breathes. And most of what we fix on Olympia systems in Brooklyn is a breathing problem.
Our Olympia Chimney Chimney Liner & Rebuild Process
Here’s how a typical Olympia Chimney liner or rebuild job goes with us, start to finish:
- 1
You call, a person answers. Not a call center. Not a voicemail box. You’ll talk to someone at (516) 289-9316, day or night, and we’ll ask about what you’re seeing. We’ll give you a straight answer about whether this sounds like an emergency or something you can schedule.
- 2
We come out and run the camera. Wendell or one of his background-checked, uniformed crew members arrives in a real window. We put a camera up the flue before we recommend anything. No exceptions. The footage and a plain-English verdict, every time.
- 3
You see what we see. We’ll show you the camera footage on our screen and tell you honestly whether you need a new Olympia liner, a partial rebuild, or just a cleaning. If it doesn’t need doing, we’ll tell you that too.
- 4
Parts decision. For Olympia systems, we use OEM Olympia parts when they’re the right choice, and quality aftermarket stainless when they’re functionally identical and save you money. We’ll tell you which is which and why.
- 5
The work, done the Top Hat way. Liner replacement, reline, crown rebuild, or full rebuild. We protect the roof, keep the work area clean, and we don’t leave until the draft tests right and the system is safe to burn.
- 6
The 90-Day Done Right Promise. Every job, in writing. If something isn’t right, one call brings us back at no additional cost. We’ve stood by that promise in Brooklyn for over 25 years.
What Olympia Chimney Chimney Liner & Rebuild Costs in Brooklyn
Every chimney is different, so we give the real number after we see the flue. But here are honest ranges for Olympia Chimney work we do in Brooklyn so you know what to expect:
- Olympia flexible liner replacement (single story, straight run): $1,900 to $3,200
- Liner replacement on a two-story Brooklyn row house: $2,800 to $4,500
- Insulated liner upgrade (for exterior chimneys near the water): adds $600 to $1,100
- Partial rebuild (crown, top 2 to 3 feet of masonry, chimney cap): $2,500 to $5,000
- Full chimney rebuild from the roof line up: $5,500 to $12,000 depending on height and brick match
- Adapter, crown collar, or cap replacement alone: $450 to $1,400
What moves the price is chimney height, roof pitch, accessibility, and whether we’re matching old Brooklyn brick or working on a straightforward replacement. We give you one number before work starts, and that’s the number on the invoice. No trip charge inside our county. Call (516) 289-9316 for a free estimate.
Why Brooklyn Homeowners Call Top Hat Chimney for Olympia Chimney Work
Wendell Pike started Top Hat Chimney in 1999, and he’s spent the better part of two decades on Brooklyn rooftops. He knows the difference between a liner that’s failed and a liner that just looks old on camera. He learned the mechanical side of the trade at Palomar College, and the rest he learned the hard way: on actual chimneys, in actual Brooklyn winters, with actual homeowners standing in their living rooms asking whether they’re safe.
We work on Olympia Chimney systems every week, and we also install and service DuraFlex, HeatShield, and Gelco when those are the better fit for the job. We’re not tied to one brand, so the recommendation you get is about your chimney, not our inventory. We’re locally owned and owner-operated, with a published address and license number. You can find us. You can call us. Wendell answers the phone half the time himself. And the 90-Day Done Right Promise is stamped on every job in writing, including Olympia Chimney work.
FAQs
We’re an independent Olympia Chimney service provider, not an authorized warranty center. If your liner is still under Olympia’s warranty, we’ll help you document the failure with camera footage and measurements so you can file the claim yourself, and we’ll install the replacement to manufacturer spec so your coverage stays intact. Call (516) 289-9316 and we’ll walk you through what warranty documentation looks like.
It depends on the failure. A clogged cap screen, a warped adapter, or a loose crown collar is a repair. Pinhole corrosion through the steel or a kinked liner is a replacement. We’ll show you the camera footage and tell you straight up which one you have. Call (516) 289-9316 for an honest assessment.
Most single-story liner replacements take one day. Two-story Brooklyn row houses can take a day and a half depending on roof access and the condition of the clay tile we’re pulling through. Partial rebuilds add a day or two. We’ll give you a real timeline when we see the job, and we’ll call if it slips.
First-degree creosote is a brush job. Third-degree is a glaze, catch it early. If a camera inspection shows the liner is structurally sound and just dirty, we’ll tell you that and sweep it. If the liner is compromised, a sweep doesn’t fix the problem, it just postpones it. You’ll see the footage either way. Call (516) 289-9316 and ask for a camera inspection; the estimate is free.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner, Top Hat Chimney at Top Hat Chimney, serving Brooklyn and nearby areas.





Before
After
Before
After
Before
After