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.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterFast, Reliable Chimney Liner & Rebuild Across Midwood
Chimney liner and rebuild work in Midwood typically runs $2,400 to $6,800 depending on whether you need a stainless steel liner retrofit, a partial rebuild, or a full teardown from the roofline up. We’re in and out of Midwood’s side streets off Avenue J, Avenue M, and Kings Highway every week, and we know exactly what these 1920s and 1930s brick homes throw at a chimney. Wendell Pike and his crew handle everything from a simple liner replacement to a complete rebuild, with the camera footage to prove what’s actually needed. Call (516) 289-9316 and you’ll get a real person on the line, not a call center.
Why Top Hat Chimney Is Midwood’s Preferred Chimney Liner & Rebuild Company
We’ve been working the residential blocks of Midwood long enough to know that no two chimneys here are quite the same. Homes along Ocean Avenue, East 16th Street, and the blocks radiating off Avenue N share the same interwar bones, but each flue has its own history of coal conversion, partial repairs, and deferred maintenance. Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild crew has pulled everything from 1950s terra-cotta shards to rusted-out galvanized caps out of Midwood chimneys, and we can usually tell you what’s wrong before we even set up the ladder. Customers in zip codes 11230 and 11210 call us back for the same reason: the price quoted over the phone is the price on the invoice, and Wendell puts his name on every job.
We answer the phone around the clock. Not a voicemail box, not a third-party answering service. Often it’s Wendell himself picking up, which matters when you’ve got water staining around a party-wall chimney at 7 a.m. and you need someone who knows what a freeze-thaw cycle does to lime-mortar joints. Our crews arrive in uniform, background-checked, and we give you a real arrival window. If the window slips, we call. And if you’re inside our service county, there’s no trip charge.
Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild Services in Midwood
Stainless Steel Liner
A stainless steel liner is the standard fix for Midwood’s coal-to-gas conversion issue. Most of these homes were built with flues sized for coal boilers, then switched to gas without relining. That leaves an oversized, unlined flue that can’t maintain proper draft, letting carbon monoxide back up into the house. We install DuraFlex stainless liners sized correctly for the appliance they’re venting, and we pull permits where NYC code requires it. The camera goes down before and after, so you see the before and after with your own eyes.
Flexible Liner
Flexible liners are often the only practical option for Midwood chimneys with offset flues or corbeled turns, which is common in these 1920s semi-detached builds. We work with Gelco and Olympia Chimney flexible stainless systems, and we’re honest about when a flexible liner makes sense versus a rigid one. Corroded terra-cotta sections, cracked mortar joints, and the tight bends inside older Midwood stacks usually mean flex is the cleaner fix. If a flex liner won’t actually solve the problem, we’ll tell you that before you spend a dime.
Liner Replacement
Midwood homes that already have a liner often find it’s the original galvanized steel from a 1980s or 1990s retrofit, and salt air from Jamaica Bay has eaten right through it. We see perforated liners on Ocean Parkway blocks regularly. Replacement means pulling the old liner, cleaning the flue, and installing a proper stainless system sized for the current appliance. No advice on this page can replace a camera inspection, and we don’t recommend replacement without it.
Partial Rebuild
A partial rebuild usually means the top section above the roofline has spalled and cracked beyond simple tuck-pointing, while the lower stack is sound. On Midwood’s semi-detached brick homes, the upper flue and crown are what take the worst of the freeze-thaw punishment, so this is the rebuild we do most often. We set up scaffolding on the roof, tear down to a clean stopping point, and reline the rebuilt section with the same stainless system we put in the rest of the flue. The job gets done in a day or two depending on the stack height, and it’s covered by our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing.
What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
- 3
A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
- 4
You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Midwood
We stock and install products from Gelco, Olympia Chimney, and Famco, which means we’re not waiting on a distributor to ship parts for a Midwood job. If you need a Famco cap or a Gelco liner kit on a Tuesday, it’s likely on the truck when we show up. We service DuraFlex and Copperfield systems too, so if a previous contractor installed one of those, we can maintain or replace it without changing the whole setup.
Common Chimney Liner & Rebuild Problems We See in Midwood Homes
- Corroded galvanized caps and crowns from salt air. The humidity coming off Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic accelerates rust on galvanized components. A cap that would last 20 years inland fails in 10 to 15 here near Ocean Avenue. Once the cap goes, moisture gets in and starts spalling the common brick beneath it.
- Oversized flues left over from coal heat. The 1920s through 1940s semi-detached homes of Midwood were built for coal-fired boilers. When those went to oil and then gas, the flues were never resized. An oversized flue means weak draft and carbon monoxide risk, and the correct fix is a properly sized stainless liner.
- Shared party-wall chimney cross-venting. In Midwood’s semi-detached homes, one stack often serves both units. A deteriorated internal wythe lets a furnace in one home vent through the fireplace flue of the adjoining unit. Most homeowners never know until a smoke or pressure test shows it, and we run those tests on every liner job where the stack is shared.
- Decades of moisture intrusion from unsealed crowns. Many Midwood fireplaces were decoratively sealed years ago, but the flues above were never capped. Rain, snowmelt, and humidity have been getting in for decades, cracking the terra-cotta liner and loosening mortar joints from the inside. By the time we see it, the liner is often in sections at the bottom of the smoke chamber.
Pricing for Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Midwood, NY
A stainless steel liner replacement in Midwood runs $2,400 to $4,200 for most single-flue semi-detached homes. Flexible liner jobs land in the same range, though a tight offset flue can push the labor up a bit. Partial rebuilds, where we tear down from the roofline and rebuild the upper stack, usually run $3,500 to $5,900 depending on how many courses of brick need resetting and whether scaffolding is required. A full chimney rebuild from the firebox up starts around $6,000 and can reach $9,800 on bigger stacks. The number you hear on the phone is the number on the invoice, every time. Call (516) 289-9316 for an exact quote, and if you’ve got a written estimate from another company, we’ll give you a free second opinion.
We Also Serve Cities Near Midwood
We’re active in Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Midwood every week, and we cover the surrounding neighborhoods as well. Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Ridgewood, and Glendale are all in our regular rotation. If you’re a few blocks past the Midwood line, we’ll still be there on time.
Serving Midwood, NY - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Midwood area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Midwood
Every year, even if the fireplace has never been lit. Midwood’s salt air and freeze-thaw cycles do damage whether or not you use the chimney, and a gas furnace venting into a deteriorated flue is a carbon monoxide risk regardless of the firebox. Once a year, burn or no burn. Call (516) 289-9316 to schedule an inspection, and we’ll show you the camera footage either way.
A 1930s Midwood home was built with a flue sized for a coal boiler, which is far larger than what a modern gas furnace needs. The oversized flue can’t maintain proper draft, which leads to condensation, acidic flue gases eating at the mortar, and carbon monoxide lingering instead of venting. A stainless steel liner sized to the appliance is the code-compliant fix, and it’s the liner we install most often in Midwood.
Yes. Salt air accelerates corrosion on galvanized components, and Midwood’s proximity to Jamaica Bay means caps and crowns here fail years before they would further inland. A corroded cap lets moisture into the flue, which then spalls the soft common brick and cracks the terra-cotta liner underneath. If you can see rust streaks on your chimney, call (516) 289-9316 for an inspection before it becomes a rebuild.
The cap and crown are usually the first to go. Galvanized caps rust through in the salt air, the crown loses its drip edge and starts absorbing water, and the freeze-thaw cycles of a Brooklyn winter push the cracks wider every year. Once the crown goes, the brick and liner below it fail in sequence. Catching the crown early is a few hundred dollars. Waiting until the liner cracks is a few thousand.
You don’t, not without a smoke or pressure test. Midwood’s semi-detached homes often share a single chimney stack with an internal wythe dividing the flues, and when that wythe deteriorates, combustion gases can cross from one unit into the other. We run a pressure test on every shared-stack liner job in Midwood, and the results are documented on camera before and after the work. Call (516) 289-9316 to book the test, especially if you smell furnace exhaust in a room that isn’t near the furnace.
Call Top Hat Chimney for Liner & Rebuild Work in Midwood
If your Midwood chimney is showing rust, spalling brick, or you’ve never had the flue inspected since buying the house, call (516) 289-9316. We’ll send Wendell and his crew, do the camera inspection, and give you a plain-English verdict. If the liner needs replacement, you’ll see the proof on video before any work is approved. If it doesn’t need doing, we’ll tell you that too. Estimates are free, the 90-Day Done Right Promise is in writing, and there’s no trip charge inside the county. Seniors and veterans always save 10%.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Midwood and the surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods since 1999.