Chimney sweep and repair in St. Anne, IL

By Jacob Dove, founder of Friendship Chimney Sweep · 29 years in the trade

St. Anne chimneys, from the shrine to the farms

The village grew up around the church Father Chiniquy founded in 1851, and the homes around it were built by families who expected a chimney to last forever. Many of them have. They are soft red brick, lime mortar, one or two flues, and often no liner. They have survived because they were built well and because for a century the fires in them were small and regular. What changes the math is a modern airtight stove or an insert pushed into that old fireplace, or a gas furnace venting into the flue. Both put stresses on the chimney it was never built for, and both are common in St. Anne.

Outside the village, along the roads toward Aroma Park and Momence, the homes are farmhouses and rural ranches where wood is the primary heat. We sweep those every fall, and every few years we reline one after an inspection finds the tiles have given up. The Pumpkin Festival in early October is a reminder for a lot of St. Anne families that the burning season is about to start; we book heavily the two weeks around it.

Services in St. Anne

All seven services at published prices, no travel charge.

• Chimney sweeping
• Level 1 and Level 2 inspections
• Masonry repair
• Stainless relining — the usual recommendation before a stove goes into an 1800s flue
• Caps, crowns and dampers — caps and crowns on brick that has never had either
• Gas fireplace tune-ups
• Dryer vent cleaning

Unlined chimneys and why they are a problem now

Before clay flue tiles came into common use, a chimney was just a brick shaft. The smoke ran directly against the brick and mortar. That worked, more or less, when the fuel was coal or a small open fire, because the exhaust was hot and dry and the mortar was frequently repointed. It works badly now. The mortar joints in an unlined flue have been exposed to a century of acidic smoke and moisture, and many are recessed an inch or more, so the flue wall is rough and porous. Heat passes through it into the framing. Creosote builds in the pockets. And there is no continuous barrier: a chimney fire in an unlined flue can ignite the house.

NFPA 211 requires a liner for any chimney venting a solid-fuel appliance, and building codes have required one on new construction since long before most of St. Anne’s homes were built. The practical answer for these chimneys is an insulated stainless liner. It gives the flue a smooth, gas-tight wall, restores draft, keeps the heat where it belongs and can be sized to the stove or fireplace. Installing one does not require tearing the chimney apart, and it makes an 1880s chimney safer than it ever was.

Local links for St. Anne

St. Anne resources: Village of St. Anne · St. Anne Community High School