Practical notes from Jacob Dove and the crew: what we find on the job, what to watch for at home, and when to call.
A Bonfield farmhouse stove flue showed all three creosote stages at once. What each stage looks like, what it says about how the wood was burned, and what…
A Limestone ranch fireplace leaked cold air through a warped throat damper. We replaced it with a top-sealing damper on the flue top: how it works, why it.
In older Clifton homes a gas furnace and water heater often share an oversized unlined masonry flue. Why that produces spillage and carbon monoxide risk, how.
A Chebanse home had a wood insert installed years ago with no liner, a setup the trade calls a slammer. Where the creosote goes, why it is a…
Repointing a landmarked Old Monee chimney meant matching 1890s lime mortar in strength, color, sand and joint profile.
A Beecher subdivision home had rust streaks under its prefab chimney. The galvanized chase cover had rusted through at the edges and was dripping onto the
Two Grant Park chimneys on the same street needed crown work. One took a flexible crown coat, the other a formed and poured crown.
After the March 2026 EF3 tornado we have run Level 2 inspections across Aroma Park. What storm damage looks like inside a flue, what the report contains, and
A farmhouse near St. Anne never had a chimney cap. Water rusted the damper solid, filled the smoke shelf with mud and cracked the firebox.
An outdoor wood boiler near Herscher built a quarter inch of glazed creosote in one season. Why boiler flues glaze so fast, what a sweep involves, and the
After a Will County windstorm took a Peotone chimney cap, we looked at why. Friction-fit caps, galvanized screws and legs that were never tightened are the
A Momence river-town home had a wood stove venting through a thimble into an unlined 1880s brick flue.