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.
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AfterFast, Reliable Chimney Liner & Rebuild Across Medway
A stainless steel liner installation or partial rebuild in Medway typically runs $2,400-$5,800, and a full teardown-and-rebuild of the above-roof chimney stacks between $8,000 and $16,000 depending on height and access. Most liner jobs in Medway take one day; a partial rebuild runs two to three. If you’re calling about a wood stove that smokes back or a flue that hasn’t been looked at since the Reagan administration, call (781) 378-5846 and Wendell or his crew will give you a straight answer before a single tool comes off the truck.
We’ve spent years working the ranch subdivisions off Village Street, the older colonials near the old mill center, and the newer homes out toward the Bellingham line. Medway’s chimneys have a particular problem: thousands of them were built for oil heat and converted to wood. That conversion, done casually in the 1980s and 90s, is why we see more glazed creosote and draft failure in Medway than almost anywhere else we work. Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild team sizes the job to the stove and the flue, not to whatever the last guy left behind.
Why Top Hat Chimney Is Medway’s Preferred Chimney Liner & Rebuild Company
Wendell Pike started Top Hat Chimney in 1999, and he’s been inside more Medway chimneys since then than he can count. This is not a franchise that rotated a truck in from four towns over. When we pull up in Medway, it’s our name on the door and our number on the invoice. The same number, by the way, that answered the phone when you first called. No call center. Often Wendell himself picks up.
Medway homeowners have reason to be skeptical of chimney companies. Too many national outfits quote one price on the phone and then find “additional damage” the moment they climb the ladder. We handle it differently. The price you hear before we start is the price on the final invoice. Every job comes with our 90-Day Done Right Promise, in writing: if it’s not right, one call brings us back at no charge. We also give a free second opinion on any written estimate, so if another company told you the liner needs replacing, we’ll put eyes on it and tell you if that’s actually true. Seniors and veterans always get 10% off, and any repair over $200 gets $40 off right now.
We answer calls around the clock, and we show up to Medway in uniform, background-checked, with a real arrival window. If we’re running late, you’ll know before you wonder.
Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild Services in Medway
Stainless Steel Liner
For Medway’s oil-to-wood converted chimneys, a stainless steel liner isn’t an upgrade. It’s the fix. Most of the 1960s and 1970s homes out toward Route 109 have 13×13-inch masonry flues that were sized for an oil furnace draft. Hook a small wood stove insert to that flue and the gases cool before they reach the top. That’s how you get a glazed, third-degree creosote shell in a single heating season. We size a stainless liner to the stove’s actual outlet, insulate it where the flue runs cold, and the draft behaves like it should. We install liners from Gelco and Olympia Chimney, and we’ll show you the camera footage when we’re done.
Flexible Liner
Flexible liners make the most sense in Medway homes where the flue has an offset, or where the masonry has settled enough that a rigid pipe won’t make the turns. A lot of the older homes near the Charles River have chimneys that shifted decades ago, and forcing a rigid liner through a crooked flue is a good way to damage the tiles you’re trying to protect. Drawn in one continuous piece, a flexible liner doesn’t leak at the joints because there aren’t any. For most wood stove insert retrofits in Medway, flexible is the call.
Liner Replacement
If your existing liner is cracked, spalled, or was never sized correctly to begin with, we replace it. This is not a patch job. We pull the old liner, inspect the flue walls with a camera, and drop a new one that matches the appliance and the fuel. In Medway’s damp air near the wetlands, cracked clay tile liners are a year-round problem, not just a heating-season one. Moisture gets in, freezes, and the tile fractures. If your liner is original to a mid-century home, it’s probably at the end of its service life.
Partial Rebuild
When the liner is fine but the chimney itself is failing above the roofline, a partial rebuild is often the right answer. On Medway ranches and split-levels, we regularly see spalled brick and failed mortar joints in the exposed stack, caused by decades of Charles River valley moisture working into the masonry. We take down the bad section, lay new brick or block matched to the existing chimney, crown it properly, and flash it so water stops getting in. A partial rebuild fixes the structure without charging you for a full teardown you don’t actually need.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Medway
We install and service liners from Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield. These are the brands we trust because they hold up in New England’s wet, cold climate and they’re backed by real warranties. If your existing liner was originally installed by another company, we’ll let you know honestly whether it can be repaired or needs replacement. We keep common parts on the truck, which means most Medway liner jobs don’t wait on a warehouse order. The camera goes down before anything gets recommended, and you see the footage yourself. Your flue doesn’t care how the fire looks. It cares how it breathes.
Common Chimney Liner & Rebuild Problems We See in Medway Homes
- Oversized oil-era flues on 1970s ranches. A 13×13 masonry flue venting a small wood stove insert never gets hot enough to burn clean. The result is glazed third-degree creosote that a standard brush can’t touch. This is the single most common liner problem we find in Medway.
- Damp Charles River valley air accelerating mortar failure. Medway sits low near the river, and the ambient moisture works into old mortar joints faster than in the drier towns further west. Spalling brick and efflorescence on the exposed stack are early warning signs that the liner’s protection is failing.
- Wood stove inserts installed without a proper liner. A lot of the mid-century homes around Village Street got wood inserts in the 1980s and 90s. The installers often ran a short connector pipe into the old clay tile and called it done. That setup backdrafts when the fire dies down and fills the house with smoke.
- Cracked clay tile liners from freeze-thaw cycles. New England heating season runs long, and Medway’s moisture levels make the freeze-thaw damage worse. Once a clay tile cracks, water gets into the flue and accelerates the whole decay cycle.
Pricing for Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Medway, MA
Here’s what we see in Medway, and these are real numbers from our work here. A stainless steel liner installation with insulation runs $2,400-$4,800 depending on flue height and whether scaffolding is needed. A flexible liner for a wood stove insert retrofit lands between $2,200 and $4,200. Liner replacement, which includes pulling the old liner and camera inspection, typically costs $2,500-$5,000. A partial rebuild above the roofline runs $3,000-$6,500 depending on how many courses of brick need to come down. A full chimney rebuild, down to the roofline or lower, is $8,000-$16,000 in Medway’s market.
What moves the price is access. A two-story colonial with a steep roof pitch and a chimney in the middle of the roof costs more than a ranch with the stack two feet from the eave. We’ll tell you the number before we start. No trip charge inside the county, and every estimate is free. Call (781) 378-5846 and we’ll have the quote to you fast.
We Also Serve Cities Near Medway
We’re in Medway regularly, and we also take care of chimneys in Millis, Bellingham, Sherborn, and Medfield. Same pricing, same live person on the phone, same 90-Day Done Right Promise. If you’re just over the town line, you’re still in our county, which means no trip charge and a familiar face at the door.
Serving Medway, MA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Medway 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 Medway
Because the flue was sized for an oil furnace draft, not a wood stove. Oil burns hot and drafts hard. A wood stove runs cooler, and when you push its gases into a 13×13-inch clay flue, the gases stall, cool, and deposit creosote on the flue walls as they rise. Within one heating season of moderate use, that creosote can glaze into a hard, flammable shell. A stainless liner sized to the stove’s outlet keeps the draft moving hot enough to carry the particulates out of the flue instead of coating it. If you’re burning wood in a Medway home with an original oil-era chimney, call (781) 378-5846 and we’ll camera the flue and show you exactly what’s happening in there.
At least once a year, and more often if you burn softwood or green wood. Gas flues can go longer between cleanings, and oil flues build soot more than creosote, but a wood stove flue in Medway’s climate collects real creosote every season. Once a year, burn or no burn. Chimneys break in the off-season too. If you’re burning a cord or more per year in an older insured insert, we’d recommend checking the flue after two cords, not waiting the full twelve months. The oversized flue problem we see all over Medway makes creosote accumulate faster than the average homeowner expects.
Yes, and in most cases, it’s exactly the right repair. Spalling means the brick face is popping off, usually because moisture has been working its way through the masonry for years. Near the Charles River corridor, the ambient damp makes this worse. We take down the deteriorated section above the roofline, rebuild it with brick matched to your existing chimney, pour a proper concrete crown with an overhang, and flash it correctly. If the flue tiles below are intact, you don’t need a full rebuild. We’ll confirm that with a camera before we touch a single brick. Call (781) 378-5846 for a free estimate.
A repair typically addresses a specific defect, like a crack near the top of the flue or damage from a chimney fire. A full replacement means the existing liner cannot be saved, and we pull it out and install a new stainless liner sized to your current appliance. In Medway’s older homes, we often find clay tile liners that have decades of freeze-thaw damage and can’t be safely repaired. If a competitor told you a repair would work, bring us their written estimate and we’ll give you a free second opinion. Wendell will tell you plainly whether the liner can be patched or needs to come out.
Yes, and we won’t install a liner without one. A Level 2 inspection includes a camera run through the entire flue, which shows us the condition of the existing tiles, the smoke chamber, and the flue walls. That’s the only honest way to know whether the liner is the only work needed or if the chimney structure itself needs attention first. On a ranch off Village Street, our tech found a 1970s oil-fired chimney converted to a wood stove insert with a 13×13 flue. The insert’s 6-inch outlet was dumping into a cold, oversized chase. The camera showed a glazed third-degree creosote shell in the smoke chamber. We pulled the shell, dropped a DuraFlex stainless liner sized to the stove, insulated it, and the homeowner could burn a full cord without the draft stalling or smoke backing into the living room. That’s what a Level 2 shows you. Call (781) 378-5846 and we’ll schedule it.
Key Takeaways
- Medway’s oil-to-wood converted chimneys are the town’s defining chimney problem: oversized flues cause glazed creosote within one heating season.
- A stainless steel liner sized to the stove fixes the draft and makes the flue safe to burn year after year.
- Damp Charles River valley air accelerates mortar failure, which is why partial rebuilds are common here.
- Every job comes with a written 90-Day Done Right Promise, upfront pricing, and camera proof of what we recommend.
- Call (781) 378-5846 for a free estimate. No trip charge inside the county, and seniors and veterans always save 10%.
Call Top Hat Chimney for Liner & Rebuild Work in Medway
If you’re in Medway and your wood stove isn’t drafting, or your chimney has been repaired once and it’s failing again, call us. Wendell and his crew will come out, camera the flue, and show you exactly what’s going on. If the work can safely wait, we’ll tell you that too. We’re not in the business of selling liners nobody needs. We’re in the business of making Medway’s chimneys burn clean and safe, backed by a promise in writing. Call (781) 378-5846 today for your free estimate.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Medway and the surrounding communities since 1999.