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 Cap & Crown Across Medway
A chimney cap and crown repair in Medway typically runs $350-$900 for crown work and $250-$650 for cap installation or replacement, and most jobs are completed in a single visit. We’ve been working on Medway chimneys long enough to know the ones off Holliston Street, Village Street, and the ranch subdivisions near Oakland Park better than most. If your cap is rusted through or your crown is spalling, call Top Hat Chimney at (781) 378-5846 and we’ll give you a straight answer before a single tool comes off the truck.
Why Top Hat Chimney Is Medway’s Preferred Chimney Cap & Crown Company
Wendell Pike founded Top Hat Chimney in 1999 and he still puts his name on every job. That matters in a town like Medway, where you’ll run into the same people at the transfer station or the Choate Park bandstand that you hired to work on your house. We answer our own phone, we show up when we say we will, and we don’t send a stranger with a script. We send a sweep who knows what a 1970s split-level chimney looks like from the inside.
Our Medway customers keep us around because the price we quote on the phone is the price on the invoice, and every job is backed by the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If the work isn’t done right, one call brings Wendell back at no charge. That’s not a slogan. It’s stamped on every job and we’ve stood behind it for over 29 years.
Our Chimney Cap & Crown Services in Medway
Here’s the part most Medway homeowners don’t realize until someone shows them: the cap and crown are the first line of defense for the entire chimney system. When they fail, water gets into the flue, the firebox, and eventually the house. Our Chimney Cap & Crown team handles everything from a simple screen replacement to a full custom fabrication.
Cap Installation
A new cap on a Medway chimney does three jobs: keeps rain out, keeps animals out, and keeps sparks from landing on your roof. We stock standard sizes and fabricate custom caps for odd-sized flues, which we run into constantly on the mid-century ranches that were converted from oil to wood. We install caps from Gelco, Olympia Chimney, and Copperfield.
Cap Replacement
If your existing cap is rusted, bent, or missing its spark arrestor screen, replacement is straightforward and usually done same-visit. On Medway’s wood stove chimneys, a damaged cap isn’t cosmetic. It compounds the draft problems created by those old 13×13 oil flues and lets rain hit an already cool exhaust stream, which makes creosote stick faster.
Crown Repair
Crown repair is the most common call we get from Medway homeowners with chimneys built between 1960 and 1985. The original crowns were poured too thin and with the wrong mix, so they crack and spall within a couple decades. Add the moisture from the Charles River valley and the freeze-thaw cycle from October through April, and the damage accelerates. We rebuild them properly with the right overhang and a slope that sheds water instead of pooling it.
Crown Coating
When the crown is structurally sound but starting to show hairline cracks or efflorescence, we coat it with a flexible sealant that moves with the masonry instead of cracking against it. It’s not a permanent fix for a failed crown, but on a Medway chimney that’s otherwise solid, it buys years and costs a fraction of a rebuild. We’ll tell you plainly which one you 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 caps and crowns from Gelco, Olympia Chimney, and Copperfield, and we keep common Medway sizes on the truck so we’re not making you wait on a special order. If your existing cap came from a brand we don’t stock, we’ll work with what’s there or get the right part without making you chase it down. Most cap jobs in Medway are one visit, start to finish.
Common Chimney Cap & Crown Problems We See in Medway Homes
- Oversized flue from oil-to-wood conversion. The 13×13 masonary flues in 1970s ranches were sized for an oil furnace. Run a small wood stove insert through one and the exhaust slows down, cools off, and condenses creosote right at the cap and crown, which corrodes the metal and stains the masonry.
- Accelerated crown spalling near the Charles River valley. Medway’s wetlands and river corridor put more ambient moisture in the air than the upland towns get. Masonry absorbs it, winter freezes it, and the crown crumbles faster than it would in Millis or Medfield.
- Missing or torn spark arrestor screens. A lot of Medway wood stoves run hot and throw sparks. Without an intact screen, those sparks land in dry leaves or on the roof, and the open flue also invites rain, squirrels, and birds into a system already fighting a draft problem.
- Rust-through on old single-wall caps. The combination of wet winters, acidic creosote condensation, and heat cycling kills cheap caps in five to eight years. We see galvanized caps on Medway chimneys that are rusted to lace and barely holding together.
Pricing for Chimney Cap & Crown in Medway, MA
Here’s what you can expect to pay for cap and crown work in Medway right now. A standard single-flue cap installation runs $250-$450 depending on size and material. A custom stainless multi-flue cap with a proper screen typically runs $550-$850. Crown repair, including removal of the failed concrete and proper rebuilding, runs $450-$900. Crown coating only, when the crown is salvageable, runs $300-$550.
What moves the price is access. A steep roof on a split-level with a 30-foot chimney costs more in labor than a ranch with a walkable pitch. We give you the exact number before work begins, and we honor a $40 discount on any repair over $200, plus 10% off always for seniors and veterans.
We Also Serve Cities Near Medway
If you’re outside Medway, we also cover Millis, Bellingham, Sherborn, and Medfield. The work is the same, but the houses are different, and we know the differences. Read more about Chimney Cap & Crown in Medway or call (781) 378-5846 and tell us which town you’re in.
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 Cap & Crown in Medway
Two reasons. The crowns poured on 1960s-1980s Medway homes used a thin, weak mix that was never meant to last more than a couple decades, and the ambient moisture from the Charles River valley soaks into the masonry and freezes every winter, popping the surface off in flakes. Your neighbor’s older colonial probably has a thicker crown built with a stronger mix, and it sheds water better. The fix is a proper rebuild with the right overhang, and we do that in a single day.
Yes, in most cases you do. The 13×13 flue was sized for an oil furnace that burned hot. Your wood stove insert runs cooler, so the exhaust already moves slower and condenses more creosote near the top of the flue. A full-size cap on that oversized flue keeps rain out but doesn’t help the draft, and the condensation eats at the cap and crown. A custom cap sized to reduce the opening can actually help. We’ll camera the flue, show you the footage, and tell you what makes sense.
At minimum once a year, before the burn season starts. If you’re burning wood as a primary heat source from October through April, you’re putting more creosote and more condensation through the flue than a weekend fireplace user ever will, and the crown is the first thing that fails. Even a visual check from the ground won’t catch early spalling. We’ll get on the roof, inspect the crown and cap, and show you exactly what we see.
Sometimes it helps, but it won’t fix the root cause by itself. The draft problem in most west Medway split-levels comes from the oversized 13×13 oil flue now venting a wood stove insert. The exhaust cools too fast, the draft dies, and smoke backs up into the house. A cap won’t solve that. A resized stainless liner will, and the cap gets sized to match. We’ll camera the flue before we sell you anything, and if your cap isn’t the problem, we’ll say so plainly.
Third-degree creosote is the glazed, tar-like buildup that forms when exhaust cools too fast in an oversized flue. That same cooling is what pushes condensation up against the cap and the underside of the crown, staining the masonry and corroding the metal. So the glaze you can’t see from the ground is actively degrading the parts you can see. The answer is a proper liner sizing and annual professional sweeping, not a bigger brush or a hotter fire. Call (781) 378-5846 and we’ll show you the camera footage and a plain-English verdict.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Medway since 1999.