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 Cleaning & Sweep Across Medfield
Chimney cleaning and sweep in Medfield typically costs $189 to $329 for a standard annual sweep with a Level 1 inspection, and most jobs are done in under two hours. If you’re searching for a sweep who actually knows the difference between an unlined 18th-century center chimney off North Street and a 1970s colonial fireplace up near Hospital Road, you’ve found the right truck. We’ve been sweeping since 1999, and the questions Medfield homeowners ask are not the same as the ones we hear in Sherborn or Dover. Give us a call at (781) 378-5846 and we’ll walk you through what your flue actually needs, not what’s on a corporate upsell script.
Your flue doesn’t care how the fire looks. It cares how it breathes. And in Medfield, a lot of flues are breathing through bare brick, cracked clay tile, or mortar that’s been chewed through by river fog and forty New England winters. The good news is most of what we find on a routine sweep is entirely fixable if you catch it early.
Why Top Hat Chimney Is Medfield’s Preferred Chimney Cleaning & Sweep Company
We’re not a franchise that rotated in last spring. Wendell Pike started Top Hat Chimney in 1999, and he’s been inside more Medfield chimneys than he can count. When you call, a live person answers, around the clock. Sometimes it’s Wendell himself picking up, and he’ll tell you straight if your chimney can wait another season or if it needs attention before the first frost.
Medfield homeowners keep calling us back because we publish our pricing before a single tool comes off the truck. The number you hear on the phone is the number on the invoice. Every job is covered by the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If the work isn’t right, one call brings Wendell and his crew back at no extra cost. The sweep who shows up at your door is background-checked, uniformed, and gives you a real arrival window, and he calls if it slips.
Ask anyone on your street. A lot of them already have our number.
Our Chimney Cleaning & Sweep Services in Medfield
We offer the full Chimney Cleaning & Sweep service line for every house type in Medfield, from the wooden colonials near Meetinghouse Pond to the split levels off Route 109. Here’s what most Medfield homeowners call us for.
Level 1 Inspection
Every standard annual sweep in Medfield includes a Level 1 inspection. We check the accessible portions of your flue, the firebox, the damper, and the exterior chimney structure. For a 1960s colonial that hasn’t been swept in a few years, this usually takes about an hour and catches loose mortar, flaking tile, and first-degree creosote before any of it becomes a bigger bill.
Level 2 Inspection
If you’ve just bought a house in Medfield center, changed fuel types, or had a chimney fire, you want a Level 2 inspection. We run a camera the full length of the flue and document everything. On a tight street off North Street, we opened the cleanout on a 200-year-old center chimney and found bare brick, no flue liner, just raw masonry with third-degree creosote glazing the firebox. A Level 2 inspection is the only way to see that before it sees you. We quoted a DuraFlex stainless reline the same afternoon.
Creosote Removal
First-degree creosote is a brush job. Third-degree is a glaze and it doesn’t brush out, it has to be removed with mechanical rotary tools or chemical treatment. Medfield’s historic homes, especially those that burned softwood for decades before anyone thought about air control, tend to carry heavier creosote loads than the newer subdivisions. We’ll tell you which kind you have and we’ll show you the camera footage before we recommend anything.
Soot Removal
Soot is the softer, flakier cousin of creosote and it’s common in oil furnace flues and gas fireplaces. In Medfield’s older homes, oil-to-gas conversions often leave years of soot caked inside a flue that was never designed for a gas appliance. That’s a common call for us. The fix is straightforward, but we always run a camera to confirm the liner is intact before we sign off.
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 Medfield
We work with DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield. In Medfield we keep common parts in the truck, so when a sweep on Hospital Road finds a cracked crown or a failed damper, we can usually quote and complete the repair without making you wait on a parts order. We service and install stainless steel liners, chimney caps, crowns, dampers, and wood stove inserts, and we stand behind every product we install with the same 90-Day Done Right Promise.
Common Chimney Cleaning & Sweep Problems We See in Medfield Homes
- Bare rubble-core flues in the historic district. Homes north of Route 109 and around the town center often have wide multi-flue chimneys built without any liner at all. When we open the cleanout and find bare brick, we stop the sweep and talk to you about relining before anything else happens. Running a fire in an unlined chimney in a 200-year-old house is not something to ignore.
- Spalling clay tile in 1960s to 1980s colonial-revival fireplaces. Those builder-grade fireplaces everyone wanted off the marketing brochure are now forty to fifty years old. Clay tile liners crack and flake under New England’s freeze-thaw cycle, and once a piece of tile falls into the flue, the chimney is no longer safe to use. We see this constantly in the subdivisions between West Street and the Charles River.
- River-moisture decay along the Charles River corridor. Homes in the low-lying stretch near the river hold more ground fog and moisture than upland Medfield. That accelerates mortar joint erosion and crown failure. A chimney crown that would last forty years up on Pine Street might need repointing after twenty-five down by the water. The difference is real, and our Level 2 camera shows it plainly.
- Cross-contamination in shared multi-flue stacks. Older multi-flue chimneys in attached properties near Medfield center can allow one neighbor’s oil furnace exhaust to bleed into a shared stack that serves another unit’s fireplace. A Level 2 inspection is the only way to confirm a shared flue is still separated the way it was built. If it isn’t, the fix is not optional.
Pricing for Chimney Cleaning & Sweep in Medfield, MA
A standard annual sweep with a Level 1 inspection in Medfield runs $189 to $329. Add a Level 2 camera inspection and you’re looking at $250 to $420, depending on flue height and accessibility. Creosote removal for glazed, third-degree buildup ranges from $200 to $500 as an add-on, because it involves rotary tools and chemical treatment rather than a standard brush. Soot removal for oil or gas flues runs $150 to $275. If our inspection turns up a cracked liner or spalling tile, a stainless steel reline in Medfield typically costs $2,500 to $6,000 depending on length, bends, and whether we’re installing DuraFlex or another approved flex liner. The quote you get on the phone is the price on the invoice. No trip charge inside the county. $40 off any repair over $200. Veterans and seniors get 10% off, always. Call (781) 378-5846 for an exact quote.
We Also Serve Cities Near Medfield
Our Medfield crews cover the entire town, and we’ll be happy to schedule across the county line in Millis, Dover, Sherborn, and Medway. Same pricing, same 90-Day Done Right Promise, same live person on the phone at (781) 378-5846.
Serving Medfield, MA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Medfield 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 Cleaning & Sweep in Medfield
Yes, we can clean it, but an unlined 18th-century flue in Medfield’s historic district requires a different approach than a standard sweep. The sweep is gentler because bare brick can’t take aggressive mechanical brushing, and we will always recommend a Level 2 inspection first. Any unlined flue that hasn’t been inspected is a code and safety problem if you plan to burn wood, convert to gas, or install an insert. The camera footage will show exactly what you’re working with. Call (781) 378-5846 and we’ll talk you through what makes sense for your house.
Homes along the river’s low-lying corridor hold more ground fog and moisture than upland Medfield, and that moisture accelerates freeze-thaw deterioration in mortar joints and chimney crowns. We regularly see spalling brick and crown cracks near the river a decade before similar chimneys on higher ground in Sherborn, simply because the masonry stays wetter longer. The fix is repointing or a poured crown, and it’s cheap compared to a failed chimney. Call (781) 378-5846 if you want us to take a look before winter sets in.
In older attached properties near Medfield center, separate flues were often built into one wide brick stack. If the interior wythe separating them has cracked or settled, exhaust from one unit’s oil or gas furnace can bleed into the flue serving another unit’s fireplace. That is a carbon monoxide risk and it’s not something a basic sweep can detect. A Level 2 camera inspection is the only way to verify separation in a shared stack. If you suspect a problem, call us at (781) 378-5846 and we’ll schedule the inspection.
You should expect it, and yes, at this age it’s a real concern. Medfield’s wave of 1960s and 1970s colonial-revival homes are now forty to fifty years old, and that’s the exact window when clay tile liners begin to crack and spall under New England freeze-thaw cycles. A single shifted tile is a fire and carbon monoxide hazard. The smart move is a Level 2 inspection with a camera, which costs less than $500 in most Medfield homes, and a reline quote only if we find a problem. Call (781) 378-5846 and we’ll tell you what you’re facing, not what a sales script says.
Yes, and it’s one of the most common calls we get from new Medfield homeowners. The previous owner often has no record of any servicing, and the chimney might have decades of creosote or a completely unknown liner condition. We’ll start with a Level 2 camera inspection to establish what’s in there, then perform a sweep appropriate to the flue’s condition and age. If we find something that needs to be addressed before you burn, we’ll show you the footage and explain it in plain English. Call (781) 378-5846 to schedule before the first fire of the season.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Medfield and surrounding communities since 1999.