Meet the Team - Top Hat Chimney

Meet the Natick Team Behind Top Hat Chimney

We’re not a franchise that rotated in last spring. Top Hat Chimney has been working in Natick and the surrounding towns since 1999, and the people who show up at your door live here, shop here, and run into you on Saturday at the transfer station. Wendell built this crew one person at a time, and he still rides along on jobs when the schedule gets tight. What unites everyone below is simple: they don’t upsell problems you don’t have, and they don’t leave until the flue actually breathes right. Ask anyone on your street.

Call (781) 378-5846

Our People

Wendell Pike, Owner & Lead Technician

Wendell started Top Hat Chimney in 1999 with one truck, a set of brushes, and a stubborn belief that homeowners deserved to see the inside of their own chimney before writing a check. Twenty-nine years later, he still answers the phone half the time and still puts his name on every job in writing. His specialty is diagnosing airflow problems that other companies either miss or ignore, and he’s the one who trains every new hire on how to read creosote, how to spot a failing liner, and how to tell a homeowner honestly when something can wait another season. When he’s not on a roof in Natick, he’s usually under a truck in the shop, or at the Natick Community Organic Farm checking on the garlic beds his daughter dragged him into. He’ll tell you plainly if your chimney is fine. That’s the whole point.

Manny R., Senior Installer

Manny has been with Top Hat for fourteen years and has installed more HeatShield and DuraFlex liners than he can count. He came to us from a masonry background, which means when a crown is cracked or a flue tile has shifted, Manny doesn’t just note it on a report, he fixes it the right way the first time. He’s the guy Wendell sends when a rebuild needs to match existing brickwork, because Manny’s the kind of person who will spend twenty minutes sorting through a pile of brick at the local supply yard to get the color right. He also has strong opinions about wood-fired pizza and will absolutely tell you whether your fireplace would make a good one. He’s the instigator of the crew’s annual maple syrup boil, which runs entirely on a repurposed chimney cap and questionable enthusiasm.

Deb C., Service Coordinator

Deb is the voice on the phone most mornings, and she’s been with Top Hat since 2008. She knows the schedule, knows the neighborhoods, and knows which Metrowest streets have parking that’ll make you wish you never called anyone. Before coming to us, Deb ran dispatch for a plumbing company, and it shows: when you call, you get a real arrival window, and if that window slips, she calls you before you have to call us. She keeps the office running from her kitchen in Framingham and has memorized a truly alarming number of customer dogs’ names. If you need a second opinion scheduled, an invoice explained, or someone to tell you the exact time the sweep will pull up, Deb’s the one who makes it happen.

Tommy F., Apprentice Technician

Tommy’s the newest member of the crew, entering his second full year with Top Hat. He started in the warehouse because his brother worked for Wendell, a move he describes as “the best sideways step I ever took.” He’s in the training pipeline for his CSIA certification and has already earned his keep on hundreds of basic sweeps and cap installs. When the job requires carrying rods up a three-story Victorian in Wellesley or lowering a camera down a stubborn flue, Tommy’s the one doing it with a smile that most people find suspiciously good-natured. He grew up in Natick and can tell you the fastest route from Speen Street to South Natick without a map, which comes in handy more often than you’d think. On weekends, he’s coaching youth hockey at the William Chase Arena and developing strong opinions about how chimneys are built.

One Standard, Every Job

Every person on this crew, from Wendell on down to the newest apprentice, works under the same rules. The price quoted on the phone is the price on the invoice, with no surprises after the fact. Every job gets a camera inspection, and you see the footage yourself before anyone recommends so much as a new cap. If the work isn’t done right, the 90-Day Done Right Promise means one call brings Wendell back, no charge, no argument, and it’s in writing on every single job. Background-checked, uniformed, and local: that’s not a marketing line, it’s just who has keys to the truck. When you call Top Hat at (781) 378-5846, a live person answers, and the person who shows up answers to Wendell. That’s been the standard in Natick since 1999, and none of us are interested in changing it now.

Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Natick since 1999.