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.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterMeet the Flushing Team Behind Hearthstone Chimney Co.
Our Flushing crew isn’t a rotating cast of subcontractors. These are the same faces who’ll show up at your door in Bayside, Fresh Meadows, or down by Flushing Bay. What ties us together is simple: we treat your chimney like it’s in our own home, because it practically is. Most of us live within twenty minutes of the neighborhoods we serve. Russell Haines built this company in 1984 on that idea, and we’re still doing it that way.
Our People
Russell Haines, Owner
Russell started Hearthstone Chimney Co. in 1984, back when Flushing’s housing stock was turning over and nobody was quite sure who to call about a smoking fireplace. Forty-two years later, he’s still the one who answers when something unusual shows up on a job. He holds a CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep credential and has done enough Level-2 inspections to fill a warehouse with camera footage, but he’ll tell you the real credential is the number of times he’s had to explain to a homeowner why their chimney was fine last year and isn’t now. He keeps a small collection of failed liners in the shop, mostly to show people what “deceptively intact” looks like. Off the clock, he’s usually restoring vintage hand tools or arguing with his tomato plants in a Queens backyard.
Marcus T., Lead Technician
Marcus has been with us fourteen years, which in chimney years means he’s seen just about every configuration of flue, damper, and squirrel nest that Queens can produce. He’s CSIA certified and specializes in masonry rebuilds and crown repairs, the kind of work where cutting corners today means water in your living room next spring. Marcus grew up in Jackson Heights and still lives there, so he knows which Flushing blocks have the pre-war chimneys with the oddball dimensions and which newer developments cheaped out on liner specs. He’s the one who trains our apprentices on how to read a chimney the way you’d read a roofline, looking for the story the bricks are telling. On weekends he coaches youth basketball at a park not far from where he sweeps chimneys.
Elena V., Senior Installer
Elena handles our liner installations, cap and crown work, and the occasional stubborn rebuild that needs fresh thinking. She came to us from a commercial HVAC background, which means she’s unusually good at explaining why your chimney draft behaves the way it does, using actual physics instead of hand-waving. She’s factory-trained on DuraFlex and HeatShield systems, and she’s particular about measuring twice because she’s seen what a rushed liner order costs in downtime. Elena lives in Forest Hills and bikes to most Flushing jobs when weather permits, which gives her a ground-level view of neighborhood conditions most people miss. She bakes sourdough with obsessive precision and claims the patience translates directly to her fitting work.
Darnell J., Service Coordinator
Darnell is the live voice you get when you call (516) 206-6672 at 10 PM on a Sunday or 7 AM on a Tuesday. He’s been with Hearthstone eight years and knows the Flushing service area well enough to route crews around school traffic, Mets game exits, and the perpetual construction zone that is the Van Wyck. He schedules inspections, confirms material orders, and makes sure Marcus and Elena aren’t double-booked across neighborhoods. Darnell is also the one who follows up after every job to make sure the 90-Day Done Right Promise isn’t just words on paper. He’s from South Jamaica originally, moved to Flushing proper five years ago, and spends his off hours repairing vintage motorcycles with the same methodical approach he brings to coordinating our schedule.
Alex R., Apprentice Technician
Alex joined us in 2023 after completing a construction trades program at a Queens technical school. They’re working toward CSIA certification under Marcus’s supervision, currently handling sweeps, basic inspections, and cap installations while building the hours for the more complex work. Alex has a good eye for masonry detail and an even better one for spotting when a homeowner’s “small leak” is actually a crown that’s been failing for three seasons. They grew up in a rent-stabilized apartment near Kissena Park with a fireplace that never worked right, which is partly why they wanted to learn this trade properly. Alex is learning to surf at Rockaway, with mixed results so far.
One Standard, Every Job
We’re not a franchise operation with a handbook written in another state. Russell Haines set the standard in 1984, and every person on this page follows it because they were trained by someone who followed it. The 90-Day Done Right Promise applies whether Marcus is rebuilding a crown in Flushing or Elena is lining a flue in Bayside. We use the same professional-grade materials, DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield, on every job. We document every Level-2 inspection with photos you can see and a plain-English verdict. Our background-checked, uniformed technicians complete most jobs in a single visit, and the price we quote is the price on the invoice. No arguing, no surprises, no exceptions. That’s the Keystone Standard, and it’s how we’ve operated for over forty-two years in Queens.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Flushing and Queens since 1984.