Chimney sweep near you
We work the whole Foster-Powell triangle, where the chimney is often one brick stack on an outside wall of a 1900s to 1930s house. That puts spalled brick, failed flashing and furnace flues left to a lone water heater first on our list.
Updated
Foster-Powell's homes are 1890s to 1910s houses built along the streetcar line and bungalows through the 1930s, filling the triangle bounded by SE Powell Blvd, SE Foster Rd and SE 82nd Ave.
Foster-Powell houses are modest, usually with one brick chimney, built for a fireplace and a coal or oil furnace, unlined on the earlier houses and lined with clay tile on some of the later ones. Because the stack often sits on an outside wall rather than in the middle of the house, one face of it has taken every winter storm since the sidewalks went in.
Sidewalks arrived in 1912, the tree-lined median of Firland Parkway runs down SE 72nd between Foster and Holgate, and about 42 percent of households rented at the 2010 count. Near Foster and 82nd the infill houses and apartments mostly have gas fireplaces or none, so the calls from those addresses are for dryer vents.
A Foster-Powell chimney is often a single exterior brick stack holding two flues, the fireplace's and the furnace's, no liner in the older houses and clay tile in some of the 1920s and 1930s ones.
An exterior stack runs colder than an interior one, so its flue condenses more and its brick freezes wetter, which shows as spalled faces on the weather side, rust below the flashing and efflorescence after a storm. Where a gas furnace now vents out the side wall, the old furnace flue was abandoned and vents a lone water heater or nothing, cold and damp.
Flashing leaks and spalled brick on outside-wall stacks, camera inspections, liners for unlined flues and dryer vents in the newer buildings are what Foster-Powell's housing stock calls for.
Where an exterior Foster-Powell chimney meets the roof, the flashing and counter flashing have often been patched with roofing tar more than once, and the leak shows up as a stain on the ceiling beside the fireplace wall after a long rain. We cut in new step flashing and counter flashing set into the mortar joints, and add a cricket on the uphill side where the chimney is wide enough to need one.
The weather face of an outside stack loses its mortar first, and spalled brick follows once water gets behind the face. We repoint the open joints, replace spalled units, rebuild the crown, and apply a breathable water repellent so the brick sheds rain without trapping what is already inside it.
A Foster-Powell bungalow changing hands, or one whose fireplace has been closed off for years, gets a Level 2 camera inspection to find out whether the fireplace flue has tile, whether that tile is cracked, and what the furnace flue is doing now. The report and the footage go to whoever ordered them, buyer, seller or property manager.
An unlined fireplace flue in one of the 1890s to 1910s houses gets a stainless liner sized to the fireplace. If an insert is going into the old firebox, the liner is sized to the insert and runs all the way to the cap, because an insert left to vent into an open brick chimney is the setup that coats a flue with creosote.
The newer houses and apartments near Foster and 82nd mostly have no flue to brush, but their dryer vents clog like anyone else's. A load that takes two cycles, a hot laundry room or a tuft of lint at the outside hood means the run needs clearing from end to end.
We come into Foster-Powell on SE Powell Blvd from US 26 or I-205, on SE Foster Rd from the south, or down SE 82nd Ave, then turn into the grid at 52nd or 72nd.
SE Holgate Blvd cuts across the middle of the triangle, and the residential streets off it form a grid. An exterior chimney on a Foster-Powell house can often be laddered from the side yard, so tell us when you book which side of the house it is on and whether a fence or a neighbor's hedge is in the way.
Foster-Powell is a triangle: SE Powell Blvd on the north, SE Foster Rd on the south and SE 82nd Ave on the east.
The neighborhood got its sidewalks in 1912.
Firland Parkway, the tree-lined median on SE 72nd Ave between Foster and Holgate, is the greenest stretch in the triangle.
The southeast wing of Marysville Elementary School burned on November 10, 2009.
Essex Park, Kern Park and Laurelwood Park are the neighborhood parks, and the library branch at SE 79th and Holgate is the other landmark residents name.
Yes, every block inside the triangle, from Powell to Foster and across to 82nd, is on our route at the posted price. There is no travel charge on top of it when we do the work. Foster-Powell shares the 97206 ZIP with Woodstock and Brentwood-Darlington, and we work all three, which can make it easy to pair a visit with a neighbor's.
On an exterior chimney it is usually the flashing, the joint where chimney and roof meet, rather than the roof field or the brick itself. Tar patches on old step flashing fail, water runs down the outside of the brick behind the roofing, and the stain appears beside the fireplace wall. We check the crown and the mortar joints too, since water from the top follows the same path. Keep the fireplace cold until the source is found.
That is spalling, and it means water has been getting into the brick and freezing, so the face pops off a layer at a time. On an outside-wall Foster-Powell stack the weather side goes first. It is repairable while the core of the wall is sound: we replace the spalled units, repoint, fix whatever let the water in, and apply a breathable repellent. Left alone, the wall thins until a rebuild above the roof is the only option.
A Level 2 camera inspection and usually a stainless liner run from the insert to the top of the chimney. An insert pushed into an old firebox and left to vent into the open brick flue sends cool smoke up a passage far too large for it, which is how glazed creosote builds. The liner is sized to the insert outlet, insulated where the installation calls for it, and the camera confirms the old flue can carry it.
You may; the county asks you to consider limiting burning. A Multnomah County yellow day is voluntary, called because the air is heading toward unhealthy; a red day is the mandatory one, when fireplaces, stoves and fire pits stay out from noon to noon unless the household holds an exemption. Check the county status before lighting in Foster-Powell, because the color can change by the next noon. Our wood burning rules guide covers the exemptions.
Leave it unlit and we will schedule it, usually inside a week once the October rush is past. Smoke rolling into the room means the flue is blocked, the damper is not fully open, or the chimney is not drawing against the house, and none of those is safe to test with another fire. We look at the flue with a camera, clear what is blocking it, and tell you what the Foster-Powell stack needs before it is used again.
Start with our contractor-check guide, which explains how to look a company up with the state and read what comes back. Then ask two things: is there a published price for the job before anyone visits, and will you see camera footage of your own flue. For an exterior stack on a Foster-Powell bungalow, also ask whether the flashing and crown get photographed from the roof, because that is where the water gets in.
From the Foster-Powell triangle the same truck goes south to Woodstock and Brentwood-Darlington, east across 82nd into Lents, and north to Richmond and Mt. Tabor.
Call with what the fireplace is doing, or text a photo of the opening and one of the chimney top, and we will name the service and its posted price before we come out.