Chimney sweep near you
Hazelwood and Mill Park are inside our regular rounds, from Gateway out past SE 122nd. Two jobs follow from the housing and the weather here: caps and chase covers put back after the east wind, and dryer vents in the apartments along I-205.
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Hazelwood and Mill Park homes are 1940s and 1950s houses next to 1960s and 1970s ranches and split-levels, built while these were unincorporated suburbs, so the streets between E Burnside and SE Division look nothing like inner-city bungalow blocks.
The 1940s and 1950s houses were usually built with one masonry fireplace and a clay tile liner, often on an outside wall. The ranches and split-levels that followed in the 1960s and 1970s went up as factory-built metal fireplaces inside framed, sided chases were becoming common, so a Mill Park split-level may have a metal flue and a sheet-metal chase cover where you expected brick.
Closer to Gateway Transit Center and Mall 205, the apartment complexes built from the 1970s through the 2000s mostly have gas fireplaces or none at all, and renters outnumbered owners in Hazelwood in 2010. For those buildings the calls are dryer vents that run a long way to the outside wall and shared ductwork a property manager wants looked at.
Two kinds of chimney are typical of Hazelwood and Mill Park: a tile-lined brick stack on the 1940s and 1950s houses, and a metal flue inside a wood-framed chase on the 1960s and 1970s ranches and split-levels.
On the brick, the cap and the crown take the most wear, because the winter east wind out of the Gorge reaches this side of the city and works at anything loose on top of a stack. On the chases, the chase cover can rust through at its seams as the screws back out, water runs down the metal flue, and the refractory panels inside the firebox crack.
The calls from Hazelwood and Mill Park split by decade: brick stacks on the older houses, metal chases on the ranches, and vents in the apartments.
The east wind that funnels out of the Gorge each winter lifts rain covers, bends screens and strips loose caps off the stacks, and a bare flue then takes rain and birds all spring. We fit a stainless cap sized to the tile, or a full-width chase cover with a cap on the metal flue, fastened for wind rather than for a calm day.
A 1960s or 1970s split-level with a factory-built fireplace gets a Level 2 inspection before its first fire of the season if nobody has looked inside the chase in years, because rust on the flue pipe, a cracked refractory panel or a missing chase cover is invisible from the living room. The camera goes up the metal flue and the report says whether the unit is still a fireplace or now a decoration.
The 1940s and 1950s houses usually have one tile-lined masonry fireplace that gets used from the first cold night in October through March, and a yearly sweep with the Level 1 look-over is the routine there. We brush the tile, clear the smoke shelf, check the damper plate for rust and photograph the flue so you can see what came out.
The apartment complexes near Gateway Transit Center and along I-205 often have long dryer duct runs to a roof or side-wall hood, and lint packs the elbows until a load takes two cycles. We clean the run end to end, confirm the hood flap swings free and leave the manager a note on any run that is foil or crushed and should be replaced.
Duct cleaning in Hazelwood comes up when an apartment unit turns over and the registers blow dust or a tenant reports a musty smell when the furnace kicks on. We look first, because the EPA position is that ducts are cleaned when they need it, and then clear what is actually in them, from construction dust to rodent evidence, with the supply and return runs done by source removal.
We come into Hazelwood and Mill Park off I-205 at Stark, Glisan or Division, or off I-84 near Gateway when we are coming from the inner east side.
From there, NE 102nd Ave, SE 122nd Ave and the Burnside and Stark corridors take us to any block in a couple of turns; tell us which side of the house the chimney is on. If you are in one of the complexes near Mall 205, tell us the building number and where the dryer hood comes out.
Mall 205 opened in September 1970 at I-205 and SE Washington St, and Gateway Transit Center followed on September 5, 1986, where the MAX Blue, Green and Red lines now meet.
Before Portland annexed it, Hazelwood was counted by the census as a place of its own.
Mill Park's schools, including Mill Park Elementary and Floyd Light Middle School, belong to the David Douglas School District, and most of the neighborhood's parks were acquired in 1985 and 1986.
Winter east wind reaches this side of the city because pressure differences across the Cascades push cold air out the west mouth of the Columbia River Gorge, the same setup that helps bring snow and ice storms.
People give directions by Gateway Transit Center, Mall 205, the East Portland Community Center, Midland Library and Floyd Light Park.
Yes, every residential street in Hazelwood and Mill Park across those four ZIP codes is in our regular service area. That takes in the houses on both sides of Stark and Burnside, the Mill Park blocks toward Division, and the apartment complexes around Gateway and Mall 205. The price on the board is the price at the door, and there is no separate drive charge when we do the work.
Keep the damper closed to keep rain and birds out, and we will get a cap on it the same week in most cases. After a big east wind night the calls from Hazelwood and Mill Park can arrive in a bunch, so an early call gets an earlier slot. Keep the old cap if the wind left it in the yard, because the size and the fastener holes tell us what to bring.
On a factory-built unit the sweep runs a brush sized to the metal flue from the firebox up, with the opening sealed and the vacuum running. The Level 1 look-over that comes with it covers the refractory panels, the damper, the screen and the chase cover from the roof. You get photos of the flue and the chase top, and if the panels are cracked or the pipe is rusted we say so in writing before you light it.
Because the east wind pushes down an open flue harder than a small fire pushes up, and the smoke takes the easy way out. On this side of Portland that can happen on east wind nights each winter, and an uncapped or badly capped flue feels it first. Keep the fireplace cold until we have looked, because a wind-resistant cap, a top-sealing damper and a smoke chamber repair each solve a different version of the problem.
Not unless your household holds a current Multnomah County exemption, for example because wood is your only heat. The county red day covers Hazelwood and Mill Park like every other part of the county and runs noon to noon, with fireplaces, stoves, inserts and fire pits all included. Check the county status page on any hazy day before you strike a match, and read our wood burning rules guide for the exemption steps.
A Level 2 camera inspection, which the inspection standard recommends when a house changes hands. On a 1950s Hazelwood house the camera tells you whether the clay tile is intact, whether the smoke chamber was ever parged and whether the crown has let water in behind the brick. If the seller left an uncertified wood insert in it, Oregon's home-sale rule can require removal, and our stove removal guide covers the steps.
Start with our guide on how to check out any Oregon contractor, which explains the state's public lookup and what each result means. Then ask whoever you call two things: will the price be set before the truck arrives, and will you see the photos from inside your own flue. A company that answers both plainly is one you can let up the ladder on a windy Hazelwood afternoon.
From Gateway the same truck works west along Stark and Burnside into Montavilla, north toward the airport, south across Division and east to Fairview and Wood Village.
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.