Chimney sweep near you
Yes, we cover all of Hillsboro, and the work splits in two: camera inspections and liners for the pre-war brick around Main Street and the courthouse, and sweeps, chase covers and gas vent service in everything built since Intel arrived.
Updated
Hillsboro is the Washington County seat, and the blocks around Main Street, the courthouse and Shute Park hold its pre-war houses, built when a chimney was often laid up in brick without a clay liner, and often with the furnace vented into it as well.
Intel opened its first Hillsboro plant in 1979, and the city went from about 15,000 people in 1970 to more than 70,000 by 2000. The subdivisions that carried that growth went up in the factory-built years, so a 1980s or 1990s Hillsboro fireplace is often a metal firebox with insulated pipe inside a framed chase, with a sheet metal cover on top instead of a crown.
Orenco Station, built in three phases from 1996 to about 2003 with alley-loaded houses on narrow streets, and the South Hillsboro plan with Reed's Crossing, under construction since the 2010s, went up in the gas era, so a call from those streets is more likely a gas vent check or a dryer vent than a brush.
Downtown Hillsboro brick is the chimney population here most likely to lack a liner, and a Level 2 camera inspection comes before any first fire in it, because an open joint in a bare brick flue puts heat and gases against the framing.
The 1980s and 1990s metal units have their own list: a chase cover that rusts through, cracked refractory panels, a cap screen caked shut, and insulated pipe with its clearances to check in the attic. Orenco and South Hillsboro gas units need the vent, the glass and the burner serviced rather than swept, and the old furnace flues downtown can turn up orphaned when a furnace is replaced.
Hillsboro's calls follow its two building booms, the courthouse-era downtown and the Intel-era subdivisions, with a gas and dryer vent tail from Orenco and South Hillsboro.
A bare brick flue in a pre-war house near Main Street or Shute Park is fitted with a stainless liner sized for the fireplace or stove it serves, wrapped in insulation where the house needs it, so the old stack carries one sealed passage from firebox to cap. Where an old furnace once used the same chimney and the new furnace vents out the wall, that second flue is lined for the water heater or sealed off.
Downtown Hillsboro houses that change hands, or that are lighting a fireplace after years idle, get a Level 2 camera inspection first, because nobody can tell from the hearth whether a 1910s flue has tile, and the camera can. We also run it on Silicon Forest tract fireplaces when a buyer's inspector flags a chase or a panel, and the photos come to you either way.
The 1980s and 1990s subdivisions off Cornell Road and Cornelius Pass Road were often built around a wood-burning metal firebox, and the ones still burning wood need a yearly sweep with brushes sized to the round pipe and a check of the panels, damper and cap screen. Creosote collects in a cold metal flue faster than people expect, especially when the wood was split last month.
Orenco Station's alley-loaded houses and the new blocks in Reed's Crossing can have long dryer runs to an outside wall, and a two-story house in South Hillsboro can have a vent that climbs to the roof. We clean every foot of the run from the appliance to the outside hood, clear the hood flap and tell you if the duct is the foil kind that should be replaced with rigid metal.
Courthouse-era brick above the roofline shows a century of rain as open joints, spalled faces on the weather side and crowns split across, and an unreinforced stack also carries the earthquake hazard. We repoint, replace spalled brick and rebuild the crown, and we talk through bracing or shortening the stack while we are on the roof.
US 26 brings us out to Hillsboro from the east, with Cornelius Pass Road, Brookwood Parkway and Cornell Road linking the highway to the city, and Tualatin Valley Highway runs straight into downtown from Beaverton and Aloha.
Downtown, Baseline Road and Main Street carry us through the old grid and OR 219 leaves it as 1st Avenue; some pre-war blocks have alleys and narrow driveways, so tell us when booking if the chimney is easier from the alley side. Orenco's houses front narrow streets with parking behind, so mention where a van can sit for an hour.
Hillsboro is the Washington County seat and takes its name from settler David Hill. Intel opened its first Hillsboro facility in 1979 and is the city's largest employer with about 20,000 workers, and MAX light rail reached the city in 1998.
The Oregon International Air Show flies out of Hillsboro Airport, the second-busiest airport in the state, and the city's Fourth of July Parade is the second-largest Independence Day parade in Oregon.
Orenco Station takes its name from the Oregon Nursery Company that once farmed the ground, and it was built in three phases from 1996 to about 2003.
Residents give directions by Shute Park, The Streets of Tanasbourne, the Intel campuses and Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve, and South Hillsboro's roughly 1,400 acres are planned for about 8,000 homes.
All four Hillsboro ZIPs, 97003, 97006, 97123 and 97124, and yes, Orenco Station and the newer South Hillsboro streets are inside the area. Every visit carries the price on our board, and there is no added trip charge when the work gets done. A gas fireplace in an Orenco townhouse is booked as a vent inspection and service rather than a sweep, which is a different line on the board.
Usually the same week outside the October rush, and a fireplace that pushed smoke into the room moves ahead of the yearly sweeps. Keep it cold until we have looked. In late January 2026 Hillsboro Fire and Rescue responded to three chimney fires in 24 hours, and January is when the calls stack up. If you see flames or hear a roar in the chimney, get everyone out and call 911 first.
No, not unless your household is exempt. Washington County reports that Hillsboro adopted an ordinance similar to its own: between November 1 and March 1 a red day bars fireplaces and wood stoves, with county exemptions such as wood being the only heat or a low-income household. Pellet stoves are outside the county rule. The county posts each day's color and runs a status line and alert sign-up; our wood burning rules guide has the steps.
Not before a camera has been down the flue. A bare brick flue from the courthouse era relies on every mortar joint being tight, and after a century many are not, so heat and gases can reach the framing. The usual fix is a stainless liner matched to the firebox, so the old chimney carries one sealed passage from firebox to cap; the inspection photos tell us whether the brick around it is sound enough to carry one.
It needs a yearly vent inspection and service rather than a brush. Gas combustion makes water vapor and acids that work on the vent and the firebox, and a direct-vent unit in an Orenco house has a short run through the wall whose cap, seals and termination we check along with the burner and the glass. The white film on the glass is cleaned, not scraped, and soot on the logs is a reason to call before the next use.
No, our research found no law that makes a Hillsboro seller order one. The chimney trade recommends a Level 2 camera inspection when a house is sold, and a pre-war downtown flue is the textbook case for it. The stove rule is separate: an uncertified stove or insert has to be removed and destroyed as the house changes hands, with the seller responsible unless the buyer accepts the job in writing and finishes within 30 days of closing.
Because the metal lid on top of the chase, the chase cover, is rusting through, a known weak point on a factory-built fireplace of that age. Water stands on a flat cover, rust opens a pinhole, and the drip runs down the pipe and the framing inside the chase before it ever shows on the siding. We replace the cover with one that is cross-broken to shed water, and the repair falls under our flashing and leak line.
West of Hillsboro the same crew continues to Cornelius and Forest Grove, and east along Tualatin Valley Highway and US 26 to Aloha, Beaverton and Cedar Mill.
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.