Chimney sweep near you
We sweep and inspect across Lents on both sides of I-205, where the work splits between the tile-lined fireplaces of the 1940s and 1950s houses, wood stoves and inserts that need their own liners, and the unlined brick on the Town of Lent blocks.
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Much of Lents is modest one-story 1940s and 1950s houses, usually with a single tile-lined masonry fireplace, while the oldest blocks, platted as the Town of Lent in 1892, carry unlined brick chimneys built for a stove or fireplace and a coal furnace.
Portland annexed the Town of Lent in 1912, and today Lents is a big neighborhood: I-205 runs straight through it, and the MAX Green Line stops at Lents Town Center, where the 2010s and 2020s apartments mostly have no fireplace at all.
Johnson Creek runs along the low ground, and East Lents flooded in December 2007 before a 70-acre floodplain project finished in 2012 gave the creek room to spread. A house down there that has had water in the basement needs its firebox and damper checked for rust before the fireplace is used.
The common Lents chimney is a postwar brick stack with one tile-lined fireplace flue, with the exceptions being unlined brick on the Town of Lent houses and freestanding wood stoves or inserts added to houses of either age.
A stove or insert brings its own trouble. A stove connected through a thimble into an old brick flue, or an insert pushed into a 1950s firebox without its own liner, sends cool, slow smoke up a passage much larger than its outlet, and that is the recipe for glazed creosote. Oregon's home-sale rule also reaches any uncertified stove at closing.
Stoves, postwar fireplaces and old brick give Lents a wide spread of calls, from stove sweeps to sale inspections.
A freestanding stove or an insert in a Lents house gets its own kind of sweep: the connector pipe or liner comes apart or gets brushed in place, the baffle and the stove interior are cleaned, the door gasket is checked, and the flue above it is run with brushes sized to it. We also note whether the unit is an uncertified model, which matters the day the house sells.
An insert in a 1950s Lents firebox that vents into the open tile flue, or a stove tied into an unlined Town of Lent stack, gets a stainless liner matched to the appliance outlet and run to the cap. The liner is what addresses the cool-smoke creosote problem and what gives an old brick flue a continuous passage again.
The one-story postwar houses on both sides of I-205 usually have a single tile-lined fireplace, and a fall sweep with the Level 1 look-over keeps it in shape, with photos of the tile before and after. We check the damper plate for rust while we are in the firebox, because a damp basement or a flooded crawl space shows up there first.
When a Lents house changes hands with a stove or insert in place, the pre-sale visit is a Level 2 camera inspection plus a look for the stove's DEQ or EPA label, which decides whether the home-sale rule calls for its removal. The buyer gets the footage and a written note, and the seller gets a clear answer before the deadline arrives.
A postwar chimney in Lents with the tile sticking up bare takes rain straight down to the damper, which is a usual reason a 1950s damper is rusted stiff. A stainless cap with a screen keeps out the rain and keeps a squirrel or a roosting bird from moving in.
Lents is reached from I-205 at Foster Rd or Powell Blvd, from US 26 along Powell on the west side, or down SE 82nd Ave and SE 92nd Ave, with SE Holgate Blvd and SE Woodstock Blvd crossing the neighborhood east to west.
The freeway splits Lents in two, so tell us when you book which side of I-205 you are on and the nearest cross street. On the postwar blocks a single-story roof usually puts the chimney within reach of a shorter ladder; around the Lents Town Center station, the apartment buildings need a word about parking and which wall the dryer vents exit.
Oliver P. Lent platted the Town of Lent in 1892, and Portland annexed it in 1912, when it had close to 10,000 residents.
Interstate 205 runs through the middle of Lents, and the MAX Green Line stops at Lents Town Center.
Woody Guthrie lived in Lents for less than a month in 1941, long enough that an apartment complex now carries his name.
Johnson Creek flooded East Lents in December 2007; the East Lents Floodplain Project, finished in late 2012, restored 70 acres of floodplain, and the Sycamore gauge set its record of 15.33 feet on December 7, 2015.
Lents Park, open since 1914, the Springwater Corridor, Ed Benedict Park with the Portland Memory Garden, the Foster Floodplain Natural Area and Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery are the places residents steer by.
Yes, all of Lents east and west of the freeway is one service area for us at the posted price. That runs from the Foster-Powell line at 82nd out to the Powellhurst-Gilbert edge, and the drive is never billed separately when you have the work done. Tell us which side of I-205 you are on so we plan the approach; the rest is the same visit either way.
If it is uncertified, yes. Oregon's home-sale law says an uncertified wood stove or insert has to be removed and destroyed when the house sells, by the seller unless the buyer takes it on in writing and does it within 30 days of closing; pellet stoves and open fireplaces are exempt. A DEQ or EPA label behind the stove, or none, tells us which kind you have, and our guide to the removal law walks through the steps.
Probably not, but the damper and firebox need a look before anything is lit. Standing water rusts a throat damper until the plate seizes, and it can leave the firebrick and the ash dump damp long after the basement dries. We free or replace the damper, check the firebox mortar, and run a camera up the tile to make sure nothing shifted, which is the check we recommend for a Lents house near Johnson Creek that has taken water.
Yes, if it is venting into a flue that is too big for it or that leaks. A stove tied into an open brick flue without a liner, or an insert dumping into a 1950s tile flue, sends cool smoke up slowly, and some of it can come back into the house when the fire dies down. A liner sized to the stove outlet fixes the draft and the smell together, and a sweep clears the creosote already built.
Multnomah County decides, not the state. The county health department posts the daily status and decides when to call yellow (consider limiting burning) or red (no wood or pellet burning from noon to noon, exemptions aside) for Lents and the rest of the county, in any month poor air is forecast. DEQ runs separate air quality advisories and the stove rules for home sales. Our wood burning rules guide keeps the two straight.
Figure about an hour for the fireplace flue, and yes, we service the stove in the same visit as a second line on the ticket. The fireplace gets brushes, a vacuum, a Level 1 look at the tile and damper, and photos; the stove gets its pipe or liner cleaned, the baffle and interior brushed out, and the gasket checked. Booking both at once is the usual way a Lents house with two burners gets done.
Our contractor-check guide explains the state lookup and how to read what it returns. Then ask if the company publishes its price before it sends a truck, and if the camera footage from your own flue comes to you. For a Lents house with a stove, also ask whether they service stoves and inserts as a separate job, because a fireplace-only sweep will leave the part most likely to be glazed untouched.
Out of Lents the same crew works north into Powellhurst-Gilbert, west across 82nd into Foster-Powell, and southwest to Brentwood-Darlington and Woodstock.
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.