Masonry repair
Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Gas fireplace serviceLevel 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.
Fast, Reliable Chimney Repair Across Castle Hills
Chimney repair in Castle Hills typically runs anywhere from $350 for a simple crown seal to $3,800 for a partial rebuild, with most flue liner and cap work landing in the $800 to $2,200 range. That’s the honest answer up front. Hadley Chimney San Antonio has worked on the mid-century brick and limestone chimneys that define this city-within-a-city long enough to know exactly what fails here, and why. If you’ve spotted spalling brick, a rusted cap, or water staining around your firebox, call (254) 276-4116 and we’ll give you a written price before any work starts.
Why Hadley Chimney San Antonio Is Castle Hills’s Preferred Chimney Repair Company
Castle Hills homeowners tend to be sharp about their homes. The housing stock here runs heavy on 1960s-to-1980s ranch and two-story traditional builds, and those homes come with specific chimney failure patterns that a generalist misses. We don’t. Our crews know the older sections near the namesake hills where original clay tile liners are cracking from decades of thermal cycling. We know which neighborhoods still have uncapped flues from original construction, and we check for that first.
Cory Mitchell, who leads Hadley Chimney San Antonio, has built our process around one principle: no homeowner should ever pay for a repair they can’t see with their own eyes. Every visit includes before-and-after photo documentation. Every repair quote is written, not verbal. And if a repair doesn’t hold up, we come back free within 365 days and make it right. That’s the Done Right Promise, and it applies to every single job we do in Castle Hills, from a mortar repoint to a full chimney rebuild.
We don’t do four-hour arrival windows either. When you book, you get a live arrival time and a tracked window. The technician who shows up is background-checked, uniformed, and ready to walk you through exactly what they find.
Styles & brands we work with
Chimney Masonry Repair in Castle Hills
Chimney Masonry Repair in Castle Hills is the repair category we get called for most often, and it starts around $450 for minor mortar repointing and runs up to $4,500 when we’re rebuilding a crown and several courses of brick. The limestone and brick chimneys you see across this city absorb decades of humidity, and when a winter freeze hits, the moisture inside the masonry expands. That’s what pops the faces off bricks, a failure mode called spalling. It happens fast here, especially on two-story homes where the upper chimney structure gets more direct weather exposure.
Mortar Repointing and Tuckpointing
When mortar joints erode to the point that you can pick out chunks with your fingers, water is getting behind the brick. Repointing removes the deteriorated mortar and replaces it with fresh mix that matches the color and profile of the original. On Castle Hills homes built with the local tan and cream bricks, matching matters, and we hand-mix to get it right. Expect standard repointing to run $350 to $900 depending on how many courses need work.
Spalling Brick Repair and Waterproofing
If bricks are crumbling, cracked, or missing faces, spalling has already set in. We remove the damaged units, set replacement brick, and then apply a vapor-permeable waterproofing agent so the masonry can still breathe. That last step is the one most people skip, and it’s the difference between a repair that lasts ten years and one that fails again in three. Castle Hills’s humid summers make breathable waterproofing non-negotiable.
Chimney Cap Installation in Castle Hills
Chimney Cap Installation in Castle Hills should honestly be the first call you make if your chimney was built before 1985 and still has its original top. A proper cap from Olympia Chimney or Copperfield runs $250 to $550 installed, and it stops the two things that quietly wreck chimneys in this city: rain and animals. Many of the original chimneys in Castle Hills, particularly in the older sections near the namesake hills, were built without caps at all. That means open flues, which means raccoons and squirrels nesting, rainwater pooling in the smoke chamber, and clay tile liners cracking from repeated wet-dry cycles.
Custom Caps
Not every flue is a standard size. Older Castle Hills chimneys sometimes have flues that were hand-set and slightly out of square. We field-measure and order a custom cap that actually fits, rather than forcing a stock size that leaves gaps. That’s the kind of detail you notice ten years later when the liner underneath is still in one piece.
Crown Repair
The crown is the concrete slab that seals the top of the chimney around the flue. If your crown is cracked, flat, or has no drip edge, water runs straight down the side of the brick instead of dripping away. We rebuild crowns with proper overhang and a drip edge, usually $500 to $1,100 in Castle Hills, and we do it right the first time because the freeze-thaw cycle here will expose a shortcut within two winters.
Trusted Brands We Service in Castle Hills
We stock and install DuraFlex flexible liner systems, HeatShield ceramic repair compound, and Gelco sealants, which covers most of what a Castle Hills chimney ever needs. When you need a reline on a ranch home off Honeysuckle Lane or a HeatShield application on a cracked clay tile flue, we don’t have to special-order parts and make you wait. We carry the components on the truck. That keeps turnaround fast, and it means the repair is built from materials chimney pros actually rely on, not whatever is cheapest at the supply yard.
Common Chimney Repair Problems We See in Castle Hills Homes
- Uncapped flues from the 1960s-80s building era. Rain and animals enter freely, soak the firebox, and accelerate clay tile liner deterioration. We see this on a significant number of original chimneys near the namesake hills, and cap installation is usually the first-line fix.
- Freeze-thaw spalling on limestone and brick. Castle Hills gets enough winter temperature swings that moisture trapped in masonry expands and pops brick faces. Older two-story homes with exposed crowns and original mortar are the most common victims.
- Second-degree creosote from intermittent use. High summer humidity plus rarely-used fireplaces leads to first-degree creosote hardening into stubborn, glazed second-degree deposits. This chokes draft, and on ranch homes that use wood stoves as primary heat, it builds faster than anyone expects.
- Cracked clay tile flue liners. The expansive clay soils under Castle Hills shift with moisture, and that movement transfers into the chimney stack. Original clay tile liners crack under the stress, and gaps between tiles become heat and gas escape points.
See the difference
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After
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AfterPricing for Chimney Repair in Castle Hills, TX
For transparency, here’s what repair work actually costs in this market. A standard chimney sweep runs $189 to $250. Mortar repointing starts around $350 and goes to $900. A new chimney cap runs $250 to $550 installed. Crown repair runs $500 to $1,100. HeatShield or DuraFlex liner repair typically lands between $1,200 and $2,200. A full chimney rebuild can run $3,500 to $6,500 depending on height and brick matching. What moves the price is access, brick style, and how far the damage has traveled below the roofline. We give you a written quote before any work begins, and that number doesn’t move. Call (254) 276-4116 for a free estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near Castle Hills
Hadley Chimney San Antonio works throughout the San Antonio metro, including Castle Hills, Selma, Timberwood Park, and Kirby. If you’re just outside the city limits, we still make the drive. Dispatch runs from our metro office, and crews who know Castle Hills chimneys are the same ones who show up in the surrounding communities.
Serving Castle Hills, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Castle Hills area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Chimney Repair in Castle Hills
Yes. Water and animals do the damage, not the fires. An uncapped 1970s-era chimney in Castle Hills is degrading right now, even if the fireplace was last used in 2019. Rain soaks the smoke chamber, animals build nests that block draft, and humid air turns leftover creosote acidic. The rare-use homes are actually the ones where we find the most rot, because nobody looks at the chimney between seasons. Call (254) 276-4116 and we’ll inspect it before it gets worse.
Because the original builders poured crowns without a drip edge and skipped caps entirely. Near the namesake hills, that legacy construction is especially common, and decades of water running down the brick face has eroded mortar and cracked limestone. The fix is a rebuilt crown with proper overhang plus a correctly sized cap, and that’s the single best repair dollar you’ll spend on an original Castle Hills chimney.
Only if the liner is intact. Original 1970s clay tile liners in Castle Hills are frequently cracked from thermal stress, and the expansive clay soil movement makes it worse. Gaps between tiles expose the surrounding masonry to direct flame heat, and that’s how chimney fires start. We can camera-inspect the flue, show you the footage, and tell you honestly whether a HeatShield seal or full DuraFlex reline is necessary. If the liner is fine, you’ll see that too. Call (254) 276-4116 for an inspection.
Often yes. Ranch homes, especially the ones using wood stoves as primary heat, tend to load heavier creosote and need more frequent sweeping plus liner inspection. Two-story traditional homes put the chimney higher, fully exposed to wind-driven rain and freeze-thaw cycles, so crowns and upper masonry fail first there. We diagnose each home by its actual condition, not a blank checklist. In Castle Hills, both housing types exist side by side, and we’re familiar with the specific wear patterns of each.
Third-degree creosote looks like a shiny, tar-like glaze baked onto the flue walls, and it won’t brush off with a standard sweep. It forms when a chimney has been burned hot with restricted airflow, or when earlier creosote stages harden over time. Rotary cleaning can sometimes reduce it, but significant third-degree buildup usually requires chemical treatment or liner restoration. In Castle Hills, where humidity accelerates the hardening of second-degree into third-degree deposits, the honest answer is a camera inspection first. You need to see it, and we’ll show you exactly what we’re looking at. Call (254) 276-4116 to set that up.
Contact Hadley Chimney San Antonio for Chimney Repair in Castle Hills, TX
If your Castle Hills chimney shows any sign of trouble, don’t wait until burning season. The best time to fix a chimney is when the weather is mild, the parts are in stock, and the schedule is open. We answer calls live, 24/7. We give you a written price before anyone picks up a tool. And every repair is backed by a 365-day written guarantee. Call (254) 276-4116 today for a free estimate, and we’ll get you on the schedule.
Written by Cory Mitchell, Owner at Hadley Chimney San Antonio, serving Castle Hills and the surrounding metro with chimney repair, masonry restoration, and cap installation.