Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Masonry repair
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 Sweep Across Castle Hills
A chimney sweep in Castle Hills typically costs between $189 and $329 for a standard wood-burning fireplace with a single flue. That covers a full mechanical brushing, a visual inspection of the accessible firebox and damper, and photo documentation of everything we find. We book Castle Hills jobs within a 1-3 day window, not a four-hour guessing game. Call (254) 276-4116 and a live person answers, day or night.
Castle Hills is different from the rest of San Antonio, and if you live here you already know that. The homes off West Avenue and Lockhill Selma, the mid-century ranches tucked behind Northwest Military Highway, the two-story traditionals near the city’s namesake hills. These houses share a quirk: masonry chimneys built between 1960 and 1990, often with original clay tile liners that have spent fifty-plus years absorbing rain, heat, and the slow shift of North Texas soil. We know what to look for here because we’ve swept hundreds of these flues, and we photograph everything before recommending anything.
Why Hadley Chimney San Antonio Is Castle Hills’s Preferred Chimney Sweep Company
Castle Hills homeowners don’t get a generic chimney checklist from us. They get a tech who knows that a 1972 two-story off Loop 410 tends to have a different liner failure pattern than a 1985 ranch near the city’s southern edge. That experience gets baked into every Chimney Sweep visit we run here.
Our techs are background-checked and uniformed, and you’ll know exactly when they’re arriving because we send live arrival tracking on every job. That’s The Relay Visibility Guarantee, and it applies whether you’re on the books for a $219 sweep or a full reline. No vague windows. No wondering if anyone’s actually coming.
Every recommendation we make in Castle Hills comes with camera evidence. You’ll see the creosote glazing, the cracked flue tile, the missing cap. If our tech can’t show it to you on their screen, it isn’t a real problem. We put that in writing, and we back every repair with a written guarantee and a free second visit if anything fails within 365 days. That’s the 365-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s not a marketing line. It’s how we’ve operated since Cory Mitchell started this company in 2003.
Styles & brands we work with
Chimney Sweep Certified in Castle Hills
Chimney Sweep Certified in Castle Hills means a full mechanical cleaning of the flue and smoke chamber, a firebox inspection, and a written report with photos, not a quick poke with a brush and a handshake. A standard sweep here runs $189 – $329 depending on flue height, creosote buildup (the flammable tar residue wood burning leaves behind), and whether we’re dealing with a single story or a two-story home. Most Castle Hills sweeps take 60-90 minutes from setup to final photo documentation.
What the sweep actually covers
We brush the full flue length with a rotary system sized to your liner, then hand-sweep the smoke shelf and firebox. After the mechanical work, we run a camera through the flue to confirm nothing was missed and to document the liner condition for your records. You see what we see, in real time, before we write the report. This matters in Castle Hills because so many flues here are original clay tile, and a blind sweep can miss a hairline crack that turns into a $3,000 problem later.
When Castle Hills homeowners schedule a sweep
Most of our Castle Hills customers book an annual sweep before the first cold snap, usually October through early December. If you burn more than two cords a season, or if your fires smoke even with the damper fully open, you may need a mid-season sweep. Gas fireplace users fall into a different schedule, which we cover below.
Gas Fireplace Cleaning in Castle Hills
Gas Fireplace Cleaning in Castle Hills runs $149 – $249 and covers the log set, burner, pilot assembly, glass, and the vent path. Gas fireplaces still collect soot and dust that restricts airflow and can cause the unit to burn inefficiently or produce carbon monoxide, so this isn’t just a cosmetic wipe-down. We clean the firebox with vacuums and brushes designed for gas units, never a chimney brush, because a standard rod and brush can scratch ceramic logs and damage the gas line.
Why gas fireplaces still need service here
Many Castle Hills homes built in the 1980s and 1990s came with original gas log sets that have never been professionally serviced. In a humid subtropical climate, dust and pet hair accumulate on the burner ports, and the glass fogs with combustion residue. We document the before-and-after with photos so you can see the difference, and we check the draft to make sure exhaust is flowing the way it should. If the draft is weak, we’ll tell you, with camera evidence.
What gets checked beyond the logs
We inspect the gas line connection for leaks, test the thermocouple and pilot assembly, and verify the vent path is clear. If your gas fireplace vents into a masonry chimney that also serves a wood-burning appliance, we’ll flag that, because mixing gas and wood exhaust in a single flue creates condensation that accelerates clay tile deterioration. This configuration is common in older Castle Hills homes.
Trusted Brands We Service in Castle Hills
We work with chimney materials that pros in Castle Hills actually rely on. When a reline is genuinely needed, we install DuraFlex flexible liner systems, which hold up to the thermal cycling our climate throws at them. For repair compounds and waterproofing, we use HeatShield and Copperfield products. And when a cap replacement is necessary, we stock Olympia Chimney and Famco caps that fit the older brick and limestone flues common to Castle Hills. Because we know the housing stock here, we keep the most frequently needed parts on our trucks, which means less waiting for a cap that fits your 1968 crown.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Chimney Sweep Problems We See in Castle Hills Homes
- First-degree creosote layers in unlined or original clay tile flues. The high humidity in Castle Hills makes creosote stickier and harder to remove once it builds up. A quick brush pass doesn’t always clear it, so we use rotary brushes and document the before-and-after.
- Cracked flue liners from expansive clay soil movement. The soil under Castle Hills swells and shrinks with moisture, and over fifty years that shift is enough to crack the original clay tiles in a masonry chimney. We confirm cracks with a camera, not a guess.
- Missing or rusted chimney caps on pre-1980 homes. Many chimneys in the older sections of Castle Hills, especially near the hills themselves, were built without caps. Rain and squirrels get in, and both accelerate liner damage. We bring cap options that fit the existing crown.
- Spalling brick and deteriorating mortar on south-facing chimneys. Freeze-thaw cycles, even the mild ones we get in winter, work on brick and mortar joints. South-facing chimneys take the worst of sun and rain. We’ll photograph any spalling and tell you whether it needs attention now or can wait.
Pricing for Chimney Sweep in Castle Hills, TX
Here’s what Castle Hills homeowners can expect to pay. A standard wood-burning chimney sweep runs $189 – $329. Gas fireplace cleaning runs $149 – $249. A Level 1 inspection (visual, no camera) runs $99 – $149 and is included with most sweeps. A Level 2 camera inspection runs $199 – $349 and is what we recommend for any Castle Hills home over 20 years old, or any chimney that hasn’t been inspected in three or more years. Creosote removal for heavy buildup (second or third degree) adds $75 – $150 depending on severity. We never spring a number on you at the door. You get a written price before any work starts, and that price doesn’t move. Call (254) 276-4116 for an exact quote.
We Also Serve Cities Near Castle Hills
Hadley Chimney San Antonio runs crews into Castle Hills and the surrounding North San Antonio communities. If you’re in San Antonio, Selma, Timberwood Park, or Kirby, we can usually route a tech your way on the same schedule as our Castle Hills visits. Dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from our Dallas-Fort Worth office, but the techs on your roof are local, background-checked, and familiar with the masonry chimneys that dominate this part of Bexar County.
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 Sweep in Castle Hills
Every two years is the minimum, but we recommend an annual sweep for any Castle Hills chimney with original clay tile, even if you only light a few fires each winter. The humid subtropical air in this area keeps creosote soft and sticky, and light, infrequent fires produce more creosote per burn than hot, continuous fires. A missed season of buildup can become second-degree creosote, which is much harder to remove. Call (254) 276-4116 and we’ll put you on an annual schedule that works around your burning habits.
Yes, and we often do both on the same visit. We clean the flue first, then run a camera to check for water damage or animal nests that came through the open top. Once we’ve documented the condition, we can install a properly sized cap before we leave. You’ll get a written price for the sweep and the cap before we start anything. A cap on a 1968 Castle Hills chimney is one of the cheapest ways to prevent expensive liner damage, and we’ll show you the photos that prove it.
A gas fireplace needs a proper cleaning, not a sweep with a chimney brush. We vacuüm the firebox, clean the burner and pilot, wipe the glass, and check the vent path for obstructions. So it’s more involved than vacuuming the logs, but we never use a rod and brush on a gas unit because that damages ceramic logs and can knock the gas line out of position. Gas fireplace cleaning in Castle Hills runs $149 – $249 and includes photo documentation.
You can’t see a cracked flue liner from the ground, and you shouldn’t climb on a Castle Hills roof to check. The only way to confirm a liner crack is with a camera run through the flue. That’s what a Level 2 inspection includes. We’ve seen Castle Hills homeowners quoted $4,000 relines based on nothing but a visual inspection from a tech who never ran a camera. Before anyone touches your chimney, ask for the footage. If the crack is real, we’ll show it to you on our screen and you can hold that same image in your hand before writing a check.
First-degree creosote is a light, dusty soot film. Third-degree is a hard, glazed tar that’s a serious fire risk and requires aggressive chemical or mechanical treatment. Castle Hills sees more first and second-degree creosote because our humidity keeps the residue from fully drying into the hard third-degree glaze that other climates produce. But that sticky second-degree creosote still ignites, and it builds up faster in flues that don’t get hot, thorough fires. Every sweep we do here includes a creosote classification so you know exactly what’s in your flue and what it means. Call (254) 276-4116 to get your flue documented properly.
Written by Cory Mitchell, Owner at Hadley Chimney San Antonio, serving Castle Hills with camera-documented chimney sweeps and repairs since 2003.