Get in touch Village of Barrington!
Winter is coming to Barrington! This means chimney and fireplace cleaning is inevitable. And when that day comes, be sure to give Chimney Monkey a call! We’ll sweep your chimney, fireplace, and even take out the trash on our way out!
Our home fireplace experts know just how to make your fireplace the cleanest and coziest it’s ever been! Call 847 994 4388 or email today!
If you are a Barrington resident look no further than Chimney Monkey to have your fireplace cleaning done. You won’t be disappointed!
Contact your local chimney sweep
You can call our office from Monday to Friday from 8am – 9pm at 847 994 4388
Fireplace and Chimney Cleaning in Barrington
Barrington chimneys are, on average, the largest and most complicated we work on. The area has a deep stock of substantial older homes, many on wooded acreage, and a lot of them have multiple fireplaces served by a single tall chimney with three, four, or more flues. Add newer estate construction with dramatic two-storey stone fireplaces and outdoor hearths, and the job is rarely a single flue and an hour on the roof.
What We Find in Barrington Chimneys
Multi-flue chimneys concentrate several problems at once. There is far more crown area to fail, several caps rather than one, and a much greater chance that at least one flue has an issue while the others are fine. The economics work in your favour on inspections, though: additional flues on the same chimney are discounted, so a four-flue Barrington chimney does not cost four times a single-flue Level 2.
On the older homes we also spend a lot of time undoing previous repairs. Pre-war Barrington masonry uses soft brick that was originally laid in soft lime mortar. When a previous contractor repointed it with a hard modern Portland mix, the mortar ended up stronger than the brick, and movement stress went into the brick faces instead of the joints. The result is spalling that looks like weathering but is actually a materials mismatch, and fixing it means replacing brick and repointing with a properly soft mix.
What a Sweep Includes, and What It Costs in Barrington
Our prices are flat and published, which is unusual in this trade and deliberate on our part. A full chimney sweep is $300 to $350 (rates as of September 2026) and the Level 1 inspection is included in that price. It covers containment and drop cloths, mechanical cleaning of the flue, cleaning the smoke chamber and smoke shelf, HEPA vacuuming of the firebox, a camera look up the flue on every single sweep, and a photographed report of what we found. We run the camera whether or not you ask for it, because spotting a cracked tile or an open joint is the whole reason to be up there.
If you need the inspection without the sweep, a Level 1 is $200 to $300, a utility flue inspection for a furnace or water heater is $200 to $300, and a Level 2 with a camera survey of the flue interior is around $300, with a discount for each additional flue. We already run a camera during a routine sweep as part of Level 1, so what a Level 2 really buys you is the formal documented survey and the written report insurers and buyers ask for — which is what you need when a Barrington home changes hands. Common repairs are published too: a stainless cap is about $350, crown resurfacing about $400, crown replacement $2,000 to $3,000. Tuckpointing we quote by the section after looking at the chimney, since joint depth, mortar matching and roof access move the price far more than brick count does. The full list is on our chimney repair cost page.
Signs Your Chimney Needs Attention
Smoke rolling back into the room, a fireplace that draws worse than it used to, a persistent smoky or sour smell in warm weather, debris or sandy mortar collecting in the firebox, white staining on the exterior brick, rust on the damper or the appliance vent connector, and scratching or chirping sounds in the flue. Any one of those is worth a look. A carbon monoxide alarm sounding is a leave-the-house-and-call-the-fire-department event, not a scheduling one.
Related work we handle: sweeping, inspections, relining, crown repair, caps and chase covers, tuckpointing, masonry repair, leak repair, and fireplace installation.
Booking in Barrington
Call 847-994-4388 or request an appointment. Our shop is at 741 Hastings Dr, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089. Late summer and early fall book out fastest, because everyone remembers the fireplace at the same time; if you want a sweep before the first cold snap, call before October. Real estate transactions get scheduling priority, since Level 2 inspections tend to arrive with a deadline attached.