Chimney Sweep Service

A routine chimney sweep keeps your fireplace safe and efficient. Over time, creosote, soot, and debris build up inside the flue. As a result, fire risk rises and indoor air quality can drop. Moreover, animals, leaves, and weather can create hidden blockages even if you burn only a few times a year.
📞 Call Now to Schedule Your Chimney Sweep: 847-994-4388

Why an Annual Chimney Sweep Matters

The National Fire Protection Association recommends yearly inspections and cleanings. Therefore, if you can’t remember the last service, it’s time. In addition, regular care helps prevent smoke backup, carbon monoxide concerns, and costly repairs.

What Our Chimney Sweep Includes

• Full inspection: We check the flue, cap, crown, and exterior for damage.
• Thorough cleaning: We brush and vacuum the liner, firebox, smoke chamber, and damper to remove creosote and soot.
• Safety testing: We verify clear airflow and proper draft.
• Honest recommendations: If we see issues, we explain next steps—no pressure.

Signs You Need a Chimney Sweep

• Burning wood smells strong even when the fireplace is off.
• Black flakes or soot fall into the firebox.
• Smoke spills into the room, especially at startup.
• Animals or debris are visible near the cap.

Why Choose Chimney Monkey?

Our trained technicians go beyond a quick brush. Instead, we use proven tools and careful methods for a cleaner, safer system. Furthermore, homeowners across Chicago’s North Shore trust our team for clear communication, neat work, and reliable results.

Proudly Serving Chicago’s North Shore

With years of experience and thousands of satisfied customers, our team continues to deliver exceptional chimney care across the North Shore. We’re dedicated to protecting your home year-round while expanding our reach to new towns every season. Our growing team ensures prompt, reliable service—wherever you are.

Core Service Areas

Specifically, we proudly serve Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Deerfield, Riverwoods, Bannockburn, Northfield, Northbrook.

Extended Service Areas

We also cover Arlington Heights, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Glenview, Hawthorn Woods, & Fort Sheridan.

Therefore, no matter where you live in the North Shore, Chimney Monkey is ready to help. In addition, our team ensures quick response in all listed areas. Likewise, we adapt to local needs for safer results.

📞 Call Chimney Monkey at (847) 994-4388 and let us take care of your chimney needs!

What a chimney sweep visit includes

A proper sweep is not just a brush up the flue. We seal the fireplace opening so nothing escapes into the room, run a HEPA vacuum for the duration, and clean the flue from the firebox through the smoke chamber to the top of the stack. While we are there we check the damper, the smoke shelf, the cap and the crown, and most of the time we also run the camera up the flue once it is clean, because a swept flue is the only time you can really see the tile joints and the smoke chamber. That camera look is part of the Level 1 inspection included with your sweep, not an upsell. You get photographs of anything we find.

How often a chimney needs sweeping

Annually is the honest answer for almost every household, and NFPA 211 asks for an annual inspection whether or not the flue needs cleaning. If you burn several cords a season, or burn softwood, or run the stove slow and smouldering overnight, you are building deposits faster and twice a year is more realistic. If the fireplace has not been lit in three years it still needs looking at, because the things that block a flue – nests, leaves, fallen tile – do not care whether you use it.

What we find that homeowners miss

Most of what makes a chimney dangerous is invisible from the hearth rug. Cracked flue tiles behind a layer of soot. A cap that blew off two winters ago. A smoke chamber that was never parged. Bird nests packed above the damper. A liner that was correct for the old boiler and is badly oversized for the new one. Sweeping is how these get found, which is the real argument for booking it even when the fire seems fine.

Wood, gas and oil

Wood produces creosote, and creosote is what carries flue fires. Gas produces almost no soot but a great deal of water vapour, which attacks masonry and corrodes liners. Oil leaves a fine, acidic soot that coats everything. The appliance changes what we are looking for and how the flue should be treated, but every one of them needs the same annual look. See chimney cleaning for what the cleaning itself involves.

Getting ready for us

Let the fire go out at least twenty-four hours before. Clear a path to the fireplace and move anything precious off the mantel. Keep pets in another room, mostly for their sake. We bring our own sheeting and do the rest. Plan on an hour to ninety minutes for a single flue.

What happens if we find a problem

You get told on the day, with photographs, and a written quote if repair is needed. We do not sell work off the back of a torch beam and a worried expression. Where the picture is unclear we recommend a full chimney inspection, and structural findings route to chimney repair. Missing or damaged caps we can usually handle the same visit – see chimney cap installation.

Questions we get asked

Do you use a camera during a regular chimney sweep?

Most of the time, yes. Once the flue is swept we run a camera up it as part of the Level 1 inspection included with the sweep. A Level 2 is the formal documented survey required when a property changes hands, when the fuel or appliance changes, or after a chimney fire. A Level 3 is the invasive inspection we perform when part of the chimney has to be opened up to answer the question.

How often? Annually for almost everyone; twice a year for heavy burners.

How long? An hour to ninety minutes for a standard single flue.

Will it make a mess? No. Sealed opening, HEPA vacuum, sheeted floor.

Do gas fireplaces need it? They need annual service and flue inspection, yes.

When should I book? Spring or summer, while there is time to fix anything found.

To book a sweep anywhere in Cook or Lake County, call 847 994 4388.

What a Chimney Sweep Costs

A full chimney sweep is $335 as of July 2026, and the Level 1 inspection is included in that price. That covers the flue, smoke chamber and firebox, plus a photographic report of what we found. If you only need the inspection without the sweep, a Level 1 is $205 and a formal documented Level 2 inspection is $295. Prices are current at the time of writing; call 847-994-4388 to confirm.