Level 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.
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AfterFast, Reliable Chimney Liner & Rebuild Across Smithtown
If you own a home in Smithtown built between the 1950s and late 1970s, there’s a good chance your chimney was originally designed to vent both a fireplace and an oil burner through a single masonry stack. Those chimneys are now 50 to 70 years old, and the terra cotta liners inside them are cracking, spalling, and letting flue gas go places it shouldn’t. That’s where we come in. Top Hat Chimney handles chimney liner inspection, replacement, and full rebuilds across Smithtown, from the Hauppauge Road corridor down to the older neighborhoods near Landing Avenue. Call (631) 502-3612 and you’ll get a live person, a straight answer, and an upfront number before any tool comes off the truck.
Why Top Hat Chimney Is Smithtown’s Preferred Chimney Liner & Rebuild Company
Wendell Pike started Top Hat Chimney in 1999 and has spent nearly three decades inside chimneys just like the ones lining Smithtown’s side streets. He’s not a franchise that rotated in last spring. He puts his name on every job, publishes his license number, and backs the work with a 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. That means if the liner isn’t right, one call brings him back at no charge. No phone tree, no escalation department, no “we’ll have a regional manager look into it.”
The sweep who shows up at your door in Smithtown is background-checked, uniformed, and gives you a real arrival window. If that window slips, we call you before you have to call us. Homeowners in Kings Park, Commack, East Northport, and Stony Brook have called us for the same reason Smithtown does: because the price quoted on the phone is the price on the invoice, and because the person who diagnosed the problem is the person who fixes it.
We know Smithtown’s housing stock. We know the cape cods off Lake Avenue, the split-levels near Route 25, the colonials in the neighborhoods around Smithtown High School West. We know what those chimneys look like inside after 60 years of oil-burner heat cycling and Long Island winters. That local knowledge matters when someone tells you a liner is “fine” and wants to sell you a rebuild you may not need. Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild team does not recommend work without camera evidence you can watch yourself.
Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild Services in Smithtown
Stainless Steel Liner
When a Smithtown homeowner converts from oil to gas, the existing flue is almost always oversized for the new appliance. A stainless steel liner sized correctly for the new boiler restores proper draft, prevents condensation, and stops acidic flue gas from eating through what’s left of the old clay tile. We install DuraFlex stainless liners in Smithtown chimneys regularly, and every install comes with before-and-after camera footage so you know exactly what was in there and what it looks like now.
Flexible Liner
Older Smithtown chimneys rarely have perfectly straight flues. The masonry has shifted, the clay tile sections have offset, and a rigid liner simply won’t negotiate the turns. A flexible stainless liner snakes through those offsets and gives you a continuous, code-compliant vent path without knocking down the chimney. For many Smithtown split-levels and cape cods, this is the fastest and least invasive way to bring an aging flue back to safe condition.
Liner Replacement
If your Smithtown chimney still has its original terra cotta liner, it was never designed to last this long. Sixty years of heating-season expansion and contraction cracks those tiles and loosens the mortar joints between them. We remove the damaged clay and replace it with a properly sized stainless steel liner matched to whatever appliance is venting through it now, not whatever was there in 1964.
Partial Rebuild
Sometimes the liner is fine but the chimney above the roofline is not. Nor’easters and freeze-thaw cycles break down crowns, open mortar joints, and let water run down behind the liner where you can’t see it. A partial rebuild from the roofline up replaces the damaged masonry, installs a proper concrete crown with the right wash slope, and stops the water intrusion that would eventually destroy a new liner from the outside in.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Smithtown
We install and service liners and components from DuraFlex, Copperfield, and Famco. These are the brands we’ve come to trust over 29 years of working on Long Island chimneys, and we keep common parts stocked for fast turnaround on Smithtown jobs. When we quote a stainless liner for your Smithtown home, we’ll tell you exactly what product we’re putting in and why it matches your flue. No mystery materials, no “whatever the warehouse sent over.”
Common Chimney Liner & Rebuild Problems We See in Smithtown Homes
- Cracked shared divider tiles in double-flue chimneys. In Smithtown’s classic cape cods and split-levels, the fireplace flue and the oil-burner flue often share one masonry chimney separated by a single terra cotta divider. When that tile cracks, combustion byproducts migrate between flues. You won’t see it from the outside. A camera inspection finds it in minutes.
- Spalled terra cotta liners from decades of oil-burner heat cycling. Oil heat runs hot and cycles constantly all winter. That thermal stress, repeated every year for 60 years, cracks clay tiles and collapses sections of liner. We see this on a regular basis in Smithtown chimneys built in the 1950s and 1960s.
- Water intrusion from nor’easter-driven wet snow and freeze-thaw cycles. Smithtown winters push wet snow against chimney crowns, and the repeated freeze-thaw opens mortar joints from the outside. Water gets behind the liner and accelerates deterioration in ways a chimney cap alone won’t stop.
- Oversized flues after oil-to-gas conversion. National Grid keeps extending gas service into Smithtown neighborhoods, and every conversion creates a mismatch: the old flue was sized for a big oil burner, and the new gas boiler only needs a fraction of that volume. The result is poor draft, condensation, and corrosion. A correctly sized new liner fixes it.
Pricing for Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Smithtown, NY
A stainless steel liner replacement in Smithtown typically runs between $2,800 and $5,500 depending on flue length, accessibility, and whether we’re relining one flue or both in a double-flue chimney. A partial rebuild from the roofline up usually lands between $3,500 and $7,000. A full chimney rebuild in Smithtown, which we only recommend when the masonry itself is structurally compromised, starts around $9,000 and can reach $15,000 on larger double-flue stacks. What moves the number: roof pitch, chimney height, liner diameter, whether staging is required, and how much of the existing crown and cap needs replacement. We give you a firm number before work begins, not an estimate that swells at the door. Estimates are free. Call (631) 502-3612 and we’ll schedule a camera inspection and written quote. And if you already have a competing written estimate, bring it. Wendell will give you a free second opinion.
We Also Serve Cities Near Smithtown
If you’re just outside Smithtown, we also work in Kings Park, Commack, East Northport, and Stony Brook. The same crew, the same pricing, the same 90-Day Done Right Promise. Whether you found us searching for Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Smithtown or your neighbor in Commack recommended us, you’ll get the same camera-verified diagnosis and the same honest recommendation, even if that recommendation is to do nothing at all.
Serving Smithtown, NY - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Smithtown 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 - Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Smithtown
You can’t tell from the outside, and that’s the problem. The only way to confirm a cracked divider tile in a Smithtown double-flue chimney is a camera inspection run through both flues. Symptoms that suggest it: a smell of oil exhaust near the fireplace when the boiler is running, soot in the fireplace smoke chamber that wasn’t there last season, or a carbon monoxide detector that trips intermittently during heating season. If any of those sound familiar, call (631) 502-3612 and we’ll run a camera through both flues and show you exactly what’s there.
Almost certainly yes, and it’s the most common reason Smithtown homeowners call us for relining. The flue that vented a 180,000-BTU oil burner is massively oversized for a 70,000-BTU gas boiler. Oversized flues don’t draft properly, condense acidic flue gas inside the chimney, and corrode whatever liner remains. A stainless steel liner sized specifically for the new gas appliance is standard practice in any Smithtown oil-to-gas conversion. Call (631) 502-3612 and we’ll inspect the existing flue and give you a firm number before any work starts.
A stainless steel liner is a new, continuous metal flue installed inside the existing chimney. A HeatShield repair coats the inside of the existing flue with a ceramic material to seal cracks and restore integrity. For Smithtown chimneys where the clay tile is cracked but the masonry structure is sound, HeatShield can be a lower-cost option that preserves the original chimney’s footprint. When the old liner is collapsed or the flue needs resizing for a fuel conversion, a stainless steel liner is the stronger call. We’ll show you the camera footage and explain which one fits your chimney before you spend a dollar. Call (631) 502-3612 for a free estimate.
Yes, and this happens in Smithtown more than people realize. Nor’easter-driven rain hits the chimney from the side, not from above, so the cap doesn’t block it. That water works into mortar joints opened by freeze-thaw cycles, runs down behind the liner, and saturates the masonry. Over time it accelerates liner deterioration from the outside. If you had a hard nor’easter season and haven’t had the flue inspected since, it’s worth a camera look. Call (631) 502-3612 and we’ll tell you if there’s damage or if you can safely wait.
Sometimes, but not as often as you’d think, and we never recommend it without showing you why on camera. We recommend a full rebuild when the masonry itself has structurally failed: leaning stacks, massive spalling where you can see brick faces breaking off, or a crown so deteriorated that water has compromised the flue from top to bottom. In Smithtown’s 1960s colonials, we more often see partial rebuilds than full ones. If a rebuild is truly necessary, we’ll walk you through the camera footage and explain in plain English why a liner alone won’t fix it. Call (631) 502-3612 and we’ll give you the straight answer.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Smithtown since 1999.