A Level company - serving Jersey City, NJ

Before & After Gallery - Level Two Chimney Jersey City

Every visit starts with

Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed

Worth knowing

Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.

Styles & brands we work with

Before & after – our own jobs

Before - Recent Project — Recent Project

Before - Full Restoration — Full Restoration

After - Full Restoration — Full Restoration

Before - Complete Upgrade — Complete Upgrade

After - Complete Upgrade — Complete Upgrade

Chimney Cleaning Before & After in Jersey City, NJ

Photographs tell the truth faster than any claim. For 16 years, we’ve documented every chimney we touch in Jersey City, from the first camera scan to the final sweep. What follows are representative cleaning jobs from the neighborhoods we work in weekly: the Heights, Bergen-Lafayette, Greenville, Journal Square, and Paulus Hook. The names are removed. The conditions are real.

Call (862) 272-3868

Recent Transformations

Heavy Glaze Creosote Removal in a Bergen-Lafayette Rowhouse

Before: black, glassy Class III creosote coating the flue walls of a rowhouse chimney in Bergen-Lafayette, Jersey City — Before: Class III creosote glazing the flue walls, found during a Level 2 camera scan. This is the tar-like form of creosote that fuels chimney fires, not the flaky kind you can brush off with a homeowner kit.

After: clean flue walls showing original clay tile liner after mechanical and chemical glaze removal — After: same flue after mechanical glaze removal followed by a chemical treatment. The clay liner is intact, and the flue now drafts correctly. Under Clause 4 of the Haven Standard, the homeowner received the full before-and-after camera footage, not just these stills.

This rowhouse off Ocean Avenue had not seen a brush since the house changed hands in 2011. The camera showed a glossy glaze running all 28 feet of the flue, thickest in the last 8 feet before the cap, where the gases had cooled and condensed. We used a rotary loop with a poly-glaze treatment in two passes. Total time on site: just under three hours. Written price before any work started: $440. The result: a flue you can see clay through, drafting steady at the damper.

Animal Nest Extraction and Full Sweep in the Heights

Before: nesting material and twigs wedged into a chimney flue in the Heights neighborhood of Jersey City, blocking airflow — Before: a squirrel’s nest wedged 12 feet down from the cap, packing the flue to roughly 80 percent blockage. We find these in the Heights more than any other Jersey City neighborhood, thanks to the older tree canopy along Ogden and Franklin.

After: the same flue clear of debris with a new stainless cap and mesh screen installed, Jersey City — After: flue cleared and swept to bare tile. We installed a Copperfield cap with a proper mesh screen on the return visit. The mesh sizing matters: too wide, and squirrels still get a shoulder through. Too tight, and you have a draft problem in high wind.

A homeowner on Sherman Place called because her living room smelled faintly of smoke even when the damper was closed. The camera found the culprit: a squirrel had built a nest during the previous fall, and the homeowner had also been burning with the damper mostly shut, compounding the creosote buildup behind the blockage. We pulled out the debris, swept the full flue, and did a smoke test at the throat. The cap replacement was quoted separately before we touched anything. The photo record from that visit includes sixteen frames, showing the nest, the debris load, and the cleared flue.

Clogged Smoke Chamber and Damper Repair in Journal Square

Before: corbelled brick smoke chamber packed with soot and creosote above an older firebox in a Journal Square pre-war building, Jersey City — Before: the smoke chamber above the firebox, with years of soot packed into the corbelled brick. This is the area between the firebox and the flue, and it is the most common spot for a drafting failure in older Jersey City masonry.

After: the same smoke chamber pared down and coated with HeatShield, a thin ceramic resurfacing material — After: the chamber pared down and resurfaced with HeatShield, which smooths the rough brick and lets smoke move up instead of rolling back into the room. This is a common repair in pre-war buildings where the original mortar joints have flaked away.

A tenant in a six-unit building near Journal Square reported smoke spilling into the apartment every time the upstairs neighbor used their fireplace. The scan showed the smoke chamber had mortar joints missing to the depth of a finger in places, and a damper plate rusted partly shut. We won’t tell you a nightmare story about a partial collapse. We’ll tell you what the camera showed: structural brick in fair condition, but a smoke chamber that could not draft because the path was rough and narrowed. We swept the flue and chamber, then quoted the HeatShield resurfacing as a separate line item. Written price before any work started, on both phases.

Level 2 Camera Scan with No Cleaning Needed in Paulus Hook

Camera still of a nearly clean flue liner in a Paulus Hook condo conversion, Jersey City, showing only light soot — Before: the camera shows a flue with only a light soot curtain. No cleaning needed that day. Homeowners in Paulus Hook newer builds often get a scan after a real estate transaction, and this one came back cleaner than most.

Digital inspection report page showing flue liner condition ratings, photo attachments, and written scope, Jersey City — After: what the customer actually walks away with in this scenario: a written inspection report with photo stills, a flue liner condition rating, and a note that the next sweep can wait a season. Not every visit ends with a brush. Some end with documentation.

We end with this one because it matters. A condo buyer in Paulus Hook called us after a home inspector flagged the chimney, but couldn’t say what was wrong with it. The camera told the truth: the flue was a stainless DuraFlex liner, installed within the last decade, showing a light soot curtain and nothing else. No glaze, no spalling, no blockage. Writing that down is just as much our job as guiding a brush. The inspection fee was $149, the report was delivered that afternoon with eight annotated photos. We told the buyer plainly: sweep it next year before winter, not before. That honesty is built into how we quote: a written price when work is needed, and a written statement when it isn’t.

Want Results Like These?

Professional chimney sweep cleaning a residential chimney from a rooftop. — Want Results Like These?

Every chimney is different, but the standard is not. We put a camera down the flue, we show you exactly what it sees, we quote a written price before anything starts, and we leave a photo record when we are done. If you are in Jersey City and want to know what is actually inside your chimney, call us at (862) 272-3868. A live person answers, 24/7.

Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Level Two Chimney Jersey City, serving Jersey City since 2009.

Need Chimney Cleaning help in Jersey City? Licensed & insured · Camera-inspected response · free estimates