Chimney Sweep & Repair in Windsor, CT
Sweeping, repointing and fireplace repair for Windsor’s old brick houses along Palisado Avenue and the postwar homes in Wilson, Poquonock and the rest of town.
Sunday to Friday
A Class Chimney cleans, inspects and repairs chimneys across Windsor, including old brick chimneys that need soft, compatible mortar rather than modern patching. A technician will look at your chimney for free, photograph it and give you a written price. Phone us or use the callback form to book.
Connecticut’s first English settlement, and its chimneys
Windsor was founded in 1633 where the Farmington River meets the Connecticut, the first English settlement in the state. The Palisado Avenue Historic District, along Route 159 on the ridge above the river meadows, holds houses from the 1700s onward and has an unusually high share of 18th- and 19th-century brick construction for Connecticut.
South of the Farmington River, Broad Street Green in Windsor Center is lined with buildings from the late 1700s to the mid-1900s, with brick the most common material. The town also takes in Wilson, Poquonock, Hayden Station, Rainbow and Deerfield, and a large share of its houses date from after the war; the population grew by almost two-thirds between 1950 and 1960 alone.
That gives Windsor two very different sets of chimneys: centuries-old brick stacks laid in lime mortar, and mid-century chimneys built with harder cement-based mortar and clay liners.
Old brick or postwar? How the chimney work differs
Most chimneys in town fall into one of these two groups, and the right repair depends on which one you have.
| Topic | 18th and 19th-century chimney | Postwar chimney |
|---|---|---|
| Mortar | Soft lime mortar; hard modern mortar can crack the old brick | Cement-based mortar; standard repointing mixes suit it |
| Liner | Often unlined or only partly lined | Clay tile liners, now often cracked or offset |
| Usual trouble spots | Eroded joints, soft brick spalling, worn smoke chamber and firebox | Crown cracks, flashing leaks, worn mortar near the top |
| Fireplaces | Large or shallow fireboxes that may smoke | Standard fireboxes with steel dampers that rust |
| Sensible first step | Camera inspection, then a restoration plan | Cleaning and Level 1 inspection, then targeted repairs |
Chimney symptom checker
Tick what you have noticed and see what it usually means.
Repointing old Windsor brick the right way
On an old chimney, the mortar is supposed to be the weaker part. It wears away and gets replaced, while the brick lasts. When someone patches it with hard modern cement, water gets trapped in the brick instead, and the faces start popping off after a few winters.
Our tuckpointing and repointing work on older chimneys starts by raking out the failed joints and filling them with a mortar matched in strength and color to what is already there. Ballpark cost is $800 to $3,000+, depending on how much of the chimney needs it; the exact figure comes in writing after the $59 inspection visit. Where the chimney forms part of an outside wall, we check the joint between chimney and house too, since a gap there lets water into the wall.
If your house is in a historic district, check with the town about any review needed before exterior work. Our historic chimney restoration page covers the wider approach.
Recent work: a partial chimney rebuild
The same chimney, during and after the work. The damaged top courses come down with the roof covered in tarps, then the top is rebuilt and finished with a new crown.
Smoky fireplaces and other Windsor fireplace problems
Smoke rolling into the room
Old fireplaces were often built wide and shallow, and some smoke when the house is tight or the flue is cold. Causes and fixes are in smoky fireplace draft problems.
Worn firebox
Cracked firebrick and open joints let heat reach the framing behind. Firebox repair is about $500 to $2,500 as a ballpark; see fireplace and firebox repair.
Smoke chamber
The rough, stepped area above the damper collects creosote and can let heat through. We parge and repair it as part of flue liner and smoke chamber repair.
Damper that will not seal
A rusted cast-iron damper lets warm air escape all winter. A top-sealing damper, about $400 to $900 as a ballpark, is a common replacement.
Before you light an old Windsor fireplace
Colonial and 19th-century fireplaces sometimes sit unused for years before a new owner tries them. Run through this first, and skip the fire if anything looks wrong.
- Open the damper fully and look up with a flashlight for daylight, nests or fallen debris
- Look for gaps or crumbling mortar between the firebricks
- Check the hearth in front of the opening for cracks or loose pieces
- Make sure nothing that can burn, such as paneling or a wood mantel, sits too close to the opening
- Confirm the chimney has been inspected within the last year
- Keep a working smoke detector and CO detector on every level of the house
How we take a Windsor job from call to clean-up
Every Windsor chimney job moves through the same five stages.
- First contactCall or request a callback, and tell us roughly how old the house is if you know.
- On-site look, freeWe check the masonry, flues, firebox and roof flashing, using a camera and a drone where they help.
- Photos and optionsOn an older chimney we point out what is original, what has been patched before and what we would recommend.
- Written estimateEvery item carries a price before anything goes on the calendar.
- Careful, clean workFloors are protected, dust is controlled, and the site is cleaned when we leave.
Booking in Windsor
Book by calling (203) 779-6787 or through the callback form. The oldest houses often have more than one fireplace, so let us know how many you plan to use and the visit will cover each of them. We cover all of Windsor and neighboring Bloomfield, plus South Windsor across the river.
Prefer we call you?
Three quick taps and a real person from A Class Chimney calls you back to set up a $59 on-site inspection.
- $59 on-site visit and written estimate
- Photos of everything we find
- A written price before any work starts
- Licensed and insured in Connecticut
Sunday to Friday
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When?
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Windsor chimney questions
Chimney help in Windsor
$59 on-site visit, photos of what we find and a written price before any work. Licensed and insured in Connecticut.