The shop
Twenty-two seasons up the Gap’s chimneys
Mistvale started in 2004 with one sweep, one rods-and-brush kit and a camera nobody else in the county would buy. Two generations of Gap chimneys later, the camera rule is still the whole business: the flue tells us what it needs, on video, and you watch it say so. We have talked households out of more relines than we have sold — a cracked tile at the thimble is a tile, not a chimney.
The card, 2026
Level 1 sweep & inspection$189
NFPA 211 annual — full brush, smoke test, 21-point written report
Level 2 camera scan$349
Every foot of flue on video, defects measured — sale, fuel change or fire
Rigid 316Ti reline$2,400–3,600
Insulated liner, termination and draw test included
Top-sealing damper$640
Supplied and fitted on the existing cap seat, with cap
Smoke-chamber pargingfrom $890
Corbelled brick smoothed to code with insulating castable
Tuckpoint & crownfrom $28 / sq ft
Joints re-pointed in matched mortar; crown poured with a drip edge
The card, before the ladder
Every household gets the same written card before anyone climbs anything, and the invoice repeats it. NFPA 211 asks for a Level 1 look every burning year — creosote keeps no calendar but its own.
The Ostler Gap, 2025 — 2026
Recent hearths
Sweeps, scans and restorations photographed from the roof and the firebox — no two Gap chimneys are the same age or the same trouble.
How it goes
How a Mistvale visit runs
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Stage 1
The camera, first
Drop cloths hearth to hatch, then the flue scanned end to end on video while you watch the monitor. Every defect measured — crack width, creosote degree, joint loss — because the footage decides the next stage, not the salesman.
Stage 2
The sweep
Sealed hearth, HEPA extraction running before the first rod goes in, brush passes until the walls show bare tile or liner. What came out is bagged and graded on the report — first, second, or the glazed third that means treatment.
Stage 3
The report, in 48 hours
Stills from your own scan, the draft readings, and a scope for anything the camera found — itemised, with the footage behind each line. The video is yours to keep; it is your chimney, and the evidence should travel with it.
Stage 4
The work, only if it was called for
Relines, dampers, parging and pointing land inside the fortnight in season. If the flue came back clean, the report says so in one line and we leave — which happens more than the trade likes to admit.
Counted since 2004
The hearth ledger
The honest ones included — the scans that found nothing are the numbers we are proudest of.
The estate agent’s inspector wanted a full reline written into the sale. Mistvale put the camera down instead, found one cracked tile at the thimble and a starling nest above the smoke shelf, and posted us the video that evening. Tile, nest, cap — done for a fifth of the number, and the sale closed on their report. The thumbdrive lives in the sideboard now, next to the deeds.
You watch the whole thing on a monitor like a nature documentary about your own house. Ours had third-degree glaze the last outfit had brushed over and called clean — Mistvale treated it, re-swept, and showed me both videos side by side.
The damper had been rusted open since before we bought the house. Top-sealing damper fitted in an afternoon, and the fireplace finally draws instead of smoking the room out. The card said $640 and the invoice said $640.
They parged a smoke chamber that was more corbel than brick, and the difference in the draw is something you can hear — the fire roars now instead of sulking. Clean crew, exact report, first fire the following week.
How often should it really be swept?
Every burning year, minimum — NFPA 211’s rule, not ours. A cord of seasoned hardwood leaves about an eighth of an inch of first-degree creosote; at two cords a season, annual is right. Green or softwood doubles the rate, and the scan will tell you what your burning actually amounts to.
The fireplace smells in summer — is that fixable?
Usually. Warm humid air falls down a cool flue and carries creosote odour into the room, often through a rusted-open damper. A top-sealing damper closes the chimney like a biscuit tin and fixes most of it; if the smell is sharp rather than smoky, the camera should check for a nest or a leak first.
Level 1, 2 or 3 — which do I need?
Level 1 is the annual look. Level 2 is the camera scan — required at a sale, a fuel or appliance change, or after any chimney fire. Level 3 opens masonry to reach what even the camera cannot, and it is scoped strictly from what Level 2 found on film.
Stainless liner or clay tile?
Clay is fine while it is intact and straight. It cracks with flue fires and offsets, and once it has, patching tiles into a damaged run is false economy. Rigid 316Ti wrapped and insulated drafts better and survives a fire — we install both, and your footage argues for one of them.
Do you do the masonry too?
Yes — tuckpoint in mortar matched to the original lime, crowns poured with a drip edge, chamber parging, full rebuilds above the roofline. One crew, one card, one report; the chimney leaves here whole or tells you exactly when it will be.
No footage, no quote
We do not sell a repair the camera has not shown you, and every report carries stills pulled from your own scan. If a second opinion disagrees with our reading, send them the video — we are happy to be checked against the evidence.
Autumn scans book two weeks out — earlier than the sweeps · (555) 032-8817 · hearth@mistvalechimney.example
Put the camera down it
Tell us the house, the stove or fireplace, and what the last sweep said — paperwork welcome, we read it. The Level 2 scan is $349 with the footage yours to keep, and the report quotes only what your own flue walls can prove. hearth@mistvalechimney.example