Chimney masonry & restoration · Dorrit Mills & the mill valley · Third generation
Ninety years of mortar. We keep the count.
Hearthspan rebuilds, relines and restores the mill valley’s chimneys — the figures below are the whole argument. Every number is a job in the ledger book our grandfather started, and every warranty we write is measured against them.
Restoration estimates within the week, mill valley wide · (555) 019-6512 · ledger@hearthspan.example
Services
What the ledger covers
01
Chimney rebuilds
Tear-downs and rebuilds to the roofline and above it — brick matched from salvage when the original course has been out of the catalogue for sixty years, mortar mixed to the old wall’s compressive strength, and the fluency lined before the scaffold ever comes down.
02
Historic restoration
The mill houses of Dorrit were built by masons who struck joints we now have to be taught to copy. We re-point in lime, replace only the units that are genuinely lost, and photograph every course — before, during, after — into the ledger.
03
Relines & the appliance change
When the oil boiler becomes a gas furnace or the fireplace becomes a stove, the flue that served one will not serve the other. We size liners to the manual and the height, camera-verify the run, and draw-test the result on paper you keep.
How restoration goes
Estimate to ledger entry
The same four stages since 1936 — the tools changed twice, the sequence never.
Day 1
The survey
Camera down the flue, a mallet along the courses, and a moisture reading at the shoulder where the stack meets the roof. The estimate that follows names every course we intend to touch — and the ones we refuse to.
Week 1
The drawing
A course-by-course plan: units to replace, mortar to match, the crown detail, the liner size if one is changing hands. Salvage brick is sourced here, before the scaffold, not during.
Weeks 2–3
The work
Lime re-pointed in lifts so the wall never dries all at once, brick laid off the salvage pallets in the order they came off, crowns struck to shed. Photographs at every lift, into your entry.
Close-out
The ledger entry
The folder: photographs, the mortar recipe, the liner’s draw test, the ten-year warranty — and a line in the book with your address in it, the same book, the same page size, since 1936.
Posted ranges
Rates, from the last ledger page
Restoration is priced per course and per liner-foot; these are last season’s true ranges, not teasers.
Hearthspan — 2026 ranges
Camera survey & estimate$295, credited
video · mallet & moisture readings · written course plan
Re-point, per square$38–$46 / sq ft
lime mortar · raked & flushed full · salvaged units bedded
Rebuild above the roofline$210–$260 / course
per course, salvage-matched · scaffold included
Full reline, stainlessfrom $3,100
insulated · appliance-sized · draw test filed
Crown rebuild & capfrom $860
struck to shed · reinforced · draw-sized cap
Annual sweep, ledger clients$265
rod & rotary · log appended to your entry
Recent restorations
Entries with photographs
Six entries from last season’s pages — every one photographed at the lifts, filed in the book, and warrantied for ten years.
The ten-year line
Masonry work is warranted ten years, materials and labour, transferable to the next owner — and the mortar recipe in your folder means the mason who renews it in 2036 mixes exactly what we did. A warranty nobody can read is a warranty nobody can keep.
The standard
Why the book matters
Every estimate we write is checked against what the same job actually cost the last time we did it — because the ledger has those numbers going back decades. It is why our ranges are ranges and not lures, and why the third generation quotes like the first one did.
They found my grandfather’s entry for our chimney — 1954, the original sweep, twelve shillings noted in the margin. The re-point matched the old work so exactly that the conservation officer asked which course was new. The folder told her, to the brick.
From the counter
Fair questions
The four the ledger answers most. The shop phone is the same number it was in 1971.
Can you match brick that old?
Almost always — between the salvage yards we buy from and a stock of reclaimed units at the shop, a 1900s course can be matched to texture and strike. When it cannot, we say so and show you the nearest three options side by side on a sample panel.
Why lime instead of modern mortar?
Because an old wall manages moisture through its joints, and portland traps it in the brick — the face spalls off in a few winters and the repair becomes the damage. Lime is softer, sacrificial, and correct; the ledger has photographs of what the other choice does.
Is the survey fee credited?
Yes — the $295 comes off the invoice of whatever work the estimate leads to. It exists because a course-by-course plan takes half a day, and half a day is worth its own line whether or not you hire us.
Do you take the modern chimneys too?
The sweeps and relines of the 1980s-and-later stacks are a third of the book. The same entry, the same folder, the same ten-year line — masonry age changes the mortar, never the standard.
Estimates within the week · conservation officers welcome at the shop · (555) 019-6512 · ledger@hearthspan.example
The survey
Open a ledger entry
Send the address and the age of the house. The survey is half a day, the estimate names every course, and if the honest entry is “re-point now, rebuild in ten years”, that is what the book will say. ledger@hearthspan.example