Longest Day Chimney Co. · Sunbank · masonry in the warm months, sweeps in the cold ones

JUNE IS CHIMNEY SEASON. THE CALENDAR IS ON OUR SIDE.

Everything above your roofline cures better in summer: mortar set in dry warmth gains strength instead of losing it, crowns pour and cure without a frost watch, and the crew that would be up a ladder in a January gale is up it in shirtsleeves. The summer card below prices the same work the autumn rush charges a premium to hurry — booked before the longest day, done before the first fire.

Crowns cured seven days in dry warmth · mortar matched to the original lime · the September sweep discounted for summer customers · thirty-one seasons in Sunbank

Best cured

The June Crown

$745booked June or July

  • Crown chipped to sound masonry
  • Poured with a proper drip edge
  • Seven-day warm cure, sheeted
  • Cap fitted while the scaffold is up

The same crown the autumn rush does in a cold weekend, done in the weather it deserves.

The Summer Point

$5.90 / sq ftJune to August

  • Joints ground to sound mortar
  • Re-pointed in matched period lime
  • Spalled faces cut out and replaced
  • Stock matched from the reclaim wall

Mortar gains strength in dry warmth and the colour matching is done in daylight.

The September Sweep

$154for summer customers

  • Full brush on HEPA extraction
  • Level 1 inspection, twenty-one points
  • Creosote graded on the card
  • Damper run through its travels

Thirty dollars off the autumn card rate, because summer customers already own the scaffold story.

The argument, in four moves

Why mortar likes June

The same four reasons on every Sunbank roof — chemistry first, comfort a distant second.

1

Mortar cures, it does not dry

Hydration needs water and time, and a summer wall keeps both — a January pour fights frost blankets and loses part of its strength to the cold it was poured against. The summer joint reaches the strength the mix was designed for.

2

Crowns cure seven days under sheet

A crown is a concrete lid on your chimney and it wants a week of warmth. In June that is the weather; in October it is a heater and a hope. Drip edges form better, the surface wears longer, and the freeze-thaw finds far less to chew.

3

Lime matches in daylight

Re-pointing in mortar matched to the original lime content is colour work as much as strength work, and colour work needs honest light. Summer matching is invisible from the street; December matching is a stripe you explain to guests.

4

The scaffold is calm

Summer scaffold time is booked, unhurried and shirtsleeved, and the crew’s attention is on the wall instead of the forecast. The work is better because the working is — and the first fire of autumn lights over a chimney that was finished months ago.

31
Sunbank seasons — the shop opened the longest day of 1995
312
crowns poured in warm months, zero frost-blanket callbacks
7 days
the cure every crown gets, sheeted, in the season that allows it
$30
off the September sweep for every summer customer, every year

Also better warm

The rest of the summer card

The three packages above are the headline; the side of the card carries the rest of what a chimney wants between the thaw and the first fire. Same rule as everything here: booked in summer, priced like summer, cured like summer.

Summer work, 2026

Rigid 316Ti reline$2,350–3,400

Insulated, terminated, draw-tested — the flue is bone dry in July, which the liner and the wrap both prefer

Smoke-chamber pargingfrom $860

Corbelled brick smoothed to code with insulating castable, cured warm

Top-sealing damper, fitted$640

Closes the chimney at the top like a biscuit tin — cap included

Flue rebuild above the rooflinequoted from the scan

Brick matched from the reclaim wall, date stones reset, joints limed to match

Camera scan — Level 2$329

Every foot on video before the scaffold goes up; the quote that follows is written off footage, and any Level 3 opening is scoped from what it films

Autumn sweep, summer rate$154

The September Sweep for returning summer customers — card, grade and Level 1 included

The autumn quote for our crown and pointing was written against a calendar nobody consulted us about — one weekend in November, frost blankets, a 20 percent “winter conditions” line at the bottom. Longest Day did the same scope the following June for less, in seven days of cure instead of a hurried two, and matched the mortar so well the neighbour asked whether they had done the west wall at all. The following September the sweep came at the summer rate. The chimney has never been in better shape and neither has the invoice.
The Ferreira-Odd household — crown, pointing and the September sweep, Sunbank hill

Sunbank & district, 2025 — 2026

Summer work, winter fires

Six jobs from last summer, photographed in the weather that cured them. Every one lit its first fire without a follow-up visit.

The Sunbank rectory
The Sunbank rectory — crown and full re-point, matched lime, invisible from the lane
Hillcrest Row
Hillcrest Row — 316Ti reline in dry July, draw-tested at 12 pascals
The Old Granary
The Old Granary — chamber parged, cured warm, draft transformed
Keeper’s Lane
Keeper’s Lane — top-sealing damper fitted off the summer scaffold
The new hill lofts
The new hill lofts — flue rebuilt, date stone reset, first fire in October
Mill race cottage
Mill race cottage — the September sweep, summer rate, first-degree card
They talked me out of the November rush and into the June calendar, and the difference is visible: the new crown has a drip edge the old one never did, the pointing matches so well the insurance photographer used the wrong “before” picture, and the invoice was under the winter quote by the exact amount of the winter-conditions line.
P. Naismith-Odd · June Crown and Summer Point, the Sunbank rectory
Our rebuild needed reclaimed brick and a reset date stone, and a firm quoted us October with scaffold up for a month. Longest Day did it across three calm weeks of June, the street kept its skyline the whole time, and the listing officer’s note said “indistinguishable.” In December we lit the first fire in forty years that did not smoke the parlour.
A. Thorne-Vane · Flue rebuild, the new hill lofts
The September sweep at summer rate is the whole relationship in one line: they could charge the card price and we would pay it, and instead the discount arrives because we booked sensibly. Third summer with them. The chimney is the least interesting thing on the house now, which is the compliment.
D. Rutherdale · Three-season customer, Mill race cottage

Summer questions

The four the shop phone answers before the longest day.

Is summer work really cheaper, or just earlier?

Earlier, mostly — the honest kind of cheaper. The scope prices the same; what disappears is the hurry: frost blankets, weekend compressions, the winter-conditions line that January masonry honestly needs. Booking June buys the cure the work wanted anyway, and the September-sweep discount is our thank-you for spreading the trade across the year.

How do I know what the chimney needs before the scaffold?

The Level 2 camera scan, $329, before anything else — every foot of flue on video, the crown and cap photographed from above, and the summer card quoted off what the footage names. The scan is the same in any month; the work it names is what June is for.

What if I burn all summer — can you still work?

Yes, with a calendar: the flue goes cold and gets swept before the masonry work, and the stove takes its break while the scaffold is up. Most summer-burning households lose the hearth for a week and gain a chimney that stops pretending autumn repairs held.

Does the relining really differ by season?

The liner does not, but everything around it does: a bone-dry July flue takes insulation wrap and sets termination seals better than a damp November one, and the draw test runs on stable air instead of a gale. The same 316Ti will serve either way — it simply goes in cleaner in the warm, and the crew is not racing the forecast to the roof.

The summer card is open May to August; the scaffold books two to three weeks out · (555) 080-1175 · june@longestdaychimney.example

Book the summer

Tell us the roofline and what the winter was like — smoke, smell, a quote you did not love — and the scan will say what June should fix. Crowns from $745, pointing at $5.90 the square foot, and the September sweep at $154 for summer customers. june@longestdaychimney.example