Chimney Service in Collingswood, New Jersey

Collingswood became a borough in 1888, split from Haddon Township, and that same year Edward Collings Knight gave the land for Knight Park. Some houses are far older than the borough: the Stokes-Lees house on Lees Avenue dates to 1707 and the Thackara House on Eldridge Avenue to 1754. Haddon Avenue runs through the middle as the main shopping street, the PATCO station connects the town to Camden and Philadelphia, and the Cooper River forms the northern edge. The 2020 census counted 14,186 residents in about 1.9 square miles.

Census figures (ACS 2024) show 48.9 percent of Collingswood homes built before 1940 and about 71 percent before 1960, with a median build year of 1941. Only 39 percent are detached houses; 17 percent are twins and row homes, and the rest are apartments and multi-unit buildings. About 74 percent heat with gas, 18 percent with electricity and 5 percent with oil. In practice that means old brick chimneys on attached houses, some sitting on or near a shared wall, and flues that have vented several generations of heating equipment.

Knight Park and the historic districts

The Collingswood Residential Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1990, is centered on Knight Park and the houses around it, roughly from Park Avenue East to Dayton Avenue. A second listed district covers the commercial core along Haddon Avenue, where 80 of its 95 buildings and sites count as contributing. The borough code also sets up a local Historic Preservation Commission under New Jersey's land use law.

A National Register listing by itself doesn't add local review; what matters is whether your property is designated under the borough's own ordinance. Ask the borough before rebuilding, shortening or removing a chimney you can see from the street. We give you photos and a written scope if you need them.

Unlined flues, twins and gas appliances

New Jersey's fire code says an unlined masonry chimney with open mortar joints that let smoke or gas into the building shall be repaired or relined, and some older chimneys were built without one. When a furnace, boiler or water heater is replaced, the state also requires an F-370 chimney verification, which a homeowner can't sign. On a twin or row home, both owners may want to know what the inspection found, so we put it in writing with photos you can share.

Typical prices: a liner for a gas furnace or water heater $625 to $2,250, a stainless liner $1,500 to $5,000, a cast-in-place liner $2,000 to $7,000, and repointing $500 to $2,500.

Where we work in Collingswood

Knight Park · Residential Historic District · Park Avenue · Dayton Avenue · Haddon Avenue · PATCO station area · Cooper River side · Lees Avenue · Eldridge Avenue