Chimney Service in Somerset County

Most of Somerset County's housing is recent. The Census Bureau's 2024 survey puts the median home at 1981, and fewer than 10 percent were built before 1940. Bridgewater and Hillsborough are largely newer construction, and 15 percent of the county's homes are attached houses. Newer homes often have factory-built fireplaces with metal flues inside a framed chase rather than a brick chimney. Those fireplaces vent differently from masonry chimneys and can only be repaired with parts listed for the model.

The exception is the Somerset Hills. In the late nineteenth century, Bernardsville, Far Hills and the country around them became a place for wealthy industrialists to build country homes, and those big houses have big masonry chimneys with several flues. Across the county, 78 percent of homes heat with gas, so gas fireplaces, gas inserts and gas furnace flues make up much of the work. Gas exhaust is wet, and in an old masonry flue it slowly wears at the liner and mortar.

Factory-built fireplaces and chase covers

A factory-built fireplace vents through a metal chimney in a framed chase, topped by a metal chase cover. When that cover rusts or pools water, rain runs down into the chase and the firebox. A new chase cover typically runs $300 to $700. The fireplace itself can only be repaired with parts listed for that model, which we check at the inspection.

Many of these fireplaces burn gas. A yearly gas fireplace service typically runs $150 to $350, and repairs to the valve or control board $300 to $1,000.

Estate chimneys in Bernardsville and Basking Ridge

Tall masonry chimneys on older houses need the same care as anywhere else: repointing at $500 to $2,500, crowns at $600 to $2,200 and flashing at $300 to $1,800. On a steep or slate roof the work takes longer, and we price that in at the free inspection. If a fireplace flue is unlined with open mortar joints, the New Jersey fire code says it shall be repaired or relined.