What an inspection covers
A proper inspection examines the whole system, not just the part visible from the couch. Inside: the firebox (brick condition, mortar, the refractory panels in a prefab unit), the damper and smoke chamber, and the flue itself — scanned by a purpose-built chimney camera that lights and records the interior from bottom to top. Outside: the cap, the crown, the brickwork and mortar, the flashing where the chimney meets the roof, and the chimney's overall stance — a lean or a separating stack announces itself to a trained eye before it announces itself to your ceiling. The camera footage is the heart of it. Tile cracks that are invisible from below, mortar joints washed out between flue tiles, offsets where a liner has shifted, creosote in its stages, blockages from nests and debris — the camera sees them at inches' distance, and so do you, on the screen, during the visit.
Why the camera matters
From the bottom of a flue, looking up with a flashlight, an inspector sees silhouettes. From the top, looking down, the same. The most consequential chimney defects live in the middle distance of the flue, where neither view reaches — a cracked tile at the fifteen-foot mark, a joint gap wide enough to pass heat and flame to the framing, a section of liner eroded by decades of oil-furnace condensate. Those defects are precisely the ones that turn a routine house fire into a structure fire, because a flue's job is containment: the moment its wall has a hole, the chimney stops being a sealed exhaust pipe and becomes a chimney-shaped blowtorch aimed at your wall studs. A camera scan is the only honest way to certify a flue's interior — or to catch it failing. It is standard in our sweep + inspection special and available on its own.
When to book an inspection
When buying a home with a fireplace — the chimney is the one major system a standard walkthrough cannot evaluate, and sellers rarely know its condition. After any chimney fire, before the fireplace is used again, without exception. When the fireplace's history is simply unknown — a new home, a foreclosure, a system unused for years (years of idleness are when animals, water and rust do their quiet work). When performance changes: smoke entering the room, a new odor, a draft that reversed. When an appliance changes — a new stove, an insert, a furnace swap — because the flue must suit the appliance it serves. And as the natural partner to an annual sweep, which is why we bundle them: the sweep cleans the flue, the camera verifies the container. Our article on what happens during an inspection walks through a visit step by step.
What the findings look like
You receive a written report in plain language: the condition of each part of the system, the photographs that matter, and recommendations sorted by what they are — safety items that should be addressed before the fireplace is used, maintenance items that protect the chimney's life, and observations that need nothing but awareness. Creosote is reported by stage and thickness. Masonry is reported by area: crown, joints, flashing. Where a flue is damaged beyond spot repair, the report says so and explains the relining option with the images that justify it. Where the system is sound, the report says that too — in the same detail — because a clean bill of health you can show a future buyer or an insurer is a deliverable, not a disappointment.
What we will not do
We will not declare emergencies that are not. We will not quote repairs from the doorstep without measurements and photographs. We will not let a "today only" price anywhere near your decision — a cracked tile is exactly as cracked next week, and any company afraid of your second opinion is telling you why you need one. Our report is written to make sense to another chimney professional; take it to one if you like. The chimney trade's reputation suffers from inspection theater — vague dread, no images, a big number. The camera is the cure, which is why it is at the center of how we work.
After the inspection: your call
Everything after the report is your decision, on your timeline. Book the repair, schedule the sweep, fit the cap — or do nothing and keep the report on file. If we inspected before a home purchase, we are happy to explain the findings to your agent or the seller's, with the photographs doing most of the talking. The point of an inspection is that, for the first time, everyone is looking at the same chimney: the real one, inside the walls, on a screen.