Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
Before
After
Before
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Before
AfterFast, Reliable Fireplace Services Across Kendale Lakes
Fireplace service in Kendale Lakes usually means one of two things: a flue that has sat dormant since the 1980s and now smells like mildew, or a gas insert that won’t light when you finally want it to. We handle both, plus dampers, caps, fireboxes, and full fireplace conversions. Our Fireplace Services team covers the communities around Kendale Lakes, Hammocks, and West Kendall with written pricing before any work starts. If you need someone out to your home in Kendale Lakes, call (980) 580-8641 and you’ll speak to a live person, not a voicemail.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Why Emberly Chimney Cleaners Is Kendale Lakes’s Preferred Fireplace Services Company
Most fireplace companies in South Florida were built around wood-burning seasons that don’t exist here. We built our process around what actually happens to flues in Kendale Lakes: decades of Miami-Dade humidity, storm-driven rain, and wildlife that finds its way into an uncapped chimney. Every job we do in Kendale Lakes starts with a camera-scan inspection, not a flashlight glance. You see what we see, and you get a written price and scope before anyone picks up a tool. That’s Clause 1 of the Haven Standard, and it applies to every house we visit off Kendall Drive or Snapper Creek.
Corrine Halstead leads our team, and she’s particular about documentation. Since 2009, we’ve completed more than 38,000 chimney inspections and cleanings, each one with a documented photo record when the work is done. That record matters in Kendale Lakes more than most places because so many homeowners here call us for a pre-sale inspection or an insurance renewal on a fireplace that hasn’t been used in 20 years. The buyer, the insurer, the home inspector: they all want evidence. We hand it to you.
Our techs are background-checked and uniformed. They text you when they’re on the way. And if something isn’t done right, the 365-Day Done Right Promise means we come back and make it right. No arguing, no fine print.
Our Fireplace Services Services in Kendale Lakes
Gas Fireplace Service
Gas inserts and log sets are the workhorses of Kendale Lakes fireplaces. They get lit a few times a year, usually between December and February when a cold front dips into the 40s. What we find inside them is predictable: corroded gas valves, spider webs in the burner ports, cracked ceramic logs, and pilot assemblies fouled by years of humidity. We clean, test, and repair gas fireplaces throughout Kendale Lakes, and we always check the flue before we declare a gas fireplace safe. A gas insert in a Kendale Lakes home often shares a flue that hasn’t been inspected since it was installed.
Wood Burning Fireplace
True wood-burning fireplaces are less common in Kendale Lakes than gas inserts, but they exist in plenty of the original 1970s and ’80s CBS homes. The issue isn’t creosote buildup, like you’d see in a northern market. It’s moisture. Damp mortar, spalling brick, and rusted dampers. If you actually plan to burn wood in your Kendale Lakes fireplace, we’ll scope the flue first, check for blockages, and tell you plainly whether it’s safe to light a fire or whether you’re better off converting to gas.
Fireplace Insert
Installing a fireplace insert in Kendale Lakes usually happens for one of two reasons: you want more heat from less fuel, or the original masonry firebox is in bad shape and lining it is cheaper than rebuilding it. We work with DuraFlex and Copperfield liners and can match an insert to the existing firebox dimensions in most Kendale Lakes homes. Inserts also let you seal off a damp, drafty flue, which is a real benefit in a climate where outside humidity infiltrates the home through every opening.
Damper Repair
Dampers in Kendale Lakes fail from rust long before they fail from heat fatigue. A damper that won’t open or close properly is the single most common repair we make on 1980s CBS homes in this area. Sometimes it’s a simple cable or pivot replacement. Other times the damper frame is so corroded that water has been falling straight down into the firebox for years. We stock replacement dampers and hardware for the brands most common in Kendale Lakes, and we’ll show you the photos of exactly what’s happening up there before we touch anything.
BeforeAfterTrusted Brands We Service in Kendale Lakes
We stock and source parts from the manufacturers that hold up in South Florida’s climate: HeatShield for firebox and smoke chamber repair, DuraFlex for chimney liners, and Copperfield for caps and dampers. Because we pull from the Haven buying network, our pricing on these materials stays honest. When a Kendale Lakes home needs a new cap or a liner section, we typically have the part on the truck or can get it within days, not weeks.
Common Fireplace Services Problems We See in Kendale Lakes Homes
- Cracked chimney crowns from hurricane wind and rain. Miami-Dade storms drive water into every seam. Once a crown cracks, water works its way down through the masonry, and the first sign is often a water stain on the ceiling near the fireplace.
- Missing or displaced chimney caps. In Kendale Lakes, a missing cap almost always means an animal got in. Birds, squirrels, and green iguanas all find their way into open flues, and a dead iguana inside a chimney produces an odor you will never forget.
- Failed flashing where the chimney meets a CBS roof. Flashing on concrete block homes in Kendale Lakes fails silently. By the time you see the ceiling stain, water has been running down the outside of the flue for months, rusting the damper assembly and firebox.
- Dormant flues with spalling clay liners. Almost every original clay liner we scope in Kendale Lakes shows some degree of spalling. Humidity sits in the flue year-round, the liner absorbs it, and pieces start flaking off. You can’t see it without a camera, but it’s real.
Pricing for Fireplace Services in Kendale Lakes, FL
A standard fireplace service call in Kendale Lakes, including a camera-scan inspection and a full cleaning, typically runs $189 to $289. Gas fireplace service, which includes cleaning the burner, checking the pilot, and testing the valve, usually falls between $150 and $250. Damper repair in a 1980s CBS fireplace generally costs $225 to $450 depending on whether it’s a cable replacement or a full frame replacement. Chimney cap supply and installation in Kendale Lakes runs $325 to $550 for a stainless steel cap sized to your flue. A full fireplace conversion from wood to gas in this market typically starts around $1,800 and can go to $3,500 or more depending on the insert and liner. Every one of those prices comes to you in writing before any work begins. Call (980) 580-8641 for a free estimate with real numbers, not a callback guess.
We Also Serve Cities Near Kendale Lakes
While this page focuses on Kendale Lakes, we also serve customers in Kendale Lakes and the broader South Florida region, including Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando. If you’re anywhere in that footprint and you need a Level 2 inspection or fireplace repair, we’ll schedule it.
Serving Kendale Lakes, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Kendale Lakes area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Fireplace Services in Kendale Lakes
Because moisture never takes a season off in Kendale Lakes. The chimneys in this area were built into 1970s and 1980s CBS homes as a selling feature, not a heating appliance. They sit unused for decades while Miami-Dade humidity, routinely above 70%, saturates the mortar and clay liners. The moisture causes spalling, which is the clay liner flaking apart from the inside. Add hurricane-season wind-driven rain through a cracked crown, and you have a flue that deteriorates without ever seeing a single fire. Call (980) 580-8641 if you want us to scope yours and show you exactly what condition it’s in.
Yes, and it happens more often than people think. Hurricane winds push rain horizontally, not vertically, so water gets forced into places normal rain never reaches. If your chimney crown has even a hairline crack, wind-driven rain enters it, runs down inside the masonry, and pools around the flashing where the chimney meets your CBS roof. From there it soaks through the ceiling. By the time the stain shows up, the damper and firebox below are usually already rusted. In Kendale Lakes, we have seen this exact sequence dozens of times after hurricane season. If you have a stain near your fireplace, call (980) 580-8641. We will find the entry point and put it in writing.
Yes, and you need it more than most people realize. A gas insert still vents up through a flue, and that flue is an open shaft into your home. In Kendale Lakes, green iguanas are abundant. During winter cold snaps they look for warm places, and an uncapped chimney opening is exactly where they end up. Birds and squirrels do the same. A stainless steel cap keeps them out and also stops rain from pouring straight down the flue onto your gas insert. For most Kendale Lakes homes, cap installation is the single highest-value fireplace upgrade we recommend. Call (980) 580-8641 for a written quote with the exact cap size for your flue.
A Level 1 inspection is a visual check of the accessible parts: the firebox, the damper, the chimney exterior, the cap if there is one. A Level 2 inspection adds a camera scan down the entire flue and into the smoke chamber. For a Kendale Lakes fireplace that has sat unused for years, Level 2 is the one you want. It shows you the spalling, the animal debris, the cracked tiles, the rusted damper frame, the things a visual glance can never reveal. Our camera-scan inspection runs on every visit we make, and the documentation practice behind it has been in place since 2009 under Clause 4 of the Haven Standard. Call (980) 580-8641 and we’ll walk you through what the camera sees.
Usually, yes. A rusted damper does not necessarily mean a full fireplace rebuild. If the frame is still sound, we can replace the damper plate, the cable, or the pivot hardware for a few hundred dollars. If the frame itself is corroded through, we may recommend a top-sealing damper mounted at the flue opening, which eliminates the problem of moisture reaching the damper assembly in the first place. In Kendale Lakes, top-sealing dampers make a lot of sense because they block humidity and rain at the top of the flue before it ever gets inside. Call (980) 580-8641 and we’ll tell you which option your fireplace actually needs, with a written price for each.
What Kendale Lakes Homeowners Should Know Before the First Fire of the Season
Last month we pulled a decaying green iguana and a bird’s nest from a flue in the Kendale Lakes West subdivision, then scoped the clay liner and found third-degree spalling behind a rusted Famco damper. We installed a stainless steel cap, replaced the damper, and sealed the chimney crown with a Gelco product. The homeowner got a Level 2 inspection report for their insurance renewal the same week. That’s what a fireplace service call looks like in Kendale Lakes. It’s not romantic. It’s dry, it’s humid, it’s iguana season, and the work is almost never about creosote.
Kendale Lakes sits in subtropical South Florida where wood-burning fireplaces are rarely used, meaning the real chimney service need here is not creosote removal but inspection and cleaning of neglected, humidity-saturated flues in 1970s and 1980s CBS homes where decorative or gas-insert fireplaces have sat essentially dormant for decades. Homeowners here call a chimney sweep not because they burn cord wood every winter, but because an unused flue has become a mold-laden, wildlife-infested shaft that they suddenly need certified before a home sale or insurance renewal. The invasive green iguanas common to this corridor of southwest Miami-Dade seek warmth in chimney openings during cold snaps, and their carcasses create blockage and odor calls that are effectively unknown in any other U.S. chimney market. Cap and screen installation is consequently the highest-demand upsell on nearly every Kendale Lakes job we do.
If you live in Kendale Lakes and you have a fireplace that has not been looked at in years, call (980) 580-8641. We will send a background-checked technician, put a camera down your flue, and hand you a written report with photos before we ever quote a repair. Written price, written scope, written warranty. That’s how we work.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Emberly Chimney Cleaners, serving Kendale Lakes under the Haven Standard since 2009.
Fireplace Services in Nearby Areas