Catch It At Rough-In. Not At The Walkthrough.
A clearance problem is a stud and an hour while the framing is open. The same problem found after the buyer moves in is a demo, a drywall crew, a paint match, and a phone call you did not want. We work the fireplace and the flue at the four points in a build where it is still cheap to be right.
We hold a window, not a time slot. Tell us the day before if a trade slips and we move with you.
Almost nobody sets out to build a bad chimney. What happens instead is that the flue is the one assembly on the job with no dedicated trade watching it end to end. The framer sizes the chase, the installer sets the unit, the roofer flashes it, the mason does the veneer, and each of them is correct about their own part. The gaps live between them. That is the whole reason this page exists, and it is the only thing we are selling.
Six things we keep finding on finished homes.
None of these are exotic. They are the ordinary consequences of a detail that lives in the seam between two trades, and every one of them is visible for free while the framing is still open.
Clearance closed up behind finish
A masonry chimney wants two inches of air to combustible framing where it runs inside the house and one inch outside. Once the drywall is hung, nobody can see whether a header or a floor joist got shimmed into that gap. We measure it while it is still open, because after paint the only way to check is to cut.
Termination height set by eye
The stack has to clear the point where it passes the roof by three feet, and out-top anything standing inside a ten-foot radius by two. Where the roof is steep or stepped, that math moves the chase height, and a chase framed off a plan drawing rather than the built roof comes up short more often than it should.
Mixed components on a listed system
A factory-built fireplace is listed with its own pipe, its own termination, and its own clearances. Swap in another brand of chimney section because it was on the truck and the listing no longer describes what is in the wall. It looks finished. It is not the assembly that was tested.
Chase covers that hold water
A flat galvanized cover with no cross-break ponds the first time it rains, rusts through in a few seasons, and drains straight into the chase. It is a cheap part on a change order and an expensive one after the sheathing has been wet for two winters.
A tight house that will not draft
Build the envelope right and the fireplace has to compete with the range hood and the dryer for air. The first cold morning the homeowner lights it, smoke rolls into the room, and the call comes to you. Makeup air is a rough-in decision, not something to solve after move-in.
Hearth extension short of dimension
Sixteen inches out front and eight past each side of the opening for a standard firebox, twenty and twelve once the opening reaches six square feet. Tile layouts get drawn to look right rather than to measure right, and the shortfall usually shows up in an inch or two.
Four visits, and the last one is free of drama.
Take all four or take one. Builders running a repeating elevation usually keep rough-in and pre-drywall and drop the rest. Custom builders tend to want pre-close most, because that is the visit that stands between them and a walkthrough argument.
Framing up, nothing covered
What gets checked
Chase framing dimensions against the unit's listed clearances, firestop locations, the planned termination height measured off the built roof rather than the plan sheet, and whether the appliance has a real path for combustion air.
What you get
A marked-up list of anything that has to move while moving it is still carpentry.
Last chance to see the assembly
What gets checked
Photographs of every clearance and every joint in the vent run, the model and serial of the unit, and the component list as installed, so the listing and the hardware in the wall are the same conversation.
What you get
A photo set filed by lot and address. It is the record that answers a warranty question two years out.
Before the buyer's walkthrough
What gets checked
Full operation: damper, glass, gasket, fan if there is one, gas connection where applicable, draft under normal house conditions, plus crown, cap, chase cover, and flashing from the roof.
What you get
A documented inspection you can hand to the buyer, and a punch list you get before they do.
After the family moves in
What gets checked
Callback triage. Smoke smell, a fireplace that spills, water staining on the chase wall, a damper that binds. We separate an installation defect from ordinary operation and say plainly which one it is.
What you get
A finding with a photo behind it, so the callback goes to whoever actually owns it.
The photo you took before drywall is the whole argument.
Warranty disputes about fireplaces are rarely about facts. They are about which party can produce evidence of a condition that is now buried behind finish. Whoever has the dated image of the assembly wins the conversation in about a minute, and whoever does not is arguing from memory against a homeowner with a lawyer.
That is why the pre-drywall visit is the one we push hardest. It is the cheapest visit on the list and it is the one that pays for the other three.
Record filed by lot
Address, lot number, unit model and serial, component list, date, technician. Findable by lot two years later without a phone call to anyone's memory.
Pre-cover photo set
Clearances, firestops, joints, and terminations photographed before drywall. The single most useful thing in a warranty dispute, and it takes twenty minutes to capture.
Correction list, priced
Anything out of spec written as a line item with the standard it is measured against and a number attached, so you can decide whether it is your scope or a sub's.
Homeowner handoff sheet
One page for the buyer: how the damper works, what the unit burns, what the annual service is, and who to call. It cuts the first-winter calls that were never defects.
Post-correction re-check
When something gets fixed we come back, photograph the corrected condition, and close the line. An open item stays open on the record until that happens.
Vendor paperwork
Certificate of insurance with your additional-insured wording, W-9, and the signed agreement, issued to the entity your contracts department names.
The limits, stated up front.
A trade that only tells you what it can do is a trade you will find the limits of at the worst possible moment. Here they are now.
We will not certify concealed work we never saw
If the walls closed before we got there, you get a documented condition and an honest statement of what was observable. Real confidence in a closed assembly means a camera scan, and where the scan indicates a hazard, opening a section. We will quote that rather than sign a page.
We do not frame, roof, or run gas line
We work to the rough opening and the roof deck as they were built. When the problem sits upstream of the flue we say so and hand it back, because billing you to chase another trade's scope is how a useful vendor becomes an expensive one.
A moving site costs a trip
We hold a window and we will re-sequence with a day's notice. What does not work is arriving to a chase that is not framed. Builders who run us as a weekly sweep across whichever lots are at the right stage lose almost nothing to this. Single-address bookings on a fluid schedule lose plenty.
We will not write a finding harder than the evidence
Some builders want the report to lean their way in a subcontractor dispute. It will not. A finding carries a photo and the standard it is measured against, and it says only what those two support. A report that flexes to suit whoever commissioned it collapses the first time anyone leans on it.
Per home to start. Per plan set once you like it.
Run one house first. It is the only way either of us learns whether this is worth the line item, and it costs you a single inspection to find out. Once a community is on a repeating elevation, the number moves onto the plan set and the lot schedule instead of the address.
Documented inspection, per home, from
$119
One visit, one address, photographed and written up. The starting point for a rough-in, pre-drywall, or pre-close look.
Community schedule
Quoted on the plan set
Repeating elevations, a lot schedule, and a standing weekly window price differently from twenty custom rooflines. We look before we quote.
Corrections and installed work
Quoted on site
Caps, chase covers, liners, crowns, masonry, gas service. Each one written against the finding it answers and approved before anyone starts.
Prices shown are starting estimates and may change with the condition, access, and scope we find on site. Only a written quote from an on-site visit is a price we commit to.
Anything needing a license — the gas connection, electrical, structural scope — goes to a licensed pro, under the code your jurisdiction enforces. Standards and compliance.
Where this connects
Send us a lot that is framed and open.
The address, the fireplace make and model if you have it, and where the lot is in the schedule is enough to book. We will walk it, tell you what we saw, and you decide whether the second visit is worth booking. If you would rather start with the plan set and the elevation detail, send that instead and we will read it before we roll a truck.
Request a compliance quote
Single-site, multifamily, or national portfolio — tell us the system and the sites.
Builders — FAQ
We already have a fireplace installer. What are you adding?
A second set of eyes that is not the one that hung the unit. The installer is measured on units set per week; we are measured on whether the assembly matches its listing and the code. On most homes we find nothing and the visit is a twenty-minute photo record. On the ones where we do find something, it is almost always at rough-in, where the fix is a stud and an hour instead of a demo. If your installer is solid, we are cheap insurance on their work and a paper trail on yours.
Our schedule moves daily. Can you actually work on an active site?
Yes, with one honest caveat. We hold a window rather than a time, and we want the day before as notice when a trade slips. What we cannot do is stand by while a site decides whether it is ready. If we roll and the chase is not framed or the roof is not on, that trip is spent. Builders who run us on a weekly sweep of whatever lots are at the right stage get far more out of us than builders who book single addresses.
Will you sign off on an installation you did not watch go in?
We will document it, and we will tell you exactly what we could and could not see. We will not put our name to an assembly whose hidden portions we never actually looked at. If the walls are already closed and you need real confidence rather than a photograph of a finished wall, that means a camera scan of the flue and, where a hazard is indicated, opening a section to look. We will quote that honestly instead of signing something we did not verify.
Do you handle the fireplace itself, or only the chimney above it?
Both, within the trade. We set caps and chase covers, run and reline flues, do masonry and crown work, service and diagnose gas appliances, and install inserts. What we do not do is frame, roof, or run new gas line to the appliance. We work to the rough opening and the roof deck as they were built, and we will tell you when a problem is upstream of us so you are not paying us to chase somebody else's scope.
How is this priced across a community?
A single documented inspection starts at $119 per home. Across a community it is quoted on the plan set and the lot schedule, because a repeated elevation with the same chase detail is a fundamentally different job from twenty custom homes with twenty rooflines. Corrections and installed work are quoted on site, line by line, against the finding they answer. Nothing gets performed on an assumption that you approved it.
Who is responsible when we find a defect at pre-close?
That is your call and your contract to settle. What we owe you is a finding clear enough that the conversation stays short: a photograph, a measurement, and the clause or standard the condition is measured against. We do not assign fault between you and a subcontractor, and we will not write a finding harder than the evidence supports because it is convenient for one side.
Who signs off on the gas connection?
A licensed professional. Gas lines, electrical, and structural scope all go to somebody licensed to put their name on them, under whatever code your jurisdiction enforces. On a direct-vent or a gas log set that covers the valve, the connection, and everything downstream of the shutoff. We document condition either way, but the sign-off is not something we improvise or borrow.
Talk to a real chimney tech today.
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