The Damage Is Inside The Flue. So Is The Evidence.
A camera goes down the flue, every condition gets photographed and measured against the standard it is judged by, and the repair comes back as an itemized scope with figures attached. We will not read your policy, argue with your adjuster, or tell you how this ends.
If the flue is unsafe to use right now, stop using it and call. That is an emergency visit, not a paperwork appointment.
Most chimney claims that go badly do not go badly because someone was unfair. They go badly because the damage lives in the one part of the house nobody can see, and the file ends up holding a sentence instead of an image. An adjuster cannot climb inside a flue. A contractor who writes chimney repair and one number has not given anyone anything to work with either.
Our job on a claim is deliberately narrow, and it stays that way. We put a camera where nobody else can, we write down exactly what is there with measurements and the standard behind it, and we hand the whole thing to you. What happens next is between you and your policy.
Four losses, and what each one leaves behind.
Every event writes its own signature into the masonry and the liner. Knowing which signature to look for is most of the job, and it is why a general once-over from the ground so often concludes that nothing happened.
Flue fire
A chimney fire can burn itself out in minutes and leave a homeowner unsure anything happened. What it leaves behind is not subtle once a camera is in the flue.
What we photograph
Puffed or honeycombed creosote, clay tiles cracked in a spiral or spalled off the wall, gaps opened at the tile joints, a warped or discoloured damper, and heat damage in the smoke chamber. On a metal liner, buckling or seam separation.
Wind and hail
Storm damage to a chimney is usually written off from the ground because the visible half looks intact. The parts that take the hit are all at the top.
What we photograph
Bruised or fractured cap mesh and lids, dented chase covers, crown cracked through rather than crazed, flashing lifted or torn at the counterflash, displaced brick or a stack out of plumb, missing mortar cap material.
Lightning
A masonry chimney is often the highest point on a roof, and a strike releases enough energy inside wet masonry to move it. This one gets missed constantly.
What we photograph
Brick blown off the stack, mortar joints opened along a vertical line, cracked or displaced crown, tile fractures deep in the flue that only a camera reaches, and damage to any metal at the termination.
Water intrusion
Water is the slow loss, and it is the one where the line between a covered event and excluded wear is genuinely arguable. We document the condition and the evidence of how it got there. Nothing beyond that is ours to call.
What we photograph
Staining and efflorescence on interior chase walls, rust at the damper and firebox, spalled brick face, saturated smoke chamber parging, and a chase cover or crown that shows a standing-water path.
Built so a reviewer never has to take our word.
Every element in here exists to answer a question a file reviewer will ask. Where is it. How big is it. Against what standard. What does fixing it cost. Was it already like that.
Internal camera scan
The full length of the flue on camera, with stills pulled at every condition worth naming. An adjuster cannot climb inside a flue, and a written description of a cracked tile is not evidence of one. The image is.
Dated exterior photographs
Crown, cap, chase cover, flashing, and the stack from the roof, shot close and shot in context so the location of each condition is unambiguous. Wide shot, then detail, on every finding.
Measurements, not adjectives
Crack width and run, displacement in inches, termination height against the roof, clearance dimensions where they matter. A number can be checked by anyone. Significant cracking cannot.
The standard behind each condition
NFPA 211 for the flue, liner, and clearances; the IRC for terminations and hearth dimensions. Citing the standard is what separates a finding from a contractor's opinion when a file gets reviewed.
Itemized repair scope
Line by line, each item tied to the specific finding it answers, with a figure attached. Laid out to sit next to a carrier's own estimating line items rather than landing as one lump sum for chimney repair.
Pre-existing condition listed separately
Deterioration that plainly predates the event goes in its own section rather than being folded into the loss. That separation is the single thing that makes the rest of the document credible to a reviewer.
The line, drawn before you hire us.
Contractors who blur this line are the reason carriers discount contractor reports in the first place. Ours is worth more precisely because it does less.
What we do
- Run a full camera inspection of the flue and document the system from the firebox to the termination.
- Photograph and measure every condition, wide and close, dated.
- Write an itemized repair scope with figures, tied line by line to the findings.
- Set out what the event appears to have caused apart from wear that was plainly already there.
- Meet an adjuster at the property and walk them through what we observed and where.
- Provide the file to you, the policyholder, in a format you can forward without editing.
- Return once the repair is finished, photograph it, and close the record with evidence the work was actually done.
What we refuse to do
- Negotiate with your carrier. We are not adjusters and we are not public adjusters.
- Tell you what your policy covers. That is a reading of your policy language, and it is not ours to give.
- Promise, predict, or imply an outcome on your claim.
- Issue a cause-and-origin determination on a fire. That is a fire investigator's work, not a chimney contractor's.
- Write a condition harder than the photographs support because it would help a claim.
- Perform any repair before you have a written quote and have approved it.
Worth saying plainly: a well-documented file does not create coverage. Claims are denied over policy language, exclusions, and timing, and none of that moves because the photographs were good. Documentation removes one failure mode. It does not remove the others, and if you need someone reading your policy on your side of the table, that is a licensed public adjuster or an attorney rather than a chimney contractor.
Quoted before we come out. Not contingent on your claim.
We do not run this work on a pay-if-the-claim-pays basis. The moment our fee depends on an outcome, we have become a party with a stake in it, and the document loses the only quality that made it useful. So it is priced like any other job, before we start, and it stands whatever your carrier decides.
Documented camera scan, from
$250
Full internal scan, exterior photography, measurements, and the written file. Full scope.
Repairs and rebuild scopes
Quoted on site
Relining, crown, masonry, chase and termination work, each written against the documented condition it answers and approved before it 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.
Licensed trades handle what requires a license — the gas connection, electrical, structural scope — under the code applying where you live. Standards and compliance.
Where this connects
Start with the date, and what you noticed after.
The date of the event, what you noticed, whether you have already opened a claim, and whether anyone from the carrier has been to the property. If you have photographs from the day itself, keep them, because a same-day image is worth a great deal in a file. If the fireplace is still being used and you suspect a flue fire, stop, and say so when you call.
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Insurance claims — FAQ
Will documenting it properly get my claim approved?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Your carrier decides coverage, and it decides it against the wording in your policy. Claims get denied over wear and tear, maintenance exclusions, and timing questions that have nothing at all to do with how good the photographs are. What thorough documentation does is remove one specific failure mode: the claim that goes nowhere because the damage was never evidenced, or because a scope was too vague to price. That is a real problem and it is the one we can actually solve.
Can you tell me whether this is covered?
We cannot, and we will not guess in a direction that sounds encouraging. We can tell you what we observed, whether what we found physically matches the event you reported to us, and what the repair costs. Whether that satisfies the terms of your policy is your carrier's determination to make, and if you want somebody arguing the policy language on your side, that is a licensed public adjuster or an attorney. We are the people who document the chimney.
Will you deal with the insurance company for me?
Not on your behalf, no. What we will do is meet the adjuster at the property and walk them through what we found and where, because a lot of disputes are just an adjuster who never got up to the crown. That is a technical conversation about physical conditions. It is not a negotiation, and we will not represent your interest in one. Everything we produce goes to you first, and you decide what to send and when.
Our adjuster already looked and said the chimney is fine.
That happens, and it is usually a scope-of-access problem rather than a disagreement. An adjuster works a whole house in a day and evaluates the chimney from the ground or from the edge of the roof. The conditions that matter most after a flue fire or a lightning strike are inside the flue, where nothing is visible without a camera. If a scan turns up damage, you now have images and measurements the adjuster did not have. If it turns up nothing, you know that too, and that is worth knowing before you spend more time on it.
How soon should this be done after the event?
As soon as the property is safe to be on, for two reasons. Conditions change, particularly with water, and a scene photographed three weeks and two rainstorms later invites an argument about what happened when. Most policies also carry prompt-notice and mitigation duties, so if the flue is unsafe to use, stop using it and say so in writing to whoever needs to know. If there is an active hazard right now, that is an emergency call rather than a documentation appointment.
Can you tell me what started the fire?
We can describe what we found and where the heat evidence sits, and that is genuinely useful. We stop short of issuing a determination of cause and origin, because that is a specific discipline with its own qualifications and it is not this one. If a carrier or a public entity requires an origin-and-cause finding, they will bring in an investigator, and our documentation of the flue's condition sits alongside that work rather than substituting for it.
Who pays for the inspection?
You do, the same as any other job. It is quoted before we come out, currently from $250 for the documented camera scan, and it is not contingent on anything your carrier decides. We are not going to structure it as free if the claim pays, because that arrangement quietly makes us a party with a stake in the outcome, and it is exactly what makes a contractor's report easy to discount. Whether your policy reimburses an inspection is a question for your carrier.
Do you do the repairs as well?
Yes, and the conflict is worth naming rather than glossing. Every condition in the file carries a photograph, a measurement, and the standard it is measured against, and the repair scope is a separate document you approve or decline. Take it to another contractor for a competing number if you want one. That is a reasonable thing to do with a claim scope, and a finding that only holds up when we are the ones invoicing was never worth writing down.
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