How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Silver Spring
Back in 2014, we were working as a sweep for another outfit in the DC suburbs when we got sent to a job on Sligo Avenue in Silver Spring. The homeowner, a retired schoolteacher, had been quoted nearly four thousand dollars for a “complete liner replacement” by a company that never even ran a camera up her flue. We brought our own scope, climbed up, and found a cracked clay liner, yes, but one that HeatShield could seal for a fraction of that price. She cried when we showed her the photos and explained she could afford to stay in her house that winter. That night, we called the parent company and asked to open the Silver Spring branch of Hearthstone Chimney Co. We were tired of watching homeowners get sold fear instead of facts. We promised this market something different: camera evidence for every recommendation, a written estimate before any work, and the freedom to say “this can wait” when it honestly could.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
We didn’t grow up dreaming about chimneys. We grew up in a house with a wood stove that smoked every time the wind came from the northwest, and our father would curse and poke at the damper with a fireplace poker while the rest of us opened windows in January. The smell of creosote still takes us straight back to that living room, sweaters on, breath visible, waiting for the draft to catch.
The trade found us, not the other way around. After a stint in construction that left us bored with hanging drywall, we answered an ad for a chimney sweep’s helper. The first day, we climbed a three-story Victorian in Takoma Park with a technician who didn’t talk much but noticed everything: the way mortar had turned to powder behind a decorative facade, the particular green bloom of efflorescence that meant water was getting in somewhere it shouldn’t. We were hooked by the detective work of it. Every flue is different. Every house has its own bad habits.
That was over ten years ago now. We’ve crawled through attics in August when the temperature up there hit 130 degrees, and we’ve stood on roofs in Silver Spring in February with ice in our beard. We’ve found bird nests, antique bottles, a 1923 newspaper stuffed up a flue by some long-dead mason who needed kindling. The work means something to us because the hearth means something. People gather there. They warm their hands there after shoveling the driveway. The hearthstone is the stone the whole home gathered around, and keeping that safe is not abstract to us. It’s the reason we don’t sleep through our alarm.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be restoring old houses somewhere, working with our hands, solving problems that matter to the people living inside them. This is close enough.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is the Owner and Founder of the Silver Spring branch of Hearthstone Chimney Co. He holds state licensure and has completed the level-2 inspection training that lets us document what we find with photos you can actually see, not jargon you have to trust. Russell doesn’t send technicians into homes he hasn’t trained personally, and he still climbs roofs when the job calls for it.
What separates Russell from a corporate franchise technician is simple: he’s the one who answers for the work. He lives in Montgomery County. His kids go to school here. On weekends, you’ll find him rebuilding stone walls on his property in Brookeville, working with the same mortar mixes we use on your chimney, because he believes you don’t recommend what you haven’t tested yourself. He will tell you plainly when work can wait, and he will come back himself if something isn’t right. That’s not a policy. That’s just who he is.
Our Promise to Silver Spring Homeowners
Our values aren’t posters on a wall. We call them K.E.Y.S., and we use them like a checklist on every job.
Krafted right means trained journeymen, proper materials like DuraFlex and Gelco when a liner’s needed, and no shortcuts around corners that will cost you later. We once spent an extra half day on a job in White Oak because the flue lining required a custom cut no catalog piece would fit. The homeowner never knew the difference until we showed her the photos. That’s the point.
Every time means the 400th job gets the care of the first. We don’t get sloppy in October when everyone’s calling.
Your home first means we work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s. Boot covers, drop cloths, vacuuming after ourselves. Non-negotiable.
Standing behind it means the Keystone Standard: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork, no runaround.
Honest pricing means a flat-price sweep agreed before we book, and nothing recommended without camera evidence you can see for yourself. No surprises on the bill. We’ll be there when we say.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed chimney sweep contractor in Maryland
- Insured & bonded for residential work in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties
- Years of local experience serving Silver Spring and surrounding communities since 2014
- Strong local reputation built on documented inspections and word-of-mouth referrals
These credentials matter because you’re letting someone into your home, often into your attic and onto your roof, to work on a system that affects your family’s safety. A state license means we’ve met Maryland’s requirements for this trade. Insurance and bonding protect you if something goes wrong on your property. Local experience means we know which Silver Spring neighborhoods have the clay-heavy soils that shift foundations and crack chimney bases, and which building eras used the terracotta liners that fail predictably after forty years. We don’t guess. We know this ground.
Rooted in Silver Spring
We’ve swept chimneys in the Four Corners area, in the hills above Rock Creek, in the postwar ramblers off New Hampshire Avenue and the old farmhouses out toward Colesville. We’ve worked through the Montgomery County Fair weekends, when the whole town smells like fried dough and livestock, and we’ve cleared emergency blockages the Sunday before Thanksgiving when three generations were coming for dinner. We’re here Monday through Saturday, 7:00 AM to 7:30 PM weekdays, 7:00 AM to 6:30 PM weekends. Not a call center. A live coordinator connects you with our local team, and Russell reviews every inspection report before it goes out. This is home. We plan to be here in thirty years.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Silver Spring since 2014.