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.
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AfterTrusted Chimney Liner & Rebuild for Long Island Homeowners
A chimney liner replacement or rebuild in Long Island typically runs $2,800 to $7,500 depending on the liner material, chimney height, and how much masonry needs rebuilding, so it helps to know how much Chimney Liner & Rebuild costs for your specific situation. Most full liner installs are done in one day, and partial or full rebuilds take two to five days depending on weather and scope. If you’ve been told your liner is cracked or your chimney crown is crumbling, call Wendell Pike at Top Hat Chimney at (516) 968-5380 before you spend a dollar you didn’t need to.
Wendell founded Top Hat Chimney in 1999 and has worked the same Long Island neighborhoods since. That means Nassau and Suffolk homeowners get a name they can verify, a face they’ll see again at the hardware store, and a 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing on every liner and rebuild job. No national chain. No rotating franchise crews. Just Wendell and his crew, with camera footage and a plain-English verdict every time, no exceptions.
What Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild Service Includes
Here’s the simple truth: your flue doesn’t care how the fire looks. It cares how it breathes. A liner that’s cracked, rusted through, or missing altogether is a carbon monoxide risk and a chimney fire waiting for the right creosote load. These are the liner and rebuild services we handle across Long Island, from our Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Freeport to Smithtown and everywhere between.
Stainless Steel Liner
A stainless steel liner is the workhorse fix for most Long Island chimneys with clay tile liners that have cracked or spalled. We use rigid and flexible stainless systems from DuraFlex and Copperfield, sized to your appliance and flue dimensions, not whatever’s on the truck. Wendell measures the flue, shows you the camera footage of the existing liner before anything comes out, and installs the new liner with insulation where the code calls for it.
Flexible Liner
When your chimney has offsets or bends that make rigid sections impractical, a flexible stainless liner does the job without opening up the masonry. We typically install flexible liners in one day, and they’re the standard choice for oil-to-gas conversions across Long Island. Top Hat Chimney pulls the old liner, runs the camera to confirm the flue path, and pulls the new flex liner through with a proper top plate and rain cap.
Liner Replacement
If your current liner is rusted, perforated, or the wrong size for the appliance now venting through it, replacement is not optional. In Nassau County homes built between the 1940s and 1970s, we regularly find original terra cotta liners that never should have been left in service. Wendell will show you the camera footage before and after, so you know exactly what you’re paying for and why.
Partial Rebuild
A partial rebuild addresses the top section of the chimney where weather does the most damage: the crown, the top courses of brick, and the flue tile. Long Island winters with salt air and freeze-thaw cycles are brutal on exposed masonry, and we see the worst of it in coastal towns like our Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Oceanside and Seaford. We rebuild from the roofline up with proper crown overhang, a new flue tile or liner, and brick matched to your existing chimney.
Full Chimney Rebuild
Sometimes the whole stack has to come down and go back up. That’s the case when the mortar joints are failing from top to bottom, the bricks are spalling, or the chimney is leaning enough to be a structural concern. A full rebuild in Long Island is a multi-day job, and Wendell gives you a straight answer on whether it’s actually necessary. If a partial rebuild will buy you fifteen more years, he’ll tell you that plainly.
Liner Repair
Not every liner problem means a full replacement. Small vertical cracks, minor joint separation, and surface pitting can sometimes be addressed with a HeatShield resurfacing system or a targeted repair. Top Hat Chimney uses HeatShield cerfractory technology where the liner is otherwise sound, saving you the cost of a full stainless reline. Wendell will tell you plainly when a repair will hold and when it won’t.
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.
Brands We Service for Chimney Liner & Rebuild
We install and service DuraFlex stainless steel liner systems on a weekly basis. DuraFlex makes a heavy-duty flexible liner that handles the temperature swings of Long Island winters without kinking or separating. We stock their components in the truck, which means most liner jobs are one visit, not a week of back-and-forth.
We also work with Copperfield rigid and flexible liners for homes that need a heavier gauge or a specific diameter. Copperfield liners are a common spec on Long Island for wood stoves and high-efficiency gas units, and Wendell has installed them since the early 2000s. For liner repair situations where a full replacement would be overkill, we use HeatShield’s cerfractory resurfacing system, and we’ve seen it extend liner life by a decade or more when the underlying flue is still sound. If you have a Gelco cap or termination, we service those too. Whether your chimney has DuraFlex, Copperfield, HeatShield, Gelco, or an older make we’ve never seen before, Wendell can give you a straight answer on what it needs.
Signs You Need Chimney Liner & Rebuild Right Now
- Flakes of clay tile in the firebox. If you’re finding thin, flat pieces of terra cotta at the bottom of your fireplace, your flue liner is spalling, which means it’s shedding pieces of itself. Once that starts, the liner’s gone and the chimney is no longer safely containing heat and gases.
- Rust streaks on the exterior brick. Rust bleeding through the chimney face usually means a metal liner or damper assembly inside is corroding. On Long Island, salt air accelerates this in Oceanside, Freeport, and other South Shore towns, and by the time you see the stain, the liner often has holes through it.
- A chimney that won’t draw, even after sweeping. If Wendell cleans the flue and the draft is still weak, or smoke rolls back into the room, the problem is likely a restricted, cracked, or improperly sized liner. A liner that’s too big for the appliance cools the flue gases too fast and kills the draft.
- Crumbling mortar joints and spalled brick faces. Freeze-thaw cycles do real damage to Long Island chimneys, especially in Dix Hills and Commack where homes sit exposed to wind. When bricks are popping their faces off and mortar is turning to sand in your gutters, the chimney structure is failing and a rebuild is in your future.
- You can’t remember the last time it was inspected. Once a year, burn or no burn. Chimneys break in the off-season too, and a liner that fails in August is just as dangerous as one that fails in January. If it’s been more than two years, call for a camera inspection before you light the first fire.
Our Chimney Liner & Rebuild Process - Step by Step
Here’s how a liner or rebuild job goes with Top Hat Chimney. No mystery, no upsell, no number that changes when the truck shows up. The price Wendell quotes on the phone is the number on the invoice.
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Free on-site inspection and camera evaluation. Wendell arrives, sets up, and runs a Chim-Scan camera through the flue from top to bottom. You watch the footage with him. He points out exactly what’s wrong, what’s fine, and what can wait.
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Plain-English written estimate. Before any tool comes off the truck, you get a written price for the liner, the rebuild, or the repair, itemized by line. If you have a competing written estimate, Wendell will give you a free second opinion on it, no obligation.
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The work, done by Wendell and his crew. Depending on the job, that means pulling the old liner, rebuilding the crown or masonry, dropping the new stainless liner, and sealing everything to code. All technicians are background-checked and arrive in uniform, and you get a real arrival window, not an eight-hour spread.
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Post-installation camera verification. After the liner is in or the rebuild is done, we run the camera again and show you the finished flue. You see exactly what you paid for, top to bottom.
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90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If anything about the job isn’t right within 90 days, one call brings Wendell back at no additional cost. That’s not a slogan. It’s printed on every invoice we hand out, and Wendell has honored it for over 29 years.
How Much Does Chimney Liner & Rebuild Cost in Long Island?
A stainless steel liner replacement in Long Island typically runs $2,800 to $4,800 depending on chimney height, liner diameter, and whether insulation is required. A partial rebuild, which includes the crown and top courses of brick, usually falls between $1,800 and $3,500. A full chimney rebuild from the roofline up runs $5,000 to $7,500 for most Long Island homes, with taller chimneys or complex scaffolding pushing higher. Liner repair using HeatShield resurfacing typically lands between $1,200 and $2,000, when the underlying flue is still structurally sound.
What moves the price: chimney height and roof pitch, liner diameter and gauge, whether insulation is needed, and how much masonry has to come down. Coastal homes in Seaford or Oceanside often need more brickwork than inland homes in Smithtown or Commack, simply because of salt air and wind exposure, which is why we also offer our Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Rockville Centre for nearby homeowners. The way to avoid overpaying is to get a camera inspection before you agree to anything, and to ask for a line-item estimate. A free estimate from Top Hat Chimney includes the camera evaluation, a written price, and Wendell’s straight answer on whether the job can wait. No trip charge inside the county, and $40 off any repair over $200.
Chimney Liner & Rebuild Near Long Island - Our Service Area
Top Hat Chimney serves all of Nassau and Suffolk counties, including Rockville Centre, Brentwood, Southampton, Dix Hills, Smithtown, Commack, Seaford, Hempstead, Freeport, Oceanside, and Levittown. Most liner jobs are scheduled within the week, and rebuilds are booked around weather windows when the forecast holds dry. If you’re in Rockville Centre or Brentwood, you’re in our regular service area, and Wendell has been on these streets since 1999. Not sure if we cover your town? Call and ask. A live person answers, any hour.
Serving Long Island, NY - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Long Island area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
Frequently Asked Questions - Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Long Island
A chimney liner is the protective passage inside your chimney that contains heat, embers, and combustion gases and routes them safely out of your home. A cracked or missing liner lets heat reach the surrounding masonry and lets carbon monoxide seep into living spaces. Your flue doesn’t care how the fire looks. It cares how it breathes.
Most stainless steel liner replacements in Long Island are completed in one day, from removing the old clay tiles to dropping the new liner and securing the top plate. A partial or full rebuild takes two to five days depending on how many courses of brick are coming down and how cooperative the weather is. Wendell gives you a firm schedule before the work starts and calls if it slips.
A liner replacement typically runs $2,800 to $4,800, a partial rebuild $1,800 to $3,500, and a full rebuild $5,000 to $7,500 for most Long Island homes. Liner repair with HeatShield usually falls between $1,200 and $2,000 when the flue is still sound. Call (516) 968-5380 for an exact quote - the camera inspection and written estimate are free, and Wendell will tell you plainly if the work can wait.
Yes. We install and service DuraFlex and Copperfield stainless steel liner systems regularly, and we stock their components on the truck for most one-day installs. We also work with HeatShield resurfacing and Gelco caps. If you have a different brand, call and ask - Wendell has been inside more chimneys than he can count and will give you a straight answer.
Not always, but it can be. A small vertical crack might be repairable with HeatShield, while a rusted-through metal liner or a collapsed clay tile flue means the chimney should not be used until it’s addressed. If you’re not sure, stop using the fireplace and call (516) 968-5380. Wendell will run the camera and tell you whether it’s safe to burn or not.
Every liner and rebuild job from Top Hat Chimney includes a written 90-Day Done Right Promise. If anything about the work isn’t right within 90 days, one call brings Wendell back at no additional cost. No fine print, no service fees, no arguing. It’s been that way since 1999, and it’s why homeowners in Levittown and Hempstead keep our number on the fridge.
Clear a path to the fireplace and move any furniture or decor you don’t want dust on, because pulling an old liner kicks up debris. Wendell and his crew drop cloths and clean up after themselves, but it helps if the immediate area is clear. For exterior rebuilds, make sure there’s a clear path to the chimney and that any pets are inside. That’s it. We handle the rest.
Schedule Your Chimney Liner & Rebuild Service in Long Island Today
If your liner is cracked, your crown is crumbling, or you just haven’t had the chimney looked at in years, call Top Hat Chimney at (516) 968-5380. Wendell will run the camera, show you the footage, and give you a plain-English verdict with a written price before any work begins. The estimate is free, $40 off any repair over $200, and 10% off always for seniors and veterans. One call, and you’ll know where you stand.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Long Island since 1999.