Masonry repair
Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Gas fireplace serviceLevel 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.
Fast, Reliable Fireplace Repair Across Highlands
Fireplace repair in Highlands, TX typically runs $190 – $480 for most common fixes like damper replacement, pilot light issues, or firebox repair, and we can usually get a technician to your home within 2 – 3 business days. Highlands sits on expansive clay soil along the San Jacinto River, and that geology creates a specific set of chimney problems you won’t see in Houston’s concrete-slab suburbs. If your fireplace is smoking back into the living room, won’t light, or smells musty even when idle, call (903) 961-6496 for a written quote before any work starts.
We work throughout Highlands from the riverfront streets near North Main to the ranch-style neighborhoods off Wallisville Road. Our techs know the difference between a flue liner cracked by foundation shift and one damaged by years of creosote, because we see both here regularly. That local knowledge means we don’t throw parts at a problem. We diagnose it first, show you the camera footage, and give you a written price before a single tool comes out.
Why Ashby Chimney Houston Is Highlands’s Preferred Fireplace Repair Company
Homeowners in Highlands call us after getting burned before, and we take that seriously. Maybe a previous company quoted one number and invoiced another. Maybe the tech never showed up at all. Nathan Corliss runs Ashby Chimney Houston with a straightforward rule: write the price down first, show the work before it starts, and put the guarantee in writing when it’s done. That’s why Highlands customers keep our number and why most of our work here comes from neighbor referrals.
Every repair, from a gas log set to a full flue resurfacing, gets a written quote at the door and a written guarantee on completion. If a covered repair fails inside the warranty period, we come back and fix it free. That’s the 365-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s included on every job. We don’t sell it as an add-on. Since 2002, our crews have been background-checked, uniformed, and trained to leave your hearth cleaner than they found it.
Our Fireplace Repair team also understands the rhythm of Highlands. We schedule during the weeks when you’re actually using the fireplace, and we keep common parts on the truck so we’re not making a second trip for a thermocouple or damper plate. When you call, a live person answers, twenty-four hours a day. No answering service menu tree, no “we’ll get back to you in 48 hours.”
We also know the homes. The brick ranch near North Main with a 1970s prefab chimney. The frame house off Wallisville with a wood stove doing heavy winter work. The riverfront property where humidity eats at chimney crowns year-round. Being part of Fireplace Repair in Highlands means actually knowing Highlands, not just putting the town name on a web page.
Styles & brands we work with
Gas Fireplace Service in Highlands
Gas Fireplace Service in Highlands usually starts at $140 – $280 for a cleaning, pilot light repair, or thermocouple replacement, and climbs toward $400 – $650 if the gas valve, burner, or control module needs replacing. In Highlands’s humid river air, gas fireplaces develop specific problems: pilot assemblies corrode, burner ports clog with dust and rust scale, and the glass fogs from mineral buildup that a dry climate wouldn’t produce.
Pilot Light and Ignition Repair
The most common call we get from Highlands gas fireplace owners is a pilot light that won’t stay lit. The thermocouple or thermopile sits in the pilot flame and generates the millivolt signal that holds the gas valve open. In Highlands’s damp air, these components corrode faster than they do inland. We stock replacements for most major brands, so it’s often a one-visit fix.
Gas Log and Burner Service
Vented gas logs and burner pans collect dust, pet hair, and rust particles through the cooling season. When you light them in October, that debris burns off as soot that can coat the glass and smell like burnt cardboard. We clean the burner ports, check the gas pressure, verify the flame pattern, and check the venting so nothing backs up into the house. Most gas log service calls in Highlands run $160 – $240.
Fireplace Insert Installation in Highlands
Fireplace Insert Installation in Highlands typically costs $2,400 – $4,800 for the insert itself, $300 – $700 for installation labor, and $400 – $1,200 if a new stainless liner is required. In Highlands’s older ranch homes, inserts are often the single best efficiency upgrade a homeowner can make. A decades-old open fireplace pulls heated air out of the house and sends it up the flue; a sealed insert turns that same firebox into a real heat source. Given the wet-dry cycles that shift our clay soil, we always confirm the flue is structurally sound before setting an insert. You don’t want to spend four grand on an insert and feed it through a cracked liner.
Wood Stove and Insert Retrofit
Rural properties around Highlands often rely on a wood stove as primary or backup heat. When we retrofit those into an existing fireplace, we run a properly sized stainless liner from the stove collar to the chimney cap, insulate it where code requires, and seal the firebox opening with a block-off plate. We use DuraFlex liners on most of these jobs. A properly lined insert on a cold February night in Highlands transforms a drafty living room into the warmest room in the house.
Chimney Liner Replacement for Inserts
An insert needs a correctly sized flue to draft correctly. Too big and the exhaust cools too fast, condensing creosote inside the liner. Too small and you get spillage and smoke. Highlands’s humid winters make condensation worse, so we measure carefully and don’t guess. We use HeatShield resurfacing when the original clay liner is cracked but structurally salvageable. When it isn’t, we replace with a new stainless liner, usually a one-day job once parts are in hand.
Trusted Brands We Service in Highlands
We install and service fireplace systems built around components we trust, because a warranty is only as good as the parts behind it. On Highlands jobs we regularly work with DuraFlex stainless liners, HeatShield ceramic resurfacing, and Olympia Chimney components. Gelco and Copperfield products also show up in our van when a particular firebox or damper assembly calls for them. We keep common replacement parts in local stock so Highlands customers aren’t waiting on a shipment from a warehouse across the country. When we quote a repair, we name the brand and the part in the written estimate. You don’t have to take our word that it’s good material; you can read it on the page.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Fireplace Repair Problems We See in Highlands Homes
- Cracked flue tiles from shifting clay soil. The expansive clay under Highlands expands in our wet winters and contracts during dry summer spells. That movement flexes foundations, and in older ranch homes built before modern footings, that flex travels up the chimney and cracks the clay liner. A cracked liner lets smoke and carbon monoxide leak into wall cavities instead of venting outside.
- Rusted dampers from humid river air. The San Jacinto River keeps our air moist even when Houston’s concrete holds less humidity. Dampers in Highlands rust faster than they do ten miles west. We replace rusted throat dampers with cast-iron or stainless models and often install a top-sealing damper instead, which keeps humid air and pests out of the flue in the first place.
- Third-degree creosote glaze in wood stove flues. Rural Highlands properties that burn wood as primary heat load a flue with dense, shiny creosote that a wire brush alone will not remove. That glaze is the kind that ignites at around 2,000°F. Highlands wood burners need more frequent sweeping and sometimes chemical treatment or mechanical removal with rotary tools.
- Spalling brick on exterior chimneys. Humid, salty air moving up from the coast gradually breaks the surface of older brick. Chunks flake off, the mortar joints erode, and water seeps into the firebox. When brick is spalling, the fix is usually repointing plus a crown repair or a new concrete crown with proper overhang. Left alone, water will rust the damper and damage the firebox.
Pricing for Fireplace Repair in Highlands, TX
Most chimney sweeps and fireplace repairs in Highlands land between $190 and $480. Gas fireplace service runs $140 – $280 for the usual pilot and burner issues. Damper replacement runs $180 – $380. Firebox repair averages $350 – $900 depending on how much refractory material has to be replaced and whether cracks run into the smoke chamber. A full flue liner replacement, which Highlands homes need more often than Houston homes because of our shifting clay soil, generally runs $2,800 – $5,500. Every estimate is written and itemized before work begins, and the number on the invoice is the number on the quote. Call (903) 961-6496 for a free estimate and a straight answer, even if the answer is that you don’t need the work yet.
We Also Serve Cities Near Highlands
Our crews serve Highlands and the surrounding communities along the San Jacinto corridor. We regularly travel to Highlands, Pasadena, Houston’s east side, Webster, and Friendswood. The same written price, written guarantee, and live-answer phone apply everywhere we work. If you’re just outside Highlands and your fireplace needs attention, call us and ask.
Serving Highlands, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Highlands 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 About Fireplace Repair in Highlands
Highlands sits on expansive clay soil that swells when wet and shrinks when dry. That seasonal movement flexes the foundations of older homes, especially ranch-style houses built from the 1950s through the 1980s. The flex transfers through the chimney chase and cracks clay flue tiles. Houston’s concrete-slab subdivisions rest on more stable footing, so they don’t see the same failure pattern. This is why we recommend a Chimney Inspection - Highlands with a camera for any Highlands home where smoke starts backing up or a wood stove is losing its draft. Call (903) 961-6496 to schedule one.
Every 2 to 3 cords of wood, or roughly every 60 to 90 days of continuous burning, whichever comes first. A wood stove used as primary heat in rural Highlands accumulates dense, shiny creosote far faster than a fireplace used for ambience. Waiting a full calendar year between sweeps on a primary-heat wood stove is how chimney fires start. The flue needs a mechanical sweep and a check for third-degree glaze that a brush alone cannot remove. If you’re unsure how much you’ve burned, call (903) 961-6496 and we’ll inspect it, then give you a written recommendation.
Yes, if the damage is limited to the firebox refractory panels and the brick structure behind them is intact. We replace spalled or cracked firebrick with high-temperature refractory mortar rated for wood-burning temperatures, then apply a surface coating like HeatShield to seal micro-cracks. The bigger risk in homes near the river is water intrusion through a failing crown. We inspect the full chimney path, from crown to firebox, before deciding a firebox repair will last. If the structure has shifted too far, the repair plan changes, and we explain that plainly.
Highlands’s warm, humid air flows through an uncapped or poorly capped chimney and condenses inside the flue. That moisture supports mildew, and the dark, protected flue becomes a nesting or roosting spot for birds, squirrels, and insects. A top-sealing damper and a proper chimney cap solve most of this. The damp smell is not just unpleasant; it’s evidence that humidity is also attacking the damper and firebox metal. The fix is usually a cap or top damper plus a drying-out period, and it costs far less than a rusted damper replacement later.
The industrial corridor west and south of Highlands releases fine particulate matter that settles on exterior masonry and gets drawn into flues. Over time, that sooty residue builds up on the chimney crown and inside the smoke chamber, combining with the natural byproducts of a wood fire into a thick, acidic coating. We see deep black staining on chimney exteriors near the industrial zone that scrubs off, but the inside buildup is the real concern because it holds moisture against the flue liner. A qualified sweep addresses it with a mechanical cleaning plus a check of the crown, which is taking the same particulate beating from the outside.
If your fireplace or wood stove in Highlands isn’t working the way it should, call (903) 961-6496. A live person answers, day or night. We’ll set up a visit, give you a written price before any work starts, and stand behind the repair with the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If it fails, we come back and fix it. That’s the Kingswell Way.
Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner at Ashby Chimney Houston, serving Highlands since 2002.