A standard chimney sweep in Keller, TX runs $99.99 for a single flue at ALC Chimney Service, and that price includes a Level 1 inspection rather than treating it as an add-on. A second flue on the same visit is $189.99. Most jobs take 60 to 90 minutes from the time the drop cloths go down to the time the technician packs the vacuum back in the truck. What moves the number is the shape of the system rather than the address: a straight masonry flue on a single-story ranch off Bear Creek is quick work, while a two-story roofline in Hidden Lakes with a steep pitch, a tall chase and heavy third-degree creosote takes longer and may need a second cleaning pass. Add-ons such as a cap replacement, a damper repair or animal removal are quoted separately once the technician has actually looked at the system.
What a chimney sweep and related work typically costs in Keller and northeast Tarrant County:
- Standard sweep with Level 1 inspection, $99.99. One flue, light to moderate creosote, safe roof or hearth access. This is what most Keller homeowners pay on a routine annual visit.
- Second flue on the same visit, $189.99 total. Common in homes with a living room fireplace and a second hearth in a master bedroom or covered patio, which shows up often in the 2000s builds around Marshall Ridge and Saddlebrook.
- Heavy creosote or glazed deposits, $150 to $400 extra. Third-degree glazed creosote does not brush off. It needs rotary chain work or a chemical modifier, and the price tracks how many passes the flue needs.
- Chimney cap supply and installation, $175 to $650. A stock stainless single-flue cap sits at the bottom of that range, a custom multi-flue cover for a wide chase at the top.
- Level 2 inspection with camera scan, $200 to $450. Called for by NFPA 211 practice after a chimney fire or a lightning strike, and standard before a Keller home changes hands.
- Animal removal and exclusion, $250 to $600. Squirrels, raccoons and birds get into uncapped flues along the wooded corridors near Bear Creek Park more often than people expect.
- Minor masonry and crown repair, $350 to $1,400. Crown sealing and repointing a few courses sit low in that range, a rebuilt crown high.
The parts of your chimney a technician will name during the visit:
- Flue. The vertical passage smoke travels up, lined with clay tile in most masonry chimneys and metal pipe in factory-built systems.
- Liner. The protective inner surface of the flue, which keeps heat and combustion gases away from the framing and brick around it.
- Creosote. The tar-like residue wood smoke leaves as it cools on the way up. It comes in three degrees, from a light soot that brushes off to a hard glaze that has to be broken apart.
- Damper. The metal plate just above the firebox that opens for a fire and closes to stop conditioned air escaping up the flue.
- Smoke chamber. The sloped transition between the firebox and the flue. It collects creosote quickly because smoke slows and cools there.
- Chimney crown. The concrete slab across the top of a masonry chimney that sheds rain away from the brick. On a prefab chase, the equivalent part is a metal chase cover.
- Chimney cap. The screened hood over the flue opening that keeps rain, embers and animals out.
- Flashing. The sheet metal seal where the chimney passes through the roof plane, and the most common source of a chimney leak in North Texas.
Treat every figure above as a starting point rather than a quote. A price on a website cannot account for a cracked clay tile at the twelve foot mark, a chase cover rusted through at the seams or a damper painted shut thirty years ago, so a CSIA-certified technician should look at the system before anyone commits to a number. Be careful with the $49 and $59 sweep coupons that flood Tarrant County mailers every September. That price does not cover the labor of an actual cleaning, which is why it so often turns into a several thousand dollar repair recommendation before the truck leaves the driveway.
Key Takeaways
- A single-flue chimney sweep in Keller is $99.99 at ALC Chimney Service with a Level 1 inspection included, and $189.99 covers a second flue on the same visit.
- NFPA 211 calls for a chimney inspection once every year, and CSIA guidance says a flue should be swept once creosote reaches about one eighth of an inch.
- Most Keller sweeps take 60 to 90 minutes, and a two-story roofline or heavy glazed creosote pushes that longer.
- Book between May and September. Keller sweep calendars fill from the first cold front in October through January, and waits of two to three weeks are normal in December.
- Homes built in Keller after about 1990 usually have factory-built metal fireplaces, which need listed replacement parts rather than generic masonry repairs.
- A Level 2 inspection with a camera scan is the standard before a Keller home sale and after any chimney fire, and it runs $200 to $450.
How much does a chimney sweep cost in Keller, TX?
The headline number is $99.99 for one flue, and in Keller that covers the large majority of houses. ALC can hold that price because of volume across the metroplex and because the Level 1 inspection happens during the same visit rather than as a separate billable trip.
Where the number moves is in the condition of the system. A flue swept every year carries light first-degree soot that a rotary brush clears in one pass. A flue that has gone five or six seasons, which is common when a house changes hands and the new owners assume the previous family kept up with it, can carry second or third-degree creosote. Glazed creosote is the expensive case because it behaves more like hardened tar than dust.
The other variable is access. Keller has a lot of steep two-story rooflines, particularly in the newer sections west of Rufe Snow Drive, and a tall chase on a 10:12 pitch is a slower job than a single-story ranch near Old Town Keller. Nobody charges by the story, but a technician working fall protection is on that roof longer.
Is the $99.99 price the whole bill?
For a routine annual sweep on a healthy system, yes. There are no trip fees inside the service area and the Level 1 inspection is part of it. What gets quoted separately is anything the inspection turns up: a failed cap, a cracked crown, a rusted chase cover, a seized damper, a bird nest in the smoke chamber. You get told what was found, shown the photos, and given a price before any of that work starts.
What actually happens during a chimney sweep?
A proper sweep is a contained job, and a homeowner should barely be able to tell it happened. The technician lays drop cloths across the hearth and the floor in front of it, seals the fireplace opening, and runs a HEPA vacuum at the firebox to hold the work area under negative pressure so soot travels into the machine instead of onto your rug. Then the flue gets brushed, either from the roof working down or from the hearth working up, depending on the system and the roof.
Brushing is only half of it. The smoke chamber and the smoke shelf above the damper collect the heaviest deposits in the whole system because that is where smoke slows down and cools, and those surfaces need hand work with a shorter brush rather than a pass with a rod. The firebox gets cleaned out, the damper gets worked open and closed, and the technician checks that it actually seats.
The Level 1 inspection runs alongside the cleaning: crown and cap condition, flashing at the roof plane, mortar joints, liner condition where it can be seen, the firebox and the damper. If anything looks questionable the technician photographs it and shows you.
How long does it take?
Sixty to ninety minutes for a single flue in normal condition. Two flues on the same visit usually run two to two and a half hours. Heavy glazed creosote can push a single flue past two hours on its own, and in the worst cases the honest answer is that it needs a second appointment with a chemical modifier applied in between.
Do I need to do anything before the technician arrives?
Do not burn anything for at least 24 hours beforehand, because a warm firebox is unpleasant and unsafe to work in. Move furniture and rugs back about six feet from the hearth. If you have a gas log set, leave it in place and let the technician handle it, since the connection and the pilot assembly are part of what gets checked. Beyond that, keep pets in another room and the job takes care of itself.
How often should a Keller chimney be swept?
NFPA 211 is clear that the chimney should be inspected once a year regardless of how much you burn. Sweeping is a separate question and depends on use. CSIA guidance puts the threshold at roughly one eighth of an inch of creosote, about the thickness of two stacked quarters. A Keller family burning a cord of oak across a normal winter usually hits that in one season. A family that lights three fires a year may go two seasons, but they still need the annual inspection, because most of what goes wrong with a chimney in North Texas is weather damage rather than use damage.
That last point matters more than people expect. A chimney sitting unused through a Keller summer takes UV exposure, 100 degree heat, spring hail and straight line winds, then hits a January freeze that drives water into hairline cracks and expands it. The crown and the flashing take the worst of it, which is why a chimney nobody has used in three years can still fail an inspection.
What about gas fireplaces?
Gas systems need annual attention too, just for different reasons. Gas produces very little creosote but it produces water vapor and acidic condensate that eat at clay tile and metal liners over time. The vent, the pilot assembly, the logs and the glass all need checking, and a blocked vent on a gas appliance is a carbon monoxide problem rather than a fire problem. Skipping the annual visit because “it is only gas” is the most common mistake we see in the newer Keller subdivisions.
What is different about Keller chimneys specifically?
Keller grew in two distinct waves and the housing stock shows it. Around Old Town Keller and the older streets off Bear Creek Drive there are mid-century and 1970s homes with full masonry chimneys, clay tile liners and real fireboxes, where the usual issues are mortar deterioration, spalling brick and a crown that was never sealed. The growth wave from the early 1990s through the 2000s then filled in Hidden Lakes, Marshall Ridge, Saddlebrook and the Estates of Oakmont, and most of those homes have factory-built fireplaces: a metal firebox with a listed metal chimney running up inside a framed chase.
The distinction is practical. A factory-built system is a listed appliance, so replacement parts have to be the manufacturer’s listed components. You cannot patch a cracked refractory panel with mortar or cap a prefab flue with a generic masonry cap. When a prefab chase cover rusts through, which is common on the galvanized covers used before about 2005, the correct fix is a new stainless cover fabricated to the chase dimensions rather than a bead of sealant.
Do hailstorms damage chimneys here?
Regularly. Tarrant County sits in the middle of the DFW hail corridor and spring storms dent chase covers, crack crowns and lift flashing. After a significant hail event it is worth having the chimney looked at along with the roof, because roofers inspect shingles and rarely look closely at what the chimney is doing. Documented chimney damage from a dated storm is often covered by the same claim as the roof.
When should a Keller homeowner get a Level 2 inspection instead?
A Level 1 inspection covers readily accessible parts of a system that has not changed and is operating normally. A Level 2 goes further: it adds the attic, the crawlspace and accessible parts of the structure around the chimney, and it includes a video camera scan of the full interior of the flue. The camera is the part that matters, because a hairline crack in a clay tile at the fifteen foot mark is invisible from either end of the chimney and is exactly the kind of defect that lets heat reach framing.
You need a Level 2 in four situations: any real estate transaction, after a chimney fire even a small one you think went out on its own, after weather severe enough to move or crack the structure, and whenever the fuel or appliance changes, such as converting a wood-burning firebox to a gas insert. Our guide to the three chimney inspection levels walks through what each one covers.
Should I get one before selling my Keller house?
Yes, and preferably before the listing rather than during the option period. A general home inspector will note a chimney concern without diagnosing it, which hands the buyer a scary line item and no number to attach to it. A Level 2 report with camera footage and a repair quote in hand turns an open-ended risk into a known cost, and it stops a $600 crown repair from becoming a $6,000 negotiating position.
What does a Keller chimney problem cost if you leave it alone?
The pattern with chimneys is that small water intrusion problems stay cheap for about one year and then stop being cheap. Here is what the common findings turn into when they get deferred.
| Finding at inspection | What it leads to if ignored | Typical repair cost |
|---|---|---|
| Missing or damaged chimney cap | Rain in the flue, rusted damper, animal nesting, liner deterioration | $175 to $650 |
| Hairline cracks in the chimney crown | Water into the brick, spalling, freeze-thaw damage to the top courses | $350 to $1,400 |
| Lifted or rusted roof flashing | Ceiling stains, rotted roof decking, attic framing damage | $400 to $1,200 |
| Second or third-degree creosote | Chimney fire risk, glazed deposits that later need mechanical removal | $150 to $400 above the sweep |
| Cracked clay flue tiles | Combustion gases reaching framing, full relining required | $2,500 to $6,500 |
| Rusted prefab chase cover | Water down the chase, corroded metal chimney sections, rotted framing | $500 to $1,600 |
| Spalling or deteriorated mortar joints | Loose brick, leaning stack, partial rebuild above the roofline | $800 to $4,000 |
None of those numbers are quotes, and the spread inside each row is real: a crown repair reachable from a low roof is a different job from the same repair on a wide stack twenty-eight feet up. What the table shows is the direction of travel. Every row gets more expensive the longer it waits.
Why Choose ALC Chimney Service in Keller?
ALC Chimney Service is a family owned company working across Dallas, Fort Worth and the suburbs in between, including Keller and the rest of northeast Tarrant County. Our technicians are CSIA certified, and the company is licensed and insured with more than 15 years of combined experience and over 10,000 completed jobs across the metroplex. We hold a 5.0 rating from more than 172 Google reviews, which in a trade full of coupon operators is the number we are most careful about protecting.
The practical commitments are simple. A standard sweep is $99.99 with a Level 1 inspection included, a second chimney on the same visit is $189.99, and repair inspections are free. There are no trip fees anywhere in the service area, so a Keller address costs the same as a Dallas one. Every finding gets photographed and shown to you before any repair is quoted.
We run the surrounding cities on the same routes, so scheduling is flexible across Southlake, North Richland Hills, Colleyville and Watauga. Beyond sweeping we handle chimney repair, chimney inspections at all three levels, cap installation, relining, crown and flashing work, and animal removal. Our Grapevine chimney sweep guide covers the same ground for that market, and our breakdown of creosote buildup in Texas chimneys explains why the annual timing matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is a chimney sweep in Keller, TX?
A standard single-flue chimney sweep in Keller is $99.99 at ALC Chimney Service, and that includes a Level 1 inspection at no extra charge. A second flue on the same visit brings the total to $189.99. Heavy glazed creosote, a difficult two-story roofline or repairs found during the inspection are quoted separately after the technician has looked at the system.
How long does a chimney sweep take in Keller?
Plan on 60 to 90 minutes for one flue in ordinary condition, including setup, cleaning and the Level 1 inspection. Two flues generally take two to two and a half hours. A flue carrying third-degree glazed creosote can run longer, and occasionally needs a second visit with a chemical modifier applied between appointments.
What is the best time of year to book a chimney sweep in Keller?
May through September. Demand across northeast Tarrant County climbs the week of the first real cold front in October and stays high through January, when waits of two to three weeks are normal. Booking in summer means you choose the appointment window, and any repair the inspection turns up gets fixed before you want to use the fireplace.
My fireplace is a prefab unit. Do I still need a sweep?
Yes. Factory-built fireplaces are common in Keller homes built after about 1990, and they still accumulate creosote and still need an annual inspection. The difference is in the repairs: a prefab is a listed appliance, so cracked refractory panels, chase covers and caps must be replaced with components listed for that unit rather than patched with masonry materials.
Do I need a chimney inspection if I never use my fireplace?
You do. Most chimney damage in North Texas is weather-driven rather than use-driven. Hail dents chase covers, straight line winds lift flashing, summer heat and UV break down crown sealant, and a January freeze expands whatever water got in. An unused chimney is also the first place birds and squirrels move into, and a nest in a flue is a fire hazard the day someone finally lights a fire.
What happens if you find a problem during the sweep?
You get photographs of the finding and a plain explanation of what it means and how urgent it is, followed by a written price before anything is done. Repair inspections are free, nothing gets fixed without your approval, and if the system is in good condition we say so and close out the visit at the sweep price.
Do you charge a trip fee to come out to Keller?
No. There are no trip fees anywhere in our DFW service area, and Keller is on our regular northeast Tarrant County routes along with Southlake, Colleyville, Grapevine and North Richland Hills. The price you are quoted is the price for the work, with no line item for the drive.
Ready to get your fireplace ready for the season? ALC Chimney Service sweeps Keller chimneys for $99.99 including a Level 1 inspection, or $189.99 for a second flue on the same visit, with free repair inspections and no trip fees. Call (877) 656-0851 or request an appointment online and we will get you on the schedule before the first cold front fills it up.
Find our chimney safety tips faster on Google
