Before & After Gallery - Level Two Chimney Ashburn

Chimney Cleaning Before & After in Ashburn, VA

You can describe a clean chimney all day, but nothing lands like seeing it. The photos on this page come from actual cleaning visits around Ashburn, Broadlands, Brambleton, and Lansdowne. Creosote doesn’t hide from a camera, and we don’t ask it to. Every job below includes the kind of before and after documentation we hand to the homeowner when the work is done. Clause 4 of the Haven Standard requires a photo record on every visit, and we’ve kept that archive running since 2009.

Call (240) 220-9412

Recent Transformations

Class III Creosote Removal in a Two-Story Colonial

The flue liner was coated in shiny, tar-like Class III creosote, the kind that’s hardened and fuel-rich and wants very little encouragement to ignite. We ran rotary cleaning rods with a steel whip head through the full liner length, then finished with a hand scrub of the smoke chamber and damper assembly. The after photos show bare terra cotta tile from throat to cap. The homeowner got the full photo set and a written report noting the liner was sound and safe to burn.

Glazed Creosote and a Restricted Damper in a Split-Level

This one came in because the damper was stiff and the fireplace smelled sour in warm weather. The camera showed glazed creosote built up on the damper plate and along the smoke shelf, plus a good amount of wet ash packed behind the lintel. We removed the deposits, freed the damper with light lubrication on the hinge points, and vacuumed the smoke chamber clean. The before and after shots show the damper plate going from caked black to bare cast iron. Not a big repair, but the smell left the day we did it.

Chimney Cleaning with Cap Replacement in a Townhome

The flue itself wasn’t bad, a standard dry brush cleaning with roughly two gallons of brown dust and Stage II creosote removed. What mattered was the cap: the old one had rusted through at the mesh, and we could see where a bird had been working material into the flue. After cleaning, we installed a new stainless steel cap from our Gelco and Olympia Chimney supply line. The before photo shows the corroded original. The after shows the new cap seated flush, with a clear photo record for the homeowner’s file.

Heavy Soot in a Gas Fireplace Chase in a 2000s Brick Front

Gas fireplaces don’t make creosote the way wood does, but they sure can make soot, especially when the logs have shifted and the flame is impinging on the refractory panels. We pulled the glass, cleaned the inside of the chase, brushed the vent run, and reset the log set to manufacturer position. The before photo shows black film across the glass and ceramic logs. The after shows clear glass and clean panel lines. We also noted the venting was correct for the fixture, which isn’t always the case in Ashburn builds from that era.

Stage II Creosote in a Fireplace That ‘Hasn’t Burned Right in Years’

This one was in a Brambleton home where the fireplace had been used casually for a decade and never swept. Smoke was rolling back into the room on cold days. The camera showed a narrowed throat passage, Stage II creosote flakes packed along the smoke shelf, and a liner with maybe sixty percent of its cross-section still free. We brushed and vacuumed the liner, cleaned the shelf, and opened the throat back to spec. The smoke stopped rolling back, which is the part the homeowner actually cared about. The photos show exactly why it had been happening.

Want Results Like These?

If your fireplace smells off, smokes back, or simply hasn’t been looked at since you moved in, we can show you exactly what’s in there. Every cleaning in Ashburn comes with a written price before work starts and a full photo record when it’s done. Call (240) 220-9412 and schedule a sweep with a camera inspection included. No guesswork, no upsell, just evidence.

Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Level Two Chimney Ashburn, serving Ashburn, VA since 2009.