How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in New City
Back in 2014, we were working out of a different county when a call came in from a homeowner in New City. Their chimney had been “inspected” by two other companies. Both said the liner was shot. Both quoted numbers that would’ve financed a small car. The homeowner, a retired teacher in her seventies, was about to write a check she couldn’t afford because she was scared of a chimney fire.
We drove down, set up the camera, and found the liner was fine. What she actually had was a cracked crown letting water in, and a damper that wasn’t sealing. Total fix: a few hundred dollars, not thousands. She cried on her porch. Not happy tears, exactly. More like the relief of someone who’d been holding their breath for weeks.
That drive back, we kept thinking about how many homeowners in Rockland County were getting the same runaround. New City deserved someone who’d actually look before recommending. Who’d treat a chimney like a system, not a sales opportunity. We opened this branch three months later. Same standards, same camera, same promise: no work recommended without proof you can see for yourself.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
People ask how we got into this line of work, and the honest answer is: a bad flue and a stubborn streak. We’d bought an old farmhouse upstate, and every time we lit a fire, the living room filled with smoke. Three sweeps came out. Two said we needed a new liner. One said the chimney was “unfixable.” We started reading NFPA codes at the kitchen table, bought a used chimney camera off a retiring sweep, and spent a weekend learning what a proper draft actually looks like on a monitor.
Turned out the smoke shelf was caked solid, and the damper had been installed upside down by a previous owner. Two days of work, not two thousand dollars. The smell of that first clean burn - dry oak, no backdraft, no eye-watering haze - stuck with us. It felt like we’d solved something that mattered. The house was warmer. Safer. More ours.
That was over twelve years ago now. Since then, we’ve crawled through flues in Congers that hadn’t been touched since the Nixon administration, pulled raccoon nests from caps in Valley Cottage, and sat with homeowners in Sleepy Hollow while they watched their own chimney’s footage on our tablet, seeing for the first time what was actually going on above their roofline. The work hasn’t gotten glamorous. It’s still soot under the fingernails, still August days on black shingles when the tar softens under your boots. But there’s a moment in every job - the camera coming back clean, the draft gauge holding steady, the homeowner’s shoulders dropping - that feels like that first fire in the farmhouse.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be fixing something else. Old boats, maybe. The principle’s the same: understand the system, respect the craft, leave it better than you found it. Russell Haines gets out of bed for the problems other people walk away from. The chimneys that three companies have already “fixed.” The calls that start with “I don’t know if you can help, but…” Those are the ones that keep us sharp.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is the Owner and Founder of Hearthstone Chimney Co. in New City. He’s a certified chimney sweep with level-2 inspection training and twelve years of hands-on experience in masonry repair, flue relining, and fireplace system diagnostics. What separates Russell from a franchise technician sent from a dispatch center is simple: he’s the one who answers for the work. His cell number hasn’t changed in a decade. He still carries a brush on every job, still climbs the ladder when the roof pitch makes younger sweeps nervous.
Outside of work, Russell restores vintage hand tools - planes, chisels, the kind of things that don’t need batteries. It’s the same patience he brings to a chimney: fix the root problem, use the right material, don’t force what doesn’t fit. He lives in Rockland County with his family and serves on the local historical society’s building preservation committee.
His commitment to every customer is direct: “If I wouldn’t do it in my mother’s house, I won’t do it in yours.”
Our Promise to New City Homeowners
We operate on four values we call K.E.Y.S. - Krafted right, Every time, Your home first, Standing behind it.
Krafted right means we use proper materials, not whatever’s cheapest this quarter. When we install a liner, we spec DuraFlex or Famco depending on your flue and fuel type, not what’s moving fastest out of the warehouse. When we repoint mortar, we match the existing mix so the repair weathers at the same rate as the original.
Every time means the 400th inspection gets the same ladder placement, the same camera pass, the same photo documentation as the first. We’ve turned down jobs when we were short-staffed rather than send someone who wasn’t ready.
Your home first means drop cloths on every floor we cross, shoe covers at the door, and a vacuum pass before we leave. We’ve had homeowners in Upper Nyack tell us the basement was cleaner after we left than before.
Standing behind it is The Keystone Standard: ninety days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork to file, no manager to escalate, no “that’s not covered.” We fix it because our name is on it.
Our Credentials
Every pro working under the Hearthstone name in New City is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. We carry general liability and bonding coverage appropriate for residential work. Our sweeps are trained to level-2 inspection standards, and our masonry crew has experience with historic mortars and modern refractory materials alike. We’ve built our reputation in Rockland County over twelve years of showing up when we say, documenting what we find, and charging what we quoted.
Why this matters to you: a chimney runs through the structure of your home, handles combustible gases, and operates under temperature swings that stress every component. The person working on it needs to be accountable, traceable, and properly covered if something goes wrong. Licensing means they’ve met minimum competency standards. Insurance and bonding means you’re not left holding the bag. Our local track record means you can ask around - in Briarcliff Manor, in Haverstraw, in New Square - and find people who’ve actually worked with us.
Rooted in New City
This branch serves the same neighborhoods we drive through on weekends. We’ve swept chimneys in the old Dutch stone houses near Rockland Lake, inspected flues in the split-levels off Route 304, and done masonry repair on the hillside homes above the Hudson where the wind drives rain straight into the crown. Our hours are Monday through Sunday, 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, because that’s when Rockland County homeowners call. When you reach us, a live coordinator connects you with our local team - someone who knows the difference between a Congers cape and a Bardonia colonial, and what each means for your chimney’s draft.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving New City since 2014.