How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born
Back in 1984, Russell Haines was working as a sweep in the Los Angeles area, going house to house, and kept seeing the same thing. A homeowner would call three companies for a quote. One would quote high and push a full rebuild. One would quote low, run a brush up and down, and leave without ever looking inside with a camera. The homeowner was left guessing who to trust, and too often they chose wrong and paid for it later with a chimney fire or a leak that rotted the framing.
The moment that stuck came one November afternoon in Woodland Hills. A retired teacher had been quoted $4,800 to “reline” a chimney that just needed its crown sealed and a proper cleaning. The company had shown her a blurry Polaroid and talked fast. Russell spent two hours on that roof, sealed the crown with proper refractory mortar, ran a camera to show her the flue was sound, and charged her for the cleaning and the seal - nothing more. She cried. Not from relief at saving money, but from the feeling of finally being treated straight.
That night, Russell wrote three sentences on a napkin at a diner on Ventura Boulevard: honest price, honest work, stand behind it. Hearthstone Chimney Co. started the next Monday. What began with one van and a borrowed camera has grown into a network of locations across California and beyond, but that napkin lives in a frame in our home office. We still read it at every training.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Russell didn’t fall into this work. He was pulled.
Growing up in a house with a wood-burning fireplace in the San Fernando Valley, winter evenings meant the smell of oak and almond catching, the dry crackle that comes before the logs settle into a steady burn, and his father kneeling at the hearth with a poker, coaxing the draft. The chimney was the heart of the house, and nobody thought about it until it failed. When it did - a smoky living room, a scorched rug, a family coughing and waving hands - the panic was immediate.
At nineteen, Russell took a job cleaning chimneys to pay for night classes. The first time he climbed a roof in December, the tar was cold and gritty under his knees, the air smelled of wet eucalyptus and distant car exhaust, and his hands went numb around the brush rod. But then he dropped the camera down a flue and saw what the homeowner couldn’t: a cracked liner, creosote glazing the walls like black varnish, a bird nest packed tight above the smoke shelf. He showed the homeowner. She understood. She made a decision that kept her family safe. That feeling - of translating something hidden into something clear, of giving someone the truth they needed - became the reason he kept climbing.
Forty-two years later, Russell still inspects chimneys when the local team hits something unusual. He’ll drive to Santa Clarita at dawn to look at a historic masonry job, or to Riverside to consult on a multi-flue commercial setup. If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be restoring old stone houses somewhere dry and quiet, working with his hands, solving puzzles one at a time. But this work chose him, and he’s never found a reason to leave.
What gets him out of bed now is the same thing that got him out of bed then: a homeowner who doesn’t know what they’re looking at, who needs someone to show them plainly and treat them fairly. The tools have changed - digital cameras, tablet reports, better refractory materials - but the conversation hasn’t. Here’s what I see. Here’s what it means. Here’s your options. No rush, no pressure.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines, Owner and Founder, Hearthstone Chimney Co.
Russell has spent forty-two years in the chimney trade, starting as a sweep on residential roofs in Los Angeles County and building, location by location, a network of trained crews held to the same standard he set with that first van. He is a certified chimney sweep and has trained in masonry restoration, level-2 camera inspection, and the proper application of systems like HeatShield and Gelco for liner repair and protection.
What separates Russell from a franchise technician sent from a dispatch board is simple: he built this. He wrote the inspection protocols. He chose the materials our locations stock. He personally reviews the training for every journeyman who works under our name. When you call Hearthstone, you’re reaching a network that Russell shaped, with standards he enforces.
Outside of work, Russell restores vintage stone tools and collects field guides to Western geology - the kind of slow, careful hobby that matches how he approaches a chimney. He believes a job done right outlasts the person who did it. That’s the standard he holds himself to, and it’s the standard he holds every Hearthstone location to.
His commitment to you is direct: you’ll get a square deal, a clear report with photos you can see, and a crew that works in your home the way they’d work in their mother’s.
Our Promise to Homeowners
We operate by four values we call our K.E.Y.S. - not because they look good on a truck, but because we use them to settle real disputes, hire real people, and judge real work.
Krafted right. Every Hearthstone location trains journeymen, not day laborers. We use proper refractory materials, not hardware-store patch kits. When we recommend a product like Olympia Chimney liner or a Famco cap, it’s because we’ve installed them in conditions like yours and watched them hold up.
Every time. The four-hundredth inspection gets the same care as the first. We rotate camera lenses on schedule. We replace brushes before they’re worn out. Complacency is how chimneys fail, and we don’t allow it.
Your home first. Our crews lay drop cloths, wear boot covers, and explain what they’re doing before they do it. If we find something unexpected, we stop and show you. No surprises on the bill.
Standing behind it. We put our guarantee in writing: The Keystone Standard, ninety days, no arguing. If it’s not right, we’ll be there when we say, and we’ll make it right.
Our Credentials
Every professional working under the Hearthstone name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. We do not send untrained labor to work on your roof or inside your flue.
- State-licensed in every jurisdiction we operate
- Insured and bonded for your protection and ours
- 42+ years in the chimney cleaning and repair trade
- Strong local reputation built job by job, review by review
These credentials matter because a chimney is not a cosmetic feature. It’s a ventilation system for fire, built into the structure of your home, often decades old, subject to earthquake, freeze-thaw, and the slow accumulation of combustible residue. The person working on it needs to know what they’re looking at, and you need to know they’ll still be around if something needs follow-up. Licensing and insurance don’t guarantee quality, but they filter out the operators who won’t even clear that bar. Forty-two years in business means we’ve weathered economic cycles, regulatory changes, and the normal turnover that sinks younger companies. We’re still here. We plan to stay here.
Rooted in the Communities We Serve
Our home base is Los Angeles, where Russell started and where our training center still operates. From there, our network extends to locations and service teams across California - San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Long Beach, Riverside, Woodland Hills, Santa Clara, Santa Clarita, and Bridgeport - with each local team hired and trained to work in the conditions specific to their region. The coastal salt air in Long Beach eats mortar differently than the inland heat in Fresno. The seismic requirements in San Francisco differ from the snow load considerations in Bridgeport. Our local teams know their territory because they live in it.
We answer the phone twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A live coordinator connects you with the location that covers your address. You’ll speak to someone who can schedule, answer basic questions, and route urgent concerns to the right crew. We’re not the fastest to cut corners. We’re the ones who’ll be there when we say, do the job right, and stand behind it.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving homeowners across California since 1984.