Level 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.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterMeet the Santa Clara Team Behind Emberly Chimney Cleaners Santa Clara
We’re the crew that shows up at your door in Santa Clara with a uniform, a license number you can verify, and a camera rig that records every flue we touch. Between us we’ve pulled apart, inspected, and put back together chimneys in Rivermark, Old Quad, Westwood Oaks, and every neighborhood in between. What keeps us consistent isn’t a handbook. It’s Clause 4 of the Haven Standard, the photo record we’ve kept on every job since 2009, and the fact that Corrine Halstead still reads every report before it goes out.
Our People
Corrine Halstead, Owner
I started Emberly Chimney Cleaners in 2009 after watching a homeowner in Santa Clara pay for a “complete rebuild” that turned out to be a cracked crown and some bad flashing. The crew had no photos, no written scope, and when I climbed up to look, the liner was fine. That job became the reason for Clause 1 of the Haven Standard: have it in writing before anyone starts. Since then we’ve documented 38,000-plus inspections, and I still review the photo records from jobs that flag anything beyond routine sweep work. I live in the South Bay, my truck has a Santa Clara parking sticker, and I keep a file of the worst creosote buildup I’ve ever seen - Class III glazed, from a fireplace in Sunnyvale that hadn’t been touched in fourteen years. I show it to apprentices so they understand what “fire hazard” actually looks like.
Marcus T., Lead Technician
Marcus runs the NFPA 211 Level 2 inspections and has been with us since 2016. He’s the technician who gets sent when a homeowner brings us a competitor’s estimate for liner replacement and wants our Free Second Opinion. Marcus carries a chimney camera with a 360-degree head, and he’ll talk you through what he’s seeing on the monitor - flue liner delamination, spalling brick, smoke chamber parging that’s pulled away from the wall - without pushing toward a sale. He grew up in San Jose, still plays pickup basketball at Washington Park on Saturdays, and has a running bet with Corrine about whether the 1960s ranch homes in Westwood Oaks or the new construction in Rivermark have worse factory-built chimney installations. (He’s winning. It’s Rivermark.)
Diana R., Senior Installer
Diana handles cap and crown pours, liner pulls, and rebuilds where we’re working with HeatShield or DuraFlex materials sourced through Haven’s buying network. She came to us from commercial HVAC in 2019, which means she thinks in terms of system pressure and draft dynamics more than most chimney techs. Her specialty is cricket installation on steep-pitch roofs - the peaked metal diverters that keep water from pooling behind chimneys on wide slopes - and she’s done more of them in the Santa Clara foothills than anyone else on our crew. Diana lives in Mountain View, commutes up 101 with a truck full of staged materials, and keeps a spreadsheet of every permit pull she’s made in Santa Clara County so we don’t get held up at inspection. Off the clock she restores vintage motorcycles and has strong opinions about the quality of factory welds on 1970s Honda frames.
James K., Service Coordinator
James is the live voice that answers when you call (650) 229-6358 at 10 PM on a Sunday because you smelled something odd from the fireplace. He’s been with Emberly Chimney Cleaners since 2021, and his job is to book the right technician with the right equipment for what you’re describing - not to diagnose over the phone, but to make sure Marcus or Diana shows up prepared. James grew up in Santa Clara, went to Wilcox High, and knows which neighborhoods have the oak trees that drop enough debris to clog a chimney cap in a single season. (Old Quad, especially along The Alameda.) He texts you when your tech is en route, includes the license number and ETA, and follows up after every job to make sure the photo record and written warranty actually reached your inbox. He also keeps a whiteboard of every “Done Right Promise” callback we’ve made since he started - there are fewer than you’d think, and he likes it that way.
Elena V., Apprentice
Elena joined us in 2024 after completing a construction trades program at Mission College. She’s learning inspection protocol from Marcus, installation basics from Diana, and how to write a report that satisfies Corrine’s standards, which means specific, measured, no adjectives where a number will do. Elena grew up in a family that used their fireplace every winter in the Santa Clara foothills, and she’ll tell you she never once thought about what Class I versus Class III creosote meant until she saw her first glazed deposit on a liner wall. She’s the crew member most likely to ask a homeowner to come look at the camera feed with her, because she’s still excited by what the inside of a flue reveals. She lives in Campbell, takes the 17 bus when her truck is loaded with gear, and is studying for her CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep credential.
One Standard, Every Job
Emberly Chimney Cleaners Santa Clara is independently owned and operated, but we work under the Haven Standard that Corrine Halstead helped build in 2009. That means Clause 1: written price, written scope, written warranty before work starts. Clause 4: documented photo record on every visit, included as standard, not sold as an upgrade. And the 365-Day Done Right Promise, stamped on every job, that if we miss something, we make it right. The materials in our trucks come from the same suppliers - DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, Copperfield - that every Haven Standard location uses, procured through a buying network that keeps our prices honest and our inventory predictable. What varies is the crew: these are the people who know Santa Clara’s permit office, its clay soil and expansion-contraction cycles, its mix of 1950s masonry and modern factory-built units. When you call (650) 229-6358, you reach James, or Corrine, or whoever’s on live answer that shift. Not a form. Not a callback queue. A person who can tell you when Marcus or Diana is free, what the written estimate process looks like, and what you’ll have in your hands when we leave.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Emberly Chimney Cleaners Santa Clara, serving Santa Clara since 2009.