Meet the Team - Hearthstone Chimney Co.

Meet the Pottstown Team Behind Hearthstone Chimney Co.

We’re the crew that shows up at your door in Pottstown when the flue needs sweeping or the crown’s cracked clean through. Most of us have been at this long enough to remember when Boyertown was mostly farmland and the houses in Sanatoga had different chimneys altogether. What keeps us together isn’t a mission statement on a wall. It’s the K.E.Y.S. code Russell put in place years back: Krafted right, Every time, Your home first, Standing behind it. That, and the fact that none of us can stand doing sloppy work.

Call (610) 819-4281

Our People

Russell Haines, Owner

I’ve been climbing roofs in Montgomery County since 1984, when I started Hearthstone Chimney Co. with a used brush set and a beat-up Dodge van. Forty-two years later, I’m still the one who answers calls at odd hours and still the one who crawls into a flue when the job’s tricky enough to need eyes that have seen it before. I hold a CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep credential and specialize in Level-2 camera inspections, the kind where we document every crack and creosote deposit like an engineer, then explain what you’re looking at like a craftsman. Off the clock, I restore vintage motorcycles in a garage that’s never quite warm enough, and my wife will tell you I’ve got strong opinions about Pennsylvania Dutch cooking that nobody asked for.

Mike D., Lead Technician

Mike’s been with us fourteen years, and he’s the one we send when a liner pull in a Pottstown Victorian turns into a three-day puzzle. He’s CSIA-certified and factory-trained on DuraFlex and HeatShield systems, which matters when you’re rebuilding a flue in a house built before standardized sizing existed. Mike grew up in Gilbertsville and still lives there with his wife and two kids, so he’s driving past the same chimneys he worked on when he was an apprentice. His left knee clicks going up ladders, which he mentions exactly once per job, usually around the second story. He also makes a surprisingly good smoked brisket that he’s brought to exactly one company cookout because “the rest of you would ruin it with sauce.”

Carla R., Senior Installer

Carla handles our cap, crown, and masonry rebuilds, the kind of work where cutting corners means water in your living room come March. She’s been in the trade eleven years, certified through the Chimney Safety Institute, and she’s particularly sharp on Gelco and Olympia Chimney hardware, knowing which stainless spec holds up against the freeze-thaw cycle we get along the Schuylkill. Before chimneys, she spent six years in commercial roofing, which explains why she’s the fastest person on a pitched roof any of us have seen. Carla lives in Douglassville, keeps bees in her backyard, and has a running bet with Mike about whether a colony or a creosote deposit is harder to manage. She’s currently winning.

Darnell J., Service Coordinator

Darnell’s the voice you hear when you call (610) 819-4281, and he’s the one making sure Mike and Carla aren’t double-booked across three counties on a Tuesday. He’s been with Hearthstone eight years, knows every permit requirement in Pottstown borough and the surrounding townships, and can tell you whether your job needs a township inspection before we even see the chimney. Darnell came to us from a dispatch background in HVAC, so he’s used to homeowners who’ve been told three different things by three different companies. He sorts that out. He coaches youth basketball in Pottstown on weekends, which he says prepared him perfectly for managing contractors and anxious homeowners alike.

Avery T., Apprentice

Avery’s in their second year with us, learning the trade from the ground up, literally, starting with brush work and working toward their CSIA certification. They’re already sharp on camera inspection setup and have a good eye for spotting crown deterioration that the rest of us sometimes miss on first pass. Avery grew up in a farmhouse near New Hanover with a stone chimney that needed constant attention, which is partly how they ended up here. They’re studying for their certification exam and asking questions that remind the rest of us why we got into this work. Also, they bring the best coffee to morning meetings, sourced from a roaster in Reading, and they will explain the origin notes to you whether you asked or not.

One Standard, Every Job

The five of us are part of a larger network of Hearthstone technicians across Pennsylvania, but the standard doesn’t change because the zip code does. Every sweep, every liner install, every crown pour in Pottstown gets the same 90-Day Done Right Promise: in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. The brands we use, DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield, are the same ones we’d put in our own houses. The pricing is upfront, the number on the estimate is the number on the invoice, and the photos from your Level-2 inspection are yours to keep. We’ve been in Montgomery County for over forty-two years, and we plan to be here for thirty more. That changes how you treat people. Call (610) 819-4281 and you’ll get a live person, any hour of any day. No voicemail, no callback queue, no app.

Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Pottstown since 1984.