Before & After Gallery - Ashby Chimney Marietta

Chimney Cleaning Before & After in Marietta, GA

A photo of a clean flue tells the truth faster than any claim we could make. Below are real jobs we’ve handled in Marietta, Kennesaw, and Smyrna, each one shown the way you’d see it through our camera. We photograph what we find before we touch anything, then we photograph the result. No filters, no angled shots that hide the problem. Just the flue as it actually is.

Call (478) 796-8742

Recent Transformations

Stage 3 Creosote Removal, Whitlock Heights

BeforeAfter
BeforeAfter

The flue hadn’t been swept in at least nine years. What we found was stage 3 creosote, the kind that looks like black glass and doesn’t brush out with a standard sweep. We used a rotary loop system with steel cable heads sized to the flue (the clay tile measured 13×13), running it top-down from the crown. Took two passes, then a chemical treatment to break down what remained in the tile joints. Homeowner got the full video footage. The chimney drafts clean now, and the firebox doesn’t smell like a campfire on humid days.

Animal Nest Removal and Smoke Chamber Cleaning, East Cobb

BeforeAfter

A family in East Cobb called because smoke was backing into the living room every time they lit a fire. We dropped a camera down and found a bird’s nest sitting on top of the damper plate, along with about two feet of twigs and dried grass packed into the smoke chamber. The nest had been there long enough to compact, which is why the smoke couldn’t find its way up. We removed everything by hand through the firebox, swept the full flue, and cleaned the smoke chamber with a HEPA vacuum. The damper operates freely now, and the draft is strong enough to hold a piece of paper against the fireplace opening.

Soot-Saturated Prefab Chimney, Powder Springs Road

The homeowner said the fireplace “just didn’t draw like it used to.” The flue was a 6-inch round metal pipe for a prefab unit, and the walls were caked with soft soot about half an inch thick, mixed with what looked like the remains of a burned pizza box. People don’t realize how quickly prefab flues narrow when soot builds up on a round wall. We sized our brush to the pipe, swept from the top down, and vacuumed the firebox and smoke shelf. Draft restored immediately. Easy fix, but it gets ugly if you wait another two or three seasons.

Failed Smoke Chamber Parging Repair, West Marietta

This one came from a home inspection report. The buyers were told the smoke chamber had “minor surface cracking” and they called us to verify. The camera showed the opposite: the mortar between the corbeled bricks was missing in places, and the chamber had rough, jagged ledges that trapped creosote. We knocked out the loose material and parged the entire smoke chamber with HeatShield Cerfractory, which smooths the surface and restores the updraft geometry. The relined chamber now carries smoke up without turbulence, and the creosote has nowhere to collect.

Water-Proofing a Leaky Crown, Kennesaw

The crown on this Kennesaw home looked fine from the ground, which is exactly the problem. Up close, hairline cracks ran across the entire surface. Water had been seeping in and soaking the masonry, and the flue tiles were starting to flake at the top six inches. We repaired the crown with a flexible sealant, then applied a breathable crown coat to shed water. The interior flue was swept and the spalled tile at the top was bonded. It stopped the deterioration before the homeowner needed a full top-end rebuild.

Full Sweep and Level 2 Inspection After Chimney Fire, Smyrna

Nobody wants the phone call that starts with “we had a small chimney fire.” But the homeowner did the smart thing: they called us before using the fireplace again. The flue had a thick layer of puffy, honeycombed creosote, which is what burns. We swept the flue thoroughly, then ran a Level 2 inspection with a video scan to check the clay liner for cracks. The liner was intact, which doesn’t always happen after a chimney fire. We cleaned the smoke chamber and the firebox, wrote up the inspection report, and the family had their fireplace back the next week.

Want Results Like These?

Most chimney sweeps in Marietta run between $189 and $329, and you’ll know your exact price before we start. Every job comes with a written quote, a written guarantee, and photos you keep. If something isn’t right, we come back inside the guarantee period and fix it at no charge. That’s the Kingswell Way, and it’s how we’ve worked since 2002. Call (478) 796-8742.

Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner at Ashby Chimney Marietta, serving Marietta since 2002.