How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in New Rochelle
We opened this branch in 2014 because we’d seen enough. A homeowner in the Wykagyl section called us after another company had charged her for a “complete chimney rebuild” that, when we looked, amounted to some slapped-on caulk and a prayer. She’d paid for peace of mind and gotten a leak that stained her ceiling plaster brown. That wasn’t unusual. What stuck with us was her face when we showed her the photos, what the actual damage was versus what she’d been sold. She wasn’t angry anymore. She was tired.
We’d been working the trade for years by then, and we knew New Rochelle deserved better than scare tactics and inflated invoices. The city has old housing stock, real masonry, real winters off Long Island Sound. These chimneys need honest eyes on them, not salesmen with a camera and a commission sheet. We came here to do the work straight: inspect, document, fix what’s broken, leave what’s sound alone. That was the promise we made that year, and it’s the one we still keep.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Russell didn’t stumble into this work. He was drawn to it by the thing that draws most good tradesmen, the thing nobody talks about: the satisfaction of a problem you can touch, solved completely, with your own hands. Before 2014, he’d spent years learning from a tradesman who trained the old way. Show up early. Carry your own light. Never leave soot on a mantel. The first time Russell ran a brush up a flue and felt the resistance give way, heard the debris fall into the firebox below, he understood what this was. It’s not performance. It’s presence.
The smell of creosote gets into your clothes, your truck, your pores. Russell doesn’t mind it. Says it smells like work honestly done. He’s been up on roofs in January when the wind off the Sound makes your fingers numb, and he’s been in crawlspaces in August when the attic hits a hundred and ten. The work doesn’t care about comfort. What matters is what you find, and whether you tell the truth about it.
If Russell weren’t doing this, he’d probably be fixing something else. Old boats, maybe. He likes systems that reward patience, that punish shortcuts visibly. What gets him out of bed is the same thing that got him into it: a homeowner who doesn’t know what’s up there, who deserves to. He’s been at this over ten years now, and the jobs haven’t blurred together. He remembers the cracked flue in a Larchmont colonial, the bird’s nest in a Pelham Manor cap, the liner that failed in a Rye ranch and could’ve cost a family their home. Each one is a person who trusted him to look and tell the truth. That’s not a credential. That’s the whole job.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is Owner & Founder of Hearthstone Chimney Co. in New Rochelle. He holds state licensure and has built his training through field apprenticeship and manufacturer certification on systems from Gelco and Olympia Chimney. He’s not a franchise technician rotating through territories. He knows the local clay flue liners, the salt deterioration on Sound-facing stacks, the way Pelham’s older brick weeps differently than new construction in Greenville.
On weekends, you’ll find him restoring a 1972 Boston Whaler in his garage, working slow, working right. That same patience goes into every chimney he inspects. He believes a homeowner should see what he sees, understand what he understands, and never feel pressured into work they don’t need. When you call Hearthstone, Russell’s commitment is simple: he’ll treat your chimney like it heats his own mother’s house.
Our Promise to New Rochelle Homeowners
Our values aren’t poster slogans. We call them K.E.Y.S., and we use them to settle real questions on real jobs.
Krafted right means we source proper materials, Famco caps and Copperfield components when the spec calls for them, and we train our sweeps to journeyman standard. No shortcuts on mortar mix, no universal-fit liners forced into mismatched flues.
Every time means the 400th inspection gets the flashlight in the same corners as the first. Complacency is how creosote gets missed.
Your home first means we lay runners, we ask about pets, we don’t track ash across your kitchen tile. We work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s.
Standing behind it means The Keystone Standard: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork battle, no voicemail tag.
Honest pricing means a free written estimate before any work begins. No surprises on the bill. Quality parts mean we document what we use and why. Standing behind every job means our name is on the line in a city where reputation travels.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed chimney professionals, meeting New York’s requirements for trade operation
- Insured & bonded for residential work throughout Westchester County
- Years of local experience serving New Rochelle and surrounding communities since 2014
- Strong local reputation built through documented inspections and repeat homeowners
These credentials matter because chimney work happens inside your home, on your roof, around your family. A state license means accountability to a regulatory body. Insurance and bonding mean protection if something goes wrong. Local experience means we know the building stock, the weather patterns, the permit office. And reputation means we’re still here when you need us again, not a phone number that rings to a warehouse three states away.
Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. We don’t send strangers. We send people trained to our standard, documented like engineers, plainspoken like neighbors.
Rooted in New Rochelle
We’ve swept chimneys in the Wykagyl Terrace historic district, capped flues off North Avenue, and inspected liners in homes walking distance from the New Rochelle train station. We know which blocks get the worst wind off Long Island Sound, which basements flood in spring and shift their hearths, which neighborhoods still burn real wood versus gas inserts. Russell lives here. His kids have grown up here. When we say we’ll be there when we say, we mean it. A company that plans to be in New Rochelle in thirty years acts like it.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving New Rochelle since 2014.