How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Manassas
We opened this branch in Manassas back in 2014 because we’d seen enough. The tradesman who trained us had spent twenty years watching homeowners get talked into work they didn’t need by sweeps who never climbed past the damper. A homeowner across town told us about a $4,200 liner quote for a chimney that just needed its crown resealed. The sweep never ran a camera. Never showed her a photo. Just pointed at the wall and said “fire hazard.”
That same week, we were called to a job in Yorkshire that two other companies had walked away from. Smoke backing up into the living room every time they lit a fire. The first company said the flue was “too far gone.” The second said they’d need to rebuild from the roofline up. We ran our camera, found a partially collapsed clay liner at the second joint, and repaired it with a DuraFlex stainless insert in two days. The homeowner sat on her porch steps and cried. Not because we’d done anything heroic, but because someone had finally told her the truth.
We drove home that evening and decided: Manassas needed a sweep who worked like an engineer and talked like a neighbor. The Hearthstone name was already established. We brought it here because the standards were already set. The K.E.Y.S. code was already written. We just had to live up to it.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
We didn’t stumble into this work. We were pulled into it by the smell of wet ash and the sound of a brush hitting creosote.
Our first real job in the trade was assisting a sweep in Warrenton during a January ice storm. The house had no heat except the wood stove, and the flue was packed with glazed creosote so hard it rang like ceramic when we tapped it. We worked by headlamp for six hours, freezing at the roofline, thawing our hands on the chimney pot between passes. That night we sat in the truck with the heater blasting, covered in soot, and realized we hadn’t checked the clock once. We’d been too absorbed in the problem. Too focused on getting that family warm again.
That’s what this work means to us. Not the credential. The moment when a homeowner in Cherry Hill or Dale City lights their first fire of the season and doesn’t have to worry. The 3 AM phone call we don’t get because we did the inspection right in August. The grandmother in Centreville who can let her grandchildren sleep over because we showed her the camera footage and she understood exactly what was wrong and what wasn’t.
We’ve been at this for over ten years now, and the work hasn’t gotten smaller. It’s gotten more precise. We know the clay soils in Prince William County shift and settle differently than the rockier ground out toward Gainesville, and that means chimneys lean and crack in patterns you learn to read. We know the sudden cold snaps that hit Montclair in late October send everyone scrambling for their stove at once, and that the ones who called us in September are the ones sleeping soundly.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be fixing something else. Old houses, old trucks, old boats. The satisfaction is the same: something was broken, now it works, and the person who owns it can stop worrying. That’s the whole job, really. That’s why we get up.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is the Owner and Founder of Hearthstone Chimney Co. in Manassas. He holds state licensure and has completed the training and field certification required for level-2 chimney inspections, including camera diagnostics and masonry assessment. He’s worked with Copperfield and HeatShield systems in the field, and he’s particular about mortar mixes the way some people are particular about coffee.
What separates Russell from a franchise technician sent from a dispatch hub is simple: he’s the one who answers for the work. He trains every journeyman personally. He reviews every photo report before it goes to the homeowner. He still climbs when the roof is steep, still crawls when the firebox is tight, because he won’t ask his crew to do what he won’t do himself.
On weekends, you’ll find him restoring a 1978 F-250 in his garage in Lake Ridge, or fishing the Occoquan with his son. The patience that work requires is the same patience he brings to a chimney rebuild. Nothing rushed. Nothing half-done.
Here’s his commitment to you, directly: if Russell Haines puts his name on the inspection report, he’ll stand behind every word of it. No evasion. No passing you off. That’s the only way he knows how to work.
Our Promise to Manassas Homeowners
We run this branch on the K.E.Y.S. code, and we mean every letter.
Krafted right means our journeymen train on actual masonry, not just sweeping. We use proper materials, specified for your flue size and fuel type. A Gelco cap on a chimney that sees salt air and hard freeze cycles. DuraFlex liners sized with a calculator, not eyeballed. No shortcuts past the smoke shelf, no “good enough” at the crown.
Every time means the 400th inspection gets the same ladder placement check, the same camera wipe, the same photo documentation as the first. We’ve seen what complacency costs in this trade. We don’t allow it.
Your home first means drop cloths on every surface, boot covers at the door, and a vacuum run after we’re done. We work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s. That’s not a slogan. That’s a rule.
Standing behind it is the Keystone Standard: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If we missed something, we come back. No paperwork chase, no he-said-she-said. A square deal, end of story.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed chimney sweep and inspection contractor in Virginia
- Insured & bonded for residential work in Prince William County and surrounding jurisdictions
- Years of local experience serving Manassas, Warrenton, Cherry Hill, Centreville, Dale City, Gainesville, Lake Ridge, Montclair, Yorkshire, Sudley, Bull Run, and Dumfries
- Strong local reputation built on documented inspections, plain-English reporting, and repeat homeowners who refer their neighbors
These credentials matter because a chimney sweep works inside your home, on your roof, and in the structure that keeps your family warm and safe. State licensure means accountability to a regulatory body. Insurance and bonding means protection if something goes wrong. Local experience means we know the building codes, the weather patterns, and the construction eras of the homes in your neighborhood. And a reputation you can verify means we’re not planning to disappear before the follow-up.
We hold these credentials because they’re the minimum a homeowner should demand. We exceed them because that’s what the K.E.Y.S. code requires.
Rooted in Manassas
This branch opened in 2014, and we’ve been here long enough to know the difference between a Sudley split-level and a Bull Run colonial. We’ve swept chimneys on the older homes near Old Town Manassas where the flues were built for coal and adapted for gas, and we’ve inspected the newer construction in Gainesville where builders sometimes skipped the liner entirely. We understand the freeze-thaw cycles that hit Lake Ridge harder than Centreville, and we’ve learned which neighborhoods see the heaviest creosote buildup from seasoned oak versus the softer woods more common out toward Warrenton.
We’re not passing through. We’re hiring locally, training apprentices into journeymen, and planning to be the name Manassas homeowners trust when their grandchildren inherit the house. That’s what it means to be keepers of the hearth.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Manassas since 2014.