How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Huntington
We remember the exact afternoon. It was late October, the kind of day on Long Island when the light turns amber early and you smell wood smoke drifting from somewhere down the block. We were finishing a job in Huntington - a simple sweep, nothing dramatic - when the homeowner, a woman in her sixties who’d lived in that house since her kids were small, asked us to look at something another company had told her needed immediate, expensive work. A cracked flue liner, they said. Four thousand dollars, they said. She was shaken.
We ran the camera. The liner had surface staining, nothing more. We showed her the pictures, explained what we were seeing, and told her the truth: clean it, monitor it, no work needed. She sat down at her kitchen table and cried. Not from relief, though there was that. From anger. She’d almost borrowed money for nothing.
That was 2014. We’d been working in the trade for years already, but that afternoon in Huntington was when we knew this market needed something different. Not another company scaring homeowners into work they didn’t need. Not another outfit treating chimneys like a revenue stream instead of a system that keeps families safe. We called the parent company that same week and put in for the branch rights to open Hearthstone Chimney Co. here. The promise we made was simple: every customer sees what we see, every recommendation comes with evidence, and nobody pays for peace of mind they already have.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
We didn’t stumble into this work. We were drawn to it, though it took years to understand why.
Our first real exposure came as a teenager, helping a tradesman who cleaned chimneys in the winters and did masonry repair in the summers. He was a quiet man, rough hands, never rushed. We remember the smell of soot and creosote, that particular sharpness that gets into your clothes and stays there. We remember the weight of the rods, the way you had to feel for the flue’s shape through the brush. The first time we sent a camera up a chimney and saw the inside of a flue on a small screen - blackened, cracked, or surprisingly sound - something clicked. It was investigation and craft at the same time. You were solving something hidden, and doing it with your hands.
That was more than ten years ago now. The work has changed some - better cameras, better materials, the DuraFlex liners and HeatShield resurfacing systems we use today weren’t common then - but the core of it hasn’t. You’re still entering someone’s home, often their most private space, and telling them whether the thing that keeps them warm through a Huntington winter is safe or not. That’s a weight. We’ve never gotten casual about it.
What gets us out of bed is the same thing that kept us at it through the early years: the moment when a homeowner understands what they’re looking at. When they see the photo of a cracked crown or a blocked flue and it makes sense to them, finally, why their fireplace hasn’t been drafting right, or why that smoke smell lingers. Information is protection. That’s not a slogan to us. It’s the reason we do this instead of something else.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be in some other trade that lets you work with your hands and leave something better than you found it. Carpentry, maybe. Boat repair. But chimneys chose us, or we chose them, and after more than a decade the work still feels like it matters. Every single job.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is the Owner and Founder of Hearthstone Chimney Co. here in Huntington. He’s been in the chimney cleaning and repair trade for over ten years, trained under experienced journeymen, and holds the state licensing and insurance required for this work. Russell isn’t a franchise technician rotating through from another county. He lives here, raised his family here, and built this branch with his own crew from the ground up.
What sets Russell apart is his insistence on documentation. Every inspection he oversees ends with photos the homeowner can see, and a written report in plain English - no jargon, no pressure. On weekends, you’ll find him working on his boat in Centerport or walking the trails at Caumsett State Park. That patience, that willingness to move slowly and get something right, carries into every job.
Here’s Russell’s commitment to you: if he’s in your home, he’s the one answering for the work. Not a dispatcher, not a manager in another state. Call (631) 776-4075 and you’ll reach our live coordinator, who connects you directly with our local team. Russell stands behind every sweep, every inspection, every repair recommendation.
Our Promise to Huntington Homeowners
Our values aren’t abstract. We call them K.E.Y.S. - Krafted right, Every time, Your home first, Standing behind it - and we built them from specific failures we saw in this industry.
Krafted right means trained journeymen using proper materials like Copperfield and Famco components, never the cheap alternatives that fail in three seasons. We learned this after seeing a liner job in Cold Spring Harbor that another company had botched with undersized materials - the homeowner paid twice.
Every time means the 400th job gets the same care as the first. No shortcuts because it’s late on a Friday or because the chimney looks “fine enough.”
Your home first means we work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s - drop cloths, shoe covers, vacuuming after ourselves. We’ve heard too many stories of crews who treated a living room like a job site.
Standing behind it means our Keystone Standard: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. Period.
Honest pricing means a flat-rate sweep agreed before we book, and no surprises on the bill. Quality parts means name-brand materials we can trace. And standing behind every job means the Keystone Standard applies to everything we touch.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed chimney sweep and repair contractor
- Insured & bonded for residential work in Nassau and Suffolk counties
- Years of local experience serving Huntington and surrounding communities
- Strong local reputation built through documented inspections and straightforward recommendations
These credentials matter because chimney work happens inside your home, often on your roof, and always around a system that affects your family’s safety. A state license means we’ve met the training and examination standards New York requires. Insurance and bonding protect you if something goes wrong on your property. Local experience means we understand the specific challenges of Huntington homes - the salt air off the Sound that accelerates crown deterioration, the older masonry in Halesite and Centerport that needs gentler treatment, the wet winters that make waterproofing essential. And a reputation built slowly, one documented inspection at a time, means you can verify what we tell you with your own eyes.
Rooted in Huntington
We’re not passing through. Russell lives here, our crew lives here, and we’ve built this branch to stay. We’ve swept chimneys in Greenlawn colonials and South Huntington ranches, inspected flues in Bayville waterfront homes and Oyster Bay Cove estates. We know the difference between a Laurel Hollow chimney that faces north into the wind and a Huntington Station split-level with an interior flue that never fully dries out. That local knowledge changes how we work.
The hearthstone is the stone the whole home gathered around. That’s why this brand carries that name - and why we take it seriously in every house we enter. Call (631) 776-4075 to speak with our live coordinator and schedule your inspection.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Huntington since 2014.