Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
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AfterFamco Chimney Liner & Rebuild in Norwood: What to Know First
Famco chimney liner and rebuild work in Norwood typically runs between $1,800 and $6,400 depending on whether we’re replacing a liner section or rebuilding the chimney from the roofline up. Most Famco liner replacements take one full day on site, and we give you a firm price before a single tool comes off the truck. This page is for Norwood homeowners who own a Famco fireplace, stove, or chimney system and want straight answers about what’s failing, what it costs to fix, and whether the job actually needs doing. Call (508) 687-5884 and you’ll get a live person, not a voicemail tree.
How Famco Products Fail - and How We Fix Them
- Famco flexible stainless liners pulling apart at the seams. We see this most often on the older Famco Flex-Line series installed in the mid-2000s. The corrugated wall thins out near the appliance connection, and over years of heating and cooling cycles, the seam work-hardens and splits. The fix is a full liner replacement with a properly sized aftermarket or OEM liner, depending on what the flue collar will accept. Patching a split liner is a temporary bandage on a wound that reopens.
- Warped damper plates inside Famco fireplace boxes. Norwood gets real temperature swings, and those swings are hard on cast iron. The damper plate on the Famco Traditional series tends to bow over time, especially in homes that burn a lot of seasoned oak. A bowed plate means smoke backs up into the room even when the damper’s open. We replace the plate and realign the frame, and we check that the original refractory panels haven’t cracked behind it, which is the hidden part most owners never see until the camera goes in.
- Famco liner mesh caps clogging with Norwood tree debris. The Famco line shipped with a fine-mesh spark arrestor cap on the liner crown. It works fine in open terrain. In Norwood’s tighter lots, where pin oaks and maples overhang rooflines, that mesh loads up with seed pods and leaf litter by late fall. A clogged cap chokes draft and pushes carbon monoxide back into the house. We swap the cap for a wider-mesh model and schedule the liner inspection around the leaf drop, not just before burning season.
- Crumbling firebrick in Famco masonry fireplaces. This one isn’t a Famco defect, it’s a Norwood climate reality. Freeze-thaw cycles get into the mortar joints behind the firebox, and the brick spalls. We see it on Famco fieldstone and standard red-brick models alike. When the firebrick is gone, the heat goes into the fireplace structure itself, and that’s when rebuild costs climb. Replacing a partial brick panel early is a few hundred dollars. Rebuilding a firebox wall later is a few thousand.
- Famco stainless liner sizing that was wrong from day one. We run into this on homes where a previous homeowner or a handyman installed a liner without doing the draft calculations. Famco liners for wood stoves need specific diameter-to-flue-length ratios. Too wide, and the smoke lingers and condenses creosote. Too narrow, and the draft is weak and the stove never burns hot enough. We measure the appliance collar, the flue run, and the local Norwood air pressure conditions, then size the replacement correctly.
Our Famco Chimney Liner & Rebuild Process
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The call. You reach Wendell or a live person at (508) 687-5884. We talk through what you’re seeing, and we set a real arrival window. If we’re running behind, we call you before the window slips.
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The camera inspection. We run a camera down the flue and show you the footage. Famco liners hide damage at the elbow joints, so the camera goes all the way to the appliance collar. You see what we see, and we give you a plain-English verdict: fix it now, can wait a season, or it’s fine and don’t spend a dime.
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Parts and parts decision. If the liner or rebuild needs parts, we lay out OEM Famco versus quality aftermarket options with real numbers. We never install a part that won’t fit the flue collar or hold up to Norwood winters. If aftermarket is the better value without sacrificing safety, we say so.
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The repair or rebuild. For liner work, that means removing the old liner, cleaning the flue cavity, dropping the new liner, and sealing the crown. For rebuild work, we take down only what’s necessary and rebuild the chimney with proper flashing, a weatherproof crown, and brick that matches the existing as close as Norwood supply allows.
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The test and the proof. After the job, we run the system and do a final camera pass. You get the footage and a written note of exactly what was done and why. If it doesn’t look right, it doesn’t pass.
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The 90-Day Done Right Promise. Every Famco job we do in Norwood carries the same guarantee, in writing: if the work’s not right within 90 days, one call brings Wendell and his crew back at no cost to you.
What Famco Chimney Liner & Rebuild Costs in Norwood
Straight numbers help, so here’s what we typically quote across Norwood, from the airport corridor to the older streets off Nahatan. These are all-in figures for labor and materials, quoted before work starts. What moves the price is how much of the chimney has to come apart: a stainless liner replacement is the low end; a full rebuild from the roofline up is the high end. We don’t charge a trip fee inside our own service county, and a free second opinion on any written estimate is standing policy. Call (508) 687-5884 and we’ll give you a number you can actually plan around.
- Famco stainless liner replacement (single flue): $1,800 - $2,900
- Famco flexible liner with new crown and cap: $2,200 - $3,400
- Partial rebuild (firebox repair, brick repointing, damper replacement): $1,200 - $3,800
- Full chimney rebuild from the roofline up: $4,200 - $6,400
- Famco liner repair (joint seal, small section replacement): $450 - $1,100
Why Norwood Homeowners Call Top Hat Chimney for Famco Work
We’ve been in Norwood chimneys since 1999, and Wendell Pike has put his name on the work every day since. The crew that shows up at your door is the same crew that answers the phone. We install and service Famco alongside DuraFlex, HeatShield, and Gelco, and we’re not tied to one manufacturer, so we recommend the right liner for your appliance and your house, not the one with the best kickback. And the 90-Day Done Right Promise isn’t a marketing line. It’s printed on every invoice we hand you before the job starts. If it doesn’t need doing, we’ll tell you that too.
FAQs
We’re an independent Famco service provider, not a Famco authorized dealer, so we can’t process warranty claims directly, but we can document the failure with camera footage and a written report that you can submit to Famco or your original installer. In practice, most Norwood homeowners we see with a failed Famco liner are past the warranty window anyway, and the real question is whether the repair or replacement cost justifies itself. We’ll tell you straight if a warranty claim is worth pursuing or if you’re better off putting that energy into a properly installed replacement.
Most liner replacements are completed within one to two weeks after the initial camera inspection, depending on part availability. We keep common liner diameters and cap sizes in stock, so if your flue falls in the standard range, we can often get the job done inside a week. If you need a specific Famco part that we have to order, the schedule shifts, and we’ll tell you the real date before we book anything. Call (508) 687-5884 and we’ll give you an honest timeline, not a promise built to be broken.
If the liner is split, pulled apart at a seam, or pitted through in more than one spot, replacement is almost always the better call. Repairing a liner section buys time, but the weakened metal around the repair tends to fail again within a season or two, and you end up paying twice. If the damage is confined to a single joint and the liner still has good wall thickness, a targeted repair makes sense. We’ll show you the camera footage and give you the numbers for both paths before you commit to anything.
A camera inspection is the only way to see what’s happening in the middle of the flue, and those are exactly the spots where Famco liners fail. Looking down from the top shows you maybe the first few feet. The elbows, the appliance connection, and the mid-flue seams are where the cracks hide. We run the camera on every Famco liner evaluation in Norwood, and we show you the footage. If a sweep won’t put a camera down your flue before quoting a liner job, get a second opinion.
Chimneys break in the off-season too. Moisture gets into the flue, freeze-thaw cycles work on the mortar, and the damage compounds whether you burn or not. For older Famco fireplaces in Norwood, where winter temperatures swing hard, skipping a year means a small repointing job can turn into a partial rebuild. Once a year, burn or no burn. The inspection costs a fraction of what the rebuild will.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner, Top Hat Chimney at Top Hat Chimney, serving Norwood and nearby areas.