Meet the Team - Hearthstone Chimney Co.

Meet the Allentown Team Behind Hearthstone Chimney Co.

Our Allentown crew shows up in uniform, works on your chimney like it’s their own, and leaves the driveway cleaner than they found it. We’re the people who answer when you call (610) 632-1394 at 11 PM because you smelled something odd from the fireplace. Four of us handle most of what you see: the scheduling, the ladder work, the camera inspections, and the conversations after where we show you exactly what we found.

Call (610) 632-1394

Our People

Russell Haines, Owner

I started Hearthstone Chimney Co. in 1984, working out of a used van with a brush set and a borrowed ladder. Forty-two years later, I’m still on roofs when the job calls for it, though I spend more time now training our crew and standing behind the 90-Day Done Right Promise we put in writing on every invoice. I’m CSIA-certified and stubborn about details - a flue that “looks fine” doesn’t pass here unless the camera agrees. When I’m not checking someone else’s work, I’m usually restoring a 1960s Dodge pickup in a garage that’s way too small for the project.

Mike D., Lead Technician

Mike’s been with us twelve years, and he’s the one we send when a chimney has three flues, two angles, and a family of squirrels who filed for squatters’ rights. He’s CSIA-certified and specializes in Level-2 camera inspections - the kind where we lower a camera the full length of your flue and hand you photos with a plain-English verdict, documented like an engineer, explained like a craftsman. Mike grew up in Whitehall, so he knows which Allentown neighborhoods have the clay liners that crack after hard freezes and which ones have the older masonry that soaks up water like a sponge. He keeps a fishing rod in his truck from April through October and claims the Lehigh River trout are “educational but not cooperative.”

Teresa R., Senior Installer

Teresa handles our liner installs, crown rebuilds, and anything that involves working with HeatShield, DuraFlex, or Olympia Chimney materials up on a steep roof. She’s been doing this eight years, certified in both chimney relining and solid-fuel appliance installation, and she’s particular about sealants - “half the callbacks in this business start with someone who was in a hurry with the mortar.” Teresa lives in South Allentown and can tell you which blocks near Cedar Beach Park have the pre-war chimneys that were built without proper crowns. She bakes sourdough on Sundays and brings the extras to the shop on Monday, which is why our Monday morning safety meetings run long.

Darnell J., Service Coordinator

Darnell’s the live voice you get when you call (610) 632-1394 at any hour. He’s been with us four years, and he knows our schedule, our crew’s strengths, and how to talk a homeowner through what is and isn’t an emergency. He’s not a technician, but he’s sat through enough of Mike’s camera reviews to know when a caller needs a sweep next week versus when we need to send someone tonight. Darnell grew up in Easton, played offensive line at Liberty High, and still coaches youth football in Bethlehem on weekends. He keeps a whiteboard behind his desk with every active job, color-coded by urgency, and he updates it by hand even though the computer does it automatically - “because the computer doesn’t show me the pattern.”

Jake B., Apprentice

Jake’s in his second year with us, working toward his CSIA certification while he learns the trade from Mike and Teresa. He started as a helper - hauling gear, taping off floors, cleaning the camera lens - and now he’s running his own sweeps on straight flues and assisting on liner installs. He’s from the West End of Allentown and grew up in a house with a wood stove, so he understood creosote buildup before he understood compound interest. Jake’s the reason we started using magnetic tool pads on every job; he dropped a screwdriver down a flue once and spent forty minutes fishing it out. He won’t make that mistake again, and neither will anyone else on our crew.

One Standard, Every Job

Every person on this page works under the same K.E.Y.S. code: Krafted right, Every time, Your home first, Standing behind it. That means the 90-Day Done Right Promise applies whether Russell did the work or Jake assisted on it. It means we use the same DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield materials on every job, no builder-grade substitutes because someone thought the homeowner wouldn’t notice. It means background-checked, uniformed technicians, no-hassle upfront pricing, and most jobs completed in a single visit. We’ve been serving local communities for over 42 years, and we plan to be here in thirty more. That changes how you treat people, how you stand behind your work, and how you answer the phone at midnight when someone smells smoke.

Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Allentown since 1984.