Meet the Jacksonville Team Behind Hearthstone Chimney Co. of Jacksonville
Our Jacksonville crew has been climbing roofs from San Marco to Mandarin longer than most companies have existed. We’re not a revolving door of subcontractors. These are the same faces you’ll see year after year, the ones who remember your chimney’s quirks and your dog’s name. What ties us together isn’t a handbook. It’s the K.E.Y.S. code: Krafted right, Every time, Your home first, Standing behind it. That, and a shared intolerance for shortcuts.
Our People
Dale Brinson, Owner & Master Sweep
I started this company in 1984, which means I’ve swept chimneys through three hurricanes, two building booms, and enough Jacksonville humidity to test any liner material on earth. I’m a CSIA Certified Master Chimney Sweep, but the credential that matters most to me is the one I can’t frame: showing up when we say we will, with the right parts, and leaving a job site cleaner than we found it. I still climb ladders most days because I don’t trust work I haven’t seen with my own eyes. Off the clock, I restore vintage Craftsman tools and argue with my wife about whether smoked mullet belongs in a chiminea. (It doesn’t. She wins.)
Marcus T., Lead Technician
Marcus has been with us twelve years, which in this trade makes him practically furniture. He’s NFPA-certified and specializes in Level-2 camera inspections, the kind where we feed a camera up your flue and show you exactly what we’re seeing on a tablet right there in your living room. Homeowners in Avondale and Ortega know him by his work boots, which he resoles himself rather than replace, and by his habit of explaining problems with car metaphors. (“Your clay liner’s like a ’72 Chevy block: solid if it’s solid, catastrophic if it’s cracked.”) He keeps a handwritten log of every chimney he’s inspected in Duval County. We’re at 4,217 and counting.
Elena R., Senior Installer
Elena handles our liner installs, crown pours, and anything involving DuraFlex or HeatShield materials. She came to us from commercial HVAC, which means she’s comfortable in tight attic spaces that make the rest of us claustrophobic. Her specialty is stainless steel liner retrofits in historic Springfield homes, where the original flues were built for coal and barely accommodate modern gas inserts. She’ll tell you the hardest part isn’t the install, it’s explaining to a homeowner why their 1920s chimney needs a 21st-century solution without making them feel like their house failed them. Elena bakes sourdough on weekends and brings the rejects to the shop. They’re still better than anything from a bakery.
James K., Service Coordinator
James is the voice you get when you call (833) 974-6113 at 11 PM on a Sunday because you smelled smoke where you shouldn’t have. He’s been answering our phones for eight years, and he actually lives in Jacksonville Beach, so he knows which neighborhoods flood first in a storm and which chimneys took wind damage last hurricane season. He schedules, he troubleshoots over the phone, and he has a preternatural ability to tell whether a caller needs a technician tomorrow or needs one now. James keeps a map of Duval County on his desk with push pins for every repeat customer. The east side is getting crowded. He plays bass in a country band and refuses to let any of us attend his gigs.
Trevon W., Apprentice
Trevon’s in his second year with us, which means he’s past the “dropping tools off the roof” phase and into the “noticing problems the veterans missed” phase. He’s working toward his CSIA certification and has already developed a specialty in chimney cap and crown installs, particularly Gelco and Famco products. The rest of us give him grief for his checklist system, which is color-coded and laminated, but the truth is he’s never forgotten a step. Trevon grew up in Arlington and can tell you which oak trees in that neighborhood shed the most debris into flues. He coaches middle school basketball and applies the same patience to teaching homeowners how their dampers work.
One Standard, Every Job
Every technician on this page wears the same uniform, carries the same background check clearance, and works from the same pricing sheet. There’s no “B team” for slower days. When we say most jobs finish in a single visit, that’s not a goal, it’s an operating principle backed by trucks stocked with DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield materials. We don’t substitute brands without telling you. We don’t add charges after the estimate. And if something isn’t right, the 90-Day Done Right Promise applies to every name on this page equally: in writing, no arguing, we come back. That’s the Keystone Standard, and it’s how we’ve kept the same phone number in Jacksonville for over four decades. We’ll be here in thirty more.
Written by Dale Brinson, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co. of Jacksonville, serving Jacksonville since 1984.