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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AfterFast, Reliable Chimney Cap & Crown Across Northampton
Chimney cap and crown work in Northampton costs between $325 and $1,200 for most homes, depending on whether you need a standard cap replacement or a full custom crown rebuild. In a borough where most chimneys are over a century old, that price usually reflects more than just slapping a new cap on top. We’ll be straight with you: the cap is often the last thing that gets installed on a Northampton chimney, not the first.
Top Hat Chimney has been working in and around Northampton long enough to know what’s behind those old brick stacks. Wendell Pike founded this company in 1999, and he still puts his name on every job. If you’re off Main Street near the old Atlas Cement housing blocks, along Washington Avenue, or down by the Canal Street corridor, we’ve been inside chimneys like yours. Call (484) 859-1367 and a live person answers. It might be Wendell himself.
Why Top Hat Chimney Is Northampton’s Preferred Chimney Cap & Crown Company
We don’t advertise much. We don’t need to. Most of our Northampton work comes from neighbors telling neighbors, and that’s exactly how it should be. Ask anyone on your street. When a row home chimney leaks into an upstairs bedroom wall, the conversation at the hardware store usually ends with our name. Wendell and his crew show up in uniform, background-checked, with a real arrival window. If the schedule slips, you get a call.
Upfront pricing is how we operate. The number you hear on the phone is the number on the invoice. No national chain routine where the quote doubles once the ladder is up. And every job, including Chimney Cap & Crown work, carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If it’s not right, one call brings us back at no charge.
We’re not a franchise that rotated into the Lehigh Valley last spring. Wendell is local, the business is local, and you’ll run into him again on Saturday. That matters when you’re dealing with a century-old chimney in Northampton Borough, where the masonry has seen things newer homes never will.
Our Chimney Cap & Crown Services in Northampton
Cap Installation
A new chimney cap in Northampton runs $325 to $550 for a standard single-flue stainless steel model, including installation. But here’s what we tell every homeowner before quoting: the cap shields the flue from rain, snow, and critters. It does not fix a failing liner underneath. In Northampton’s older homes, we often scope the flue first so you know what you’re actually capping. The camera footage and a plain-English verdict, every time, no exceptions.
Cap Replacement
Cap replacement in Northampton typically runs $350 to $600. The old caps we pull off row homes near the Atlas Cement-era housing are usually rusted through at the base or missing their mesh sides entirely. When we replace one, we check the crown beneath it too. A new cap on a crumbling crown is like a new roof on a rotten frame. Half the time on Washington Avenue, the crown needs attention first.
Crown Repair
Crown repair in Northampton runs $400 to $850 depending on the damage. The crowns on these old single-wythe brick chimneys wash out after decades of Lehigh Valley freeze-thaw cycles. Cold air funnels through the Lehigh Gap in the Blue Mountain ridge, and that moisture penetrates the crown, freezes, expands, and spalls the mortar. We rebuild the crown with a proper overhang so water sheds instead of soaking the chimney.
Crown Coating
Crown coating in Northampton runs $275 to $475. It’s the right call when the crown has hairline cracks but no structural damage yet. We use a flexible, waterproof coating that bridges those small fissures. If the crown has major chunks missing or the mortar is crumbling to sand, coating it is a waste of your money, and we’ll tell you so. Nothing gets recommended without camera evidence you can see for yourself.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Northampton
We install and service chimney caps, crowns, and liners from brands we trust because they hold up in Northampton’s climate: Famco for custom and multi-flue caps, HeatShield for liner resurfacing when a century-old flue needs reinforcement, and Olympia Chimney for cap components and accessories. We keep common sizes and parts stocked for our Northampton customers, which means faster turnaround on a cap replacement when you’re watching the forecast and want the chimney buttoned up before rain blows through.
Common Chimney Cap & Crown Problems We See in Northampton Homes
- Coal-era flue tiles cracking under a new cap. Northampton’s worker housing from the Atlas Cement era was built with clay tile flues meant for coal exhaust. When those homes converted to oil or gas, the flues were rarely relined. A new cap improves draft, and that’s when cracked tiles start leaking carbon monoxide into century-old row homes.
- Coal-tar glaze re-igniting after a cap install. We’ve pulled caps off homes near Canal Street and found third-degree creosote glaze baked onto the original tiles from decades before conversion. Standard brushing won’t remove it. If you cap that flue without a proper cleaning, the improved draft can ignite that glaze.
- Crown washout on single-wythe brick. Northampton’s original chimneys are typically one brick thick, not two. That means crowns erode faster from winter moisture. When the crown goes, water runs straight down the unlined flue and into the plaster walls of attached housing. You’ll see it as a brown stain on the bedroom ceiling.
- Undersized flues from oil-to-gas conversions. Many Northampton row homes vent modern gas appliances into flues sized for coal fires a hundred years ago. That flue was never updated. A cap or crown job on that chimney is the moment we find it, because we inspect before we install. The cap is the access point to the whole system.
Pricing for Chimney Cap & Crown in Northampton, PA
Here’s honest money talk for Northampton. A standard cap installation with a stainless steel single-flue cap: $325 to $550. Cap replacement on an existing chimney: $350 to $600. Crown repair with full rebuild of the overhang: $400 to $850. Crown coating over hairline cracks: $275 to $475. Custom multi-flue caps, which many of the borough’s double-row homes need: $550 to $1,200 depending on flue count and metal gauge.
What changes the price is what we find when we get up there. If the flue tiles are cracked, the liner needs resurfacing before a cap goes on, and that’s a separate line item. If the crown has deteriorated past coating, it’s a rebuild. You’ll see the camera footage before we recommend spending another dollar. Call (484) 859-1367 for a flat-price quote. The number you hear is the number on the invoice, and there’s no trip charge inside the county.
We Also Serve Cities Near Northampton
Top Hat Chimney serves homeowners throughout the Lehigh Valley around Northampton. If you’re in Coplay, Catasauqua, Bath, or Schnecksville, we handle chimney cap and crown work there too. Same flat pricing, same 90-Day Done Right Promise, same live person answering the phone. Wendell’s crew knows these towns because they’re part of the same community.
Serving Northampton, PA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Northampton area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Chimney Cap & Crown in Northampton
Switching to gas is exactly when you need a proper inspection, and likely cap and crown work too. Most pre-1920 Northampton row homes never had their flues relined when they converted from coal to oil to gas. The original clay tiles are still in there, often glazed with baked-on coal tar. A gas appliance vents cooler exhaust than coal or oil ever did, which causes condensation inside that old flue and accelerates tile breakdown. Before we install any cap or touch any crown, we run a camera through the flue and show you the footage. If the liner needs resurfacing, you’ll know it and see why. Call (484) 859-1367 to schedule, and we’ll give you a straight answer with no upsell.
The crowns on Northampton Borough chimneys were poured a century ago with mortar mixes never meant for Lehigh Valley freeze-thaw cycles, and they were built as single-wythe brick with thin overhangs. Cold air that funnels through the Lehigh Gap pushes moisture into that thin crown, it freezes and expands, and the mortar spalls away a little more each winter. Newer developments north and west of the borough have thicker, properly overhanging crowns and two-wythe brick. The old row homes off Main Street simply wear out faster because they were built differently and have lasted longer than anyone expected. Once a year, burn or no burn, that crown deserves a look.
You could, but on a Northampton Borough chimney that’s skimping on the wrong thing. A cap stops rain from coming straight down the flue. It does nothing for water entering through cracked crowns, spalled mortar joints, or a failed liner. In our experience on Washington Avenue and the surrounding blocks, the leak you’re trying to stop is usually coming through the crown or the masonry, not the flue opening. If we install a cap without scoping first, we’re guessing. We don’t guess. The camera goes in, you watch the footage with us, and then we recommend the fix that actually addresses what we both saw. Call (484) 859-1367 and we’ll set it up.
A multi-flue cap sits over a chimney with two or more separate flues and covers the entire top surface, which is common on Northampton row homes where a furnace flue and a water heater flue run side by side inside one stack. It keeps rain, snow, birds, and raccoons out of all flues at once while allowing each one to draft independently. Whether you need one depends on what’s actually up there. On a job off Main Street, our tech pulled an old cap and found the original 8×8 clay tile flue riddled with third-degree creosote glaze from a half-century of oil-to-gas conversions. We camera-scoped it, showed the homeowner the footage, then installed a Famco custom multi-flue cap only after a full cleaning and a HeatShield resurfacing gave that liner a clean bill. No cap would have fixed the real problem, and we told them that before quoting one.
Hairline cracks without structural damage are exactly what crown coating is designed for. We apply a flexible, waterproof membrane that bridges those small fissures and prevents water from working its way in and freezing over winter. That runs $275 to $475 on most Northampton chimneys. But if your crown is crumbling, missing an overhang, or the mortar is turning to sand when you brush it, coating will peel off like paint on rotten wood. We’ll show you the difference on camera so you can see what we’re seeing and decide from there. Estimates are free inside the county, so call (484) 859-1367 and we’ll take a look.
Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving the Lehigh Valley since 1999.