How Level Two Chimney Came to New York
New York doesn’t wait for anyone to catch up, and neither do its chimneys. The brownstones in Park Slope, the prewar walk-ups in Washington Heights, the converted lofts in Bushwick, they all share the same hidden problem: flues that haven’t been truly looked at in decades. We opened this branch because we kept hearing the same story from homeowners across the five boroughs. Someone came out, shined a flashlight up the flue, said it looked fine, and charged for it. Months later, a liner failed. Or a chase cover rusted through. Or smoke started pushing back into the living room during the first cold snap.
That’s the moment we knew New York needed what Level Two Chimney Co. had been doing since 2009: camera inspections as standard, footage archived after every job, and a written price before anything gets touched. Not as an upsell. As the baseline. It’s called the H.A.V.E.N. Standard, and it’s the only framework we work under. When we opened this branch led by Corrine Halstead, the promise was simple: bring the camera, show the homeowner what we see, and put every number on paper before a single tool comes off the truck.
That promise is still the first thing we say when the phone rings at (551) 213-5548.
Corrine Halstead’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Corrine Halstead didn’t grow up planning to spend her days covered in soot. She started in property management, handling maintenance for a portfolio of older buildings, the kind with real masonry and real fireplaces and real problems hiding behind the walls. The turning point came when a tenant complained about smoke smell every time the heat kicked on. The chimney company came, looked, said everything was fine, and left. A week later, same smell. Corrine asked to watch the next inspection. The technician knelt down, shined a flashlight up the flue, and shrugged. That was the whole inspection.
She hired a different company the following week. This crew ran a camera up the flue and found a cracked tile liner about six feet above the firebox, the exact spot that gets hottest, the exact failure point that starts chimney fires. The difference was night and day. One trade looked. The other one saw.
That moment shaped how she thinks about this work. It isn’t glamorous. It’s not a trade people romanticize. You go up on roofs in January, you pull creosote out of flues that haven’t been touched since the Carter administration, and you explain to a homeowner in Red Hook that the previous company’s “clean bill of health” was guesswork. But there’s a satisfaction in it that Corrine found early and never lost: you can prove your work. Camera before, camera after, footage archived. When Corrine talks about this job, she talks about the smell of good oak smoke in a properly drafted fireplace, and the specific weight of a well-made wire brush, and the sound of a flue cap locking into place. She talks about the homeowners who thought they needed a ten-thousand dollar rebuild, who only needed a sweep and a crown seal, and how it felt to show them the footage and watch the relief settle in.
If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be restoring old houses, the same impulse, really: find what’s failing inside the walls and make it right. But she’d miss the roofs at sunrise and the directness of this trade. Nobody asks for a chimney sweep until something feels wrong. We show up, we look inside, and we tell them the truth. Corrine has never wanted to do anything else since she understood that distinction.
Meet Corrine Halstead - The Person Behind Every Job
Corrine Halstead is the Owner & Founder of Level Two Chimney New York. Her background started in property management, where she learned that no homeowner should have to take a contractor’s word on faith. That’s the root of everything she does here.
Her training is grounded in the camera-first approach Level Two Chimney Co. has used since 2009. She knows the difference between a Level 1 inspection, which is a flashlight and a look, and a Level 2 inspection, which puts a camera down the flue and actually sees what’s happening. When she sends a report, it isn’t a one-line invoice. It’s footage. Readings. A written explanation in plain English. What she found, what needs doing now, and what can wait.
Outside the job, Corrine volunteers with a community garden collective in Bed-Stuy, mostly digging and hauling soil, work that keeps her hands calloused and her patience long. She is direct about what matters to her, honest work, visible proof, and not wasting a homeowner’s time. That’s not a tagline. It’s how she runs every job we take. If Corrine wouldn’t want it done that way in her own home, it doesn’t happen in yours.
Before
AfterOur Promise to New York Homeowners
Every promise we make comes from somewhere real. Here’s what we mean by that.
When we say honest pricing, we mean Clause 1 of the H.A.V.E.N. Standard: have it in writing. Flat price, written scope, written warranty, before anyone starts. You’ll know what the sweep costs before we set foot on the roof. No hourly meter running while a tech “takes a look around.” No surprise line items after the fact. A homeowner in Canarsie once told us she’d been quoted four different prices for the same sweep by four different companies. We don’t do that. One price, on paper, before work begins.
When we say quality parts, we mean brands we’d put in our own flues. We regularly install Olympia Chimney and DuraFlex components, names that hold up to New York winters and the particular abuse of a salt-air rooftop near the coast. No generic knockoffs. If it goes into your chimney, it’s a part we can name and stand behind.
When we say we stand behind every job, we mean the documentation. Every chimney we touch leaves with a written record: what we found, what we did, what we saw on camera before and after. You shouldn’t have to trust our memory. You can look at the evidence yourself. That’s the whole point of the name on our truck.
Our Credentials
Every professional who works under the Level Two Chimney name in New York is required to hold the license and insurance their state and city require. That’s not a perk. It’s the price of admission. Verification matters because the person we send to your home is someone we’re vouching for, not a stranger with a ladder.
- State-licensed: Required of every pro who works under our name, with the license held where New York requires it.
- Insured & bonded: Coverage required for every job, protecting your property and the people on it.
- Background-checked: Every crew member is vetted before they ever arrive at your door. Clause 3 of the H.A.V.E.N. Standard says verified crews. We mean it.
- Camera-documented work: Since 2009, this trade has been run on evidence, not reassurance. Your chimney’s condition belongs to you, and you get the footage.
- Local accountability: The business is independently owned and operated by people who live and work here. When something goes wrong, you know exactly who to call, (551) 213-5548, and who answers.
Here’s why any of that matters to you. When someone is working on the structure that vents fire out of your home, you want three things: that they know what they’re doing, that they can’t disappear if something breaks, and that they can prove what they found. Licensing, bonding, background checks, and documented inspections are the only way to get all three without just hoping. That’s why we mention them before you ask.
Rooted in New York
We work across neighborhoods that live differently but share the same sky: Brownstone flues in Brooklyn Heights and Bed-Stuy, flat-roof vents in Greenpoint and Maspeth, older masonry in Flatbush and Bushwick, shoreline dampness in Red Hook, plus Manhattan’s Financial District, where rooftop exhaust stacks and building age make every job its own puzzle. That’s the part of this city we know best: the specific mix of cold winters, humid summers, salt air, and hundred-year-old construction that New York throws at a chimney. When we quote a job in Ozone Park versus Brooklyn Heights, we’re accounting for real differences, not copying a number from a spreadsheet. This city teaches you that, if you pay attention.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner & Founder at Level Two Chimney New York, serving New York since the company’s founding in 2009.