Chimney Repair and Sweeping in Batavia, Illinois

Christopher Payne and his family settled on the Fox River here in 1833, and the city incorporated in 1872. In the late 1800s Batavia had six companies building farm windmills and earned the name Windmill City; several of their limestone factory buildings are still in use downtown. Fermilab sits just east of the city limits.

The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 survey puts about 16 percent of Batavia's roughly 10,800 homes before 1940, a high share for the outer suburbs, and about 35 percent in the 1980s and '90s. The median year built is 1985 and gas heats about 86 percent of homes. So one street may have a century-old brick chimney and the next a factory-built gas unit.

Old river-town brick

The older houses near downtown have brick chimneys with clay tile, lime mortar and, often, a crown that is just a cap of mortar. After a century of winters the top courses loosen and the flashing pulls away. We repoint with mortar that is softer than the brick, the approach the National Park Service recommends for historic masonry, so the brick isn't the part that breaks.

Typical ranges: tuckpointing $500–$2,500, flashing $300–$1,800, leak sealing $150–$500 and a new poured crown $1,000–$3,000.

Inland freeze-thaw

NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for Rockford, the inland station, show about 136 nights a year at or below freezing and about 86 freeze-thaw days (derived), against about 121 nights and 78 days at O'Hare. Batavia's winters lean toward the inland side, which is hard on crowns and on chase covers that hold standing water.

• Spalled brick and open joints on older chimneys
• Rusted chase covers on 1980s–90s homes
• Gas fireplaces that won't stay lit
• Water-heater flues that need a liner after a furnace change

Where we work in Batavia

Downtown near the Fox River · Wilson Street area · East side · West side · Near the Fermilab boundary