Chimney Removal in Burlington
If nothing vents through it, every repair you make is spent on nothing
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5.0 · 53 Burlington reviews
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CSIA & NFPA certified
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Debris hauled away same day
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Written quote before any work
Pricing, before you commit
Two versions of this job, two very different prices.
Taking a stack down to the roofline is not the same as removing a chimney through three floors. Height, position, and access decide it, and the calculator walks all of them.
Estimate preview
Live
chimney-removal
$1,495 – $14,995
Inspection (credited)
−$49
Typical job
$1,495 – $7,500
Final price quoted in writing before any work.
The craft, done properly
CHIMNEY REMOVAL IN BURLINGTON, MA
Before anything else, one question has to be answered: is anything still venting through it? Furnaces and water heaters sometimes use a flue that nobody associates with the fireplace any more, and in a town where heating appliances have been swapped over the decades that check is not a formality. It happens before a price is discussed, not after.
Removal runs $1,495 to $14,995, with most jobs between $1,495 and $7,500. Partial removal takes the stack down to the roofline and closes the opening weathertight, which suits a chimney that has stopped earning its keep but is doing no harm below. Full removal takes it out through the structure, floor by floor. Either version is staged and controlled rather than pulled, with debris contained and carried off site.
Roof patching is not included and is quoted separately, because the size of the opening left behind determines the cost. Where the chimney is still in service, price the rebuild alongside it — sometimes the comparison goes the other way, and you should see both figures rather than one. Full method on our chimney removal service page.
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Above-roofline section taken down and the opening closed weathertight
The Work
A disused chimney is a bill with nothing attached to it.
It still needs a crown. It still needs flashing. It still needs pointing, and it still lets water into the house when any of those fail. In exchange it does nothing at all. Fireplaces get closed off and heating systems get replaced, but the stack tends to stay standing out of habit rather than out of use.
That said, removal is a decision and not a default. If an appliance vents through the flue, this is off the table until the venting is resolved. If the chimney is tied into the roof framing, that gets established before anything is agreed. And where the fireplace is still wanted, repairing what is there is usually the cheaper road. We quote whichever answer is honest rather than whichever is larger.
Demolition crews work from both Massachusetts offices — Wellesley and here — across the wider service area. Everything local sits on the Burlington page.
When to book
When removal is worth pricing in Burlington.
Nobody removes a chimney urgently. These are the moments when it deserves a quote next to the repair quote rather than instead of one.
The re-roofing one is the moment most people miss. Flashing and working around a stack nobody uses is money spent preserving a liability, and doing the removal before the new roof goes on means one patch instead of two.
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Rebuilding is the last quote we want to write, not the first. If the brick is sound, we'll tell you to repoint it and we'll come back in fifteen years.
Company Owner
The Brown Chimney Standard · Burlington
Oil, gas, and what the flue was built for.
Both fuels are common here
Plenty of Burlington homes heat with gas and plenty still heat with oil. That matters more than it sounds: the appliance decides what the flue has to be, and a liner that suits one is not automatically right for the other. We establish what is venting through your chimney before quoting anything.
Sixty-year-old liners are not unusual
Some homes from the town's post-war expansion still have their original clay flue liners. Age alone is not a fault, and we will not tell you it is — but it is worth knowing what is up there rather than assuming.
1-year workmanship warranty
Every piece of structural labor we perform is covered for a full year — in writing, not in promises.
Price fixed before we start
Measured on site, quoted in writing, approved by you — then the work begins. Never the other way around.
What to expect
What happens during a Burlington removal.
Nothing comes down before a written estimate is agreed and the venting question is settled. Partial removals usually run one to two days; full removals run longer. Debris is carried out rather than dropped, and the staging area gets agreed with you in advance rather than discovered on the morning.
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Structural assessment
Before anything moves, we establish what the chimney touches — framing ties, floor openings, and load paths. The removal sequence is planned around the house.
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02
Protection & containment
Interior paths are sealed and floors protected. Debris travels down a controlled chute — never through the living space.
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Top-down dismantling
Bricks come down in courses from the top, by hand — never pushed, never collapsed. Partial removals stop below the roofline; full removals continue floor by floor.
04
Framing & weatherproofing
The roof opening is properly framed, sheathed, and made weathertight. On full removals, each floor's opening is closed and ready for finish work.
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Haul-away & final photos
All debris is hauled off site the same job. You get photos of the closed, weatherproofed result — and the roof patch quote stays a separate, visible number.
For transparency
What removal does not cover.
Roof patching. Always required afterwards and always its own line, priced by the size of the opening the chimney leaves behind.
Interior finishing where the chimney passed through living space. We close the structure; plaster, trim, and paint belong to a different trade.
Permits and hazardous material. Permits are filed with the Building Department at 25 Center Street under the 10th Edition of the state code. Anything involving asbestos needs a specialised contractor and is outside this work entirely.
FAQs
Common questions about chimney removal in Burlington
How do we know whether anything still uses the chimney?
We check the connections rather than take a view from the outside. Heating appliances have been swapped in a lot of houses over the years, and a flue that looks disused from the roof can still be serving something in the basement. That verification happens before any price is quoted.
Do we have to take the whole thing out?
Usually not, and usually you should not. Partial removal to the roofline solves the maintenance problem without disturbing anything inside the house, and it costs a fraction of a full removal. Taking it out entirely is for chimneys that are in the way of something or genuinely finished.
We are having the roof done. Should the chimney come out first?
If it is coming out at all, yes. A roofer has to flash and work around a stack that stays, which is real money spent on something nobody uses, and doing the removal beforehand means the new roof is patched once rather than twice.
Is the roof patch included in the price?
No, and we say that at the start rather than at the end. Patching is always required after a removal and always priced on its own line, because the opening left behind is what determines the cost.
Could removing it affect the structure?
It has to be established on site before anything is agreed. Some chimneys carry no load whatsoever; others are tied into the roof framing. Where there is any question, it gets resolved in writing first rather than discovered midway through a demolition.
Related Services
Priced alongside a Burlington removal.
A safer hearth — for 2026
Both numbers, then you choose.
Every Brown Chimney removal is assessed for venting and structure first, quoted in writing, and started only once you approve it. Structural labor carries a 1-year workmanship warranty. Call 781-547-7784.