Famco Chimney Sweep Nationwide

Famco Chimney Sweep in Tampa: What to Know First

A Famco chimney sweep in Tampa typically runs $189 to $329 for a standard open-flue fireplace, and most jobs are finished in under two hours from arrival to final photo. We’re an independent Famco service provider, not an authorized dealer, which means every recommendation we make is based on what we see inside your flue, not what a manufacturer’s catalog tells us to sell. If you own a Famco venting or fireplace component in your Tampa home and it’s been more than a year since anyone looked inside it, this page will tell you exactly what we find, what it costs, and what we do about it. Call (850) 290-0897 and a live person will answer, day or night.

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How Famco Products Fail – and How We Fix Them

Famco has been building venting components for decades, and in Tampa we see their stuff in everything from mid-century brick fireplaces to newer direct-vent gas units. The failures are predictable once you know what to look for. Here’s what we find, week after week:

• Famco flexible aluminum chimney liners stretch and pucker at the seams in hot, humid Tampa attics. The liner was fine when it went in, but ten years of 90-degree summers and salt air cause the thin aluminum to oxidize and the seams to open up. We see this most often on Famco Flex-Vent liners in Seminole Heights bungalows and South Tampa ranchers built before 1990. The symptom is usually a faint smokey smell in the house even when the damper is closed. Our fix starts with a camera inspection to find the actual gap, then we either re-secure the seam with the right clamps or replace the affected section with a properly sized liner, depending on what the footage shows.
• Famco roof termination caps clog with creosote and rust flakes faster than the flue itself. The cap screen does its job too well in Tampa’s damp winters – creosote mixes with humid air, hardens into a crust, and plugs the mesh. Dover and Northdale homeowners call us when smoke backs into the living room, and seven times out of ten the flue below the cap is fine but the cap screen is doing its best impression of a brick wall. We clean or replace the cap and show you a photo of both sides before we call it done.
• Famco wall pass-through thimbles pull away from drywall, especially around Ybor City’s older masonry walls. The thimble is the metal collar where a horizontal pipe passes through a wall. Brick and stucco settle, and eventually the thimble’s caulking cracks and the collar pulls loose. The symptom is a small soot stain that appears on the wall near the fireplace, and if you run your finger along the seam you’ll feel a ridge. We fix it by cleaning the surrounding area, reseating the thimble, and sealing it with high-temperature caulk rated for venting surfaces.
• Famco’s rigid stovepipe, especially the 2100-series, develops pin holes where a previous homeowner used a wire brush on it. Galvanized stovepipe can’t take aggressive wire brushing – the zinc coating comes off and the steel underneath rusts through in a couple seasons. We see it in Rudolph and Ballast Point homes where someone did a DIY sweep with hardware-store brushes. The tell is a trail of fine rust granules at the base of the pipe. Once a pin hole exists, the pipe needs replacement – no patch is safe on a hot vent surface, and we’ll say so plainly before any work begins.
• Famco’s single-wall to double-wall connectors are installed backwards more often than any other brand we service. Single-wall pipe goes on the inside, double-wall on the outside – when it’s flipped, the joint overheats and the outer wall blisters. We routinely find this in loft conversions and garage-to-living-space remodels around Tampa, especially in Brandon and Thonotosassa. Our sweep includes checking pipe orientation with a visual inspection, and if it’s wrong, we correct it the same visit.

Our Famco Chimney Sweep Process

Every Famco job in Tampa follows the same six steps, no matter what we find inside. Danny Cortes set this process up nineteen years ago and he’s never had a reason to change it.

1. 1
   We talk about what you’re seeing. Smoke in the house, a smell, a weird noise when the wind blows – you tell us, and we listen before we touch anything.
2. 2
   We protect the room before the first tool comes out. Shoe covers at the door, drop cloths from hearth to furniture, and anything within six feet of the fireplace gets moved only with your permission. The C.A.R.E. values aren’t a poster – they’re what we do on every visit.
3. 3
   We run a camera up the flue first. On a Famco system we’re checking liner integrity, pipe orientation, cap condition, and creosote thickness. You’ll see the footage too, and Danny will walk you through it before we write up a single line.
4. 4
   We sweep with brushes sized for the flue and the liner type. For Famco’s aluminum liners we use soft poly brushes, never wire – wire scores the aluminum and gives creosote a place to hang on. For rigid pipe we use the appropriate brush for the diameter, and we clean from the roof or the firebox depending on the installation.
5. 5
   We replace or repair what the camera showed us, using only what’s needed. We stock professional-grade materials from DuraFlex, HeatShield, and Gelco alongside Famco components, so when an OEM Famco part isn’t the right call for your Tampa home’s humid-salt exposure, we’ll tell you why and use what actually holds up. Our technicians are background-checked and arrive in uniform; they explain every parts decision before it’s made.
6. 6
   We test, photograph, and clean up. We verify the draft with a smoke test, photograph the flue and cap, and photograph the cleaned work area before the crew leaves. The 365-Day Done Right Promise covers every part of this visit – if something isn’t right, we make it right, no fine print.

What Famco Chimney Sweep Costs in Tampa

Most standard Famco chimney sweeps in Tampa run between $189 and $329, depending on what you’ve got:

• Open fireplace with a straight flue up through the roof: $189 – $249, including the camera check and smoke test.
• Famco flexible liner that needs heavier creosote removal: $279 – $329, because we go slower and use soft brushes to protect the liner.
• Famco cap replacement: typically $95 – $180 depending on the model, if the old one is shot.
• Thimble reseating or seam repair on a Famco liner: typically $150 – $250, quoted precisely after the camera shows us the extent of the issue.

What moves the price is always access – roof pitch, attic access, how far the flue runs – and how much creosote has built up. You’ll get a written price before any work starts, every time. That’s the Cedarwell Care Promise, and it applies whether we’re sweeping a Famco liner in a 1950s Seminole Heights bungalow or a full fireplace system in a New Tampa two-story. Call (850) 290-0897 for a free estimate.

Why Tampa Homeowners Call Kindling Chimney Tampa for Famco Work

We’ve swept enough Famco liners in this part of Florida to know what Tampa’s climate does to them – the humidity, the salt air, the way creosote behaves when a cold front finally arrives after ten warm months. Danny Cortes grew up working with his hands and has been doing chimney work for going on nineteen years, and he’s the one walking you through the camera footage before we quote anything. A live person answers every call, 24/7, so you’re never leaving a voicemail and hoping. And when a Famco component is better replaced with something from DuraFlex, HeatShield, or Gelco, we’ll tell you that, too. Every job is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise, and every visit ends with a photo of the clean-up before the crew walks out your door.

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