How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Shelton
Back in 2014, we were working trades in the Valley and kept running into the same thing. A homeowner in Shelton would call us in after another company had been there, and we’d find a mess: a liner that was clearly the wrong size, a crown patched with roofing tar, a bill for ” Level 2 inspection” that meant someone looked up with a flashlight for thirty seconds. The last straw was a call from a family on Booth Hill Road. They’d paid for a sweep and inspection three months before, and now their fireplace was dumping smoke into the living room every time they lit it. The previous outfit had missed a cracked flue tile three feet down, told them everything was fine, and charged them full price for the privilege.
We drove home that night talking about what we’d do different. Not cheaper. Different. We’d look with a camera, show the homeowner what we saw, and explain it in plain English. We’d price it fair and write it down. If we said we’d be there Tuesday at nine, we’d be there Tuesday at nine. That conversation in the truck became Hearthstone Chimney Co. in Shelton. The name came from the hearthstone itself, the stone the whole home gathered around. That’s what we were signing up to protect.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Russell Haines didn’t fall into this work. He was pulled into it by the smell of creosote and the weight of a good brush rod.
He started helping a tradesman out of Derby back when he was still figuring out what kind of work suited his hands. The first time he ran a poly brush up a flue and felt it catch, then release, then catch again as the soot came down, something clicked. The work was physical without being brutal. It required attention to detail without being fussy. And it mattered. A chimney that doesn’t draft right can fill a house with carbon monoxide. A liner that’s deteriorated can let a chimney fire jump to the framing. Real stakes. Real consequences for getting it wrong.
What kept him at it, season after season, was the moment after the inspection when he’d show a homeowner the camera footage. The cracked tile. The glazed creosote buildup. The gap between the flue and the masonry. You could see them understand their own house for the first time. Not scared, not sold to. Informed. That’s the part that gets him out of bed. Twelve years in, he still climbs on roofs when the weather’s decent and still gets his hands dirty on the tough ones.
If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be building furniture in a small shop somewhere, working with his hands, making things that last. The impulse is the same. Do it right, build it to outlast you, stand behind it when you’re done.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines, Owner & Founder
Russell leads every job that carries the Hearthstone name in Shelton and the surrounding towns. He’s trained to Level 2 inspection standards, certified in chimney sweep and repair work, and has spent twelve years learning the particular masonry, the local building practices, and the weather patterns that affect chimneys in Fairfield County and the Valley.
What separates Russell from a franchise technician sent from two towns away is simple: he lives here, he works here, and he plans to be here in thirty years. He knows which Shelton neighborhoods have the 1960s ranch houses with the original terracotta flues, and which ones have the newer builds where the builder cheaped out on the chimney chase. On weekends, he’s usually restoring an old hand plane or walking the trails at Indian Well State Park. That patience carries over. He doesn’t rush an inspection, and he doesn’t recommend work he can’t explain to his own mother.
His commitment to you is direct: you’ll see what he sees, you’ll understand what he recommends, and you’ll never get a surprise on the bill.
Our Promise to Shelton Homeowners
Our values aren’t posters on a wall. We call them K.E.Y.S., and we use them to settle real questions on real jobs.
Krafted right. We use proper materials, not whatever’s in the truck. When we install a liner, it’s sized to the appliance and the flue, not close enough. We’ve sent back DuraFlex runs that didn’t meet our spec, and we’ve waited the extra day for the right Famco cap rather than make do.
Every time. The 400th job gets the same care as the first. We still photograph every stage of every inspection. We still write up a plain-English report. The routine doesn’t become rote.
Your home first. We work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s. Drop cloths, shoe covers, vacuuming the hearth before we leave. One of our guys once spent twenty minutes cleaning soot off a customer’s mantel clock he’d accidentally bumped. That’s the standard.
Standing behind it. The Keystone Standard: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork battle, no he-said-she-said. We’ve honored it when we were in the wrong, and we’ve honored it when the issue was borderline. The promise doesn’t have fine print.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed chimney sweep and repair contractor, holding all licenses required by Connecticut for work performed in your home
- Insured & bonded with coverage appropriate for residential chimney work, including liability and workers compensation protections
- Twelve years of local experience serving Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley, with deep knowledge of local building codes, permit requirements, and the specific challenges of New England freeze-thaw cycles on masonry
- Strong local reputation built job by job across Shelton, Trumbull, Derby, Oxford, Southbury, Monroe, Ansonia, Seymour, Orange, Heritage Village, Milford, and Woodbridge
These credentials matter because a chimney technician works inside your home, on your roof, and with systems that affect your family’s safety. State licensing means accountability. Insurance and bonding mean you’re protected if something goes wrong. Local experience means we know that a chimney in Heritage Village faces different moisture issues than one in downtown Shelton, and we inspect accordingly. And a reputation built over years means we have to keep earning it with every call.
Rooted in Shelton
We’re not passing through. Russell lives in the area, and our work traces the same roads our neighbors drive: Route 8 down to Ansonia and Seymour, Route 34 out to Oxford and Southbury, the Merritt corridor through Trumbull and Orange. We’ve swept chimneys in the ranch houses off Bridgeport Avenue, inspected the tall masonry stacks in the older neighborhoods near the Housatonic, and repaired chase covers in the newer developments around Huntington Center. When the Derby-Shelton Bridge was under construction and traffic was a nightmare, we still showed up on time. That’s what it means to be local. We’re here for the long haul, and we plan to be sweeping chimneys in Shelton when your grandchildren own your house.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Shelton since 2014.