Buying a House With a Fireplace in Arlington? Read This Before Your Option Period Ends

A buyer in South Arlington, off Cooper Street, was ten days into a 14-day option period when the standard home inspection came back. The house was a 1978 brick home with the original fireplace. Then one line: “Fireplace and chimney: recommend evaluation by a chimney professional before closing.” That line is on most Arlington home inspection reports for a home with a chimney, and it is the reason this post exists.

The short answer: home inspectors are not chimney inspectors. A standard home inspection does not look inside the chimney, and the parts that cost real money to fix, the flue liner, the smoke chamber and the chimney crown, are exactly the parts it skips. A chimney inspection when buying a house, specifically a Level 2 chimney inspection with a camera, is how you find out what you are buying while you can still ask the seller to pay. Here is what the inspection includes, what it finds in Arlington homes, and what to ask for.

Standard Home Inspection vs. Chimney Inspection

Texas home inspectors work to a set of standards, and those standards treat the fireplace as a visual inspection from the room. A good inspector opens the damper, looks up with a flashlight and views the chimney exterior from the yard, and that is where it stops. The inspector is not required to inspect the chimney flue with a camera, go on the roof to check the crown and flashing, or go into the attic to see where the chimney passes through.

That leaves the expensive parts of the chimney system unchecked:

• The flue liner. Cracked clay tiles, gaps between tiles and missing mortar are invisible from the firebox.
• The smoke chamber. The sloped area above the damper. If it was never parged smooth, it is a creosote trap and a code item.
• The chimney crown, chimney cap and flashing. The top of the chimney structure is where most leaks start, and nobody has looked at it.
• The venting system in the attic. Framing that sits too close to the flue is a fire risk you cannot see from any room.

So the home inspector hands the chimney problems to you, and the right move is to take the advice during the option period. That is the importance of chimney inspections when buying or selling a home: the general report tells you the house has a fireplace, and the chimney inspection tells you whether it is safe to use.

The Three Levels of Inspection and Why Level 2 Is the One You Want

The NFPA 211 standard from the National Fire Protection Association defines three levels of chimney inspection. A Level 1 chimney inspection is the yearly visual check of the parts that can be seen and reached. A Level 3 inspection takes parts of the chimney or walls apart. A Level 2 inspection sits in the middle, and it is the level of inspection NFPA 211 calls for whenever you buy or sell a home, after a chimney fire, and after a storm.

A Level 2 adds two things to a Level 1: a recorded video scan of the whole chimney flue, from the firebox to the top, and a look at the attic, crawl space and chase where the chimney passes through the house. It covers the chimney exterior and interior without taking anything apart. You get a report with photos and video stills that you can hand to your agent, the seller or an insurance adjuster.

What Chimney Inspections Cost When Buying a Home

Crownline quotes the Level 2 in writing before we start, and the estimate is free. There is no flat number because a two-story prefab chase in Southwest Arlington and a single-flue brick chimney near UTA take different amounts of time. If you also want the flue swept, the first-visit sweep with a Level 1 chimney inspection and photo report is $109 (regular $229). Seniors, veterans and first responders get 10% off, one discount per job.

Arlington’s 1950s–1980s Brick Fireplaces

A large share of Arlington’s housing was built between the 1950s and the 1980s: Old Arlington, Oak Hill, Dalworthington Gardens, Pantego, the streets around UTA and East Arlington near the stadiums. Most of those homes have a masonry chimney with a clay tile liner, a mortar crown and a throat damper, and most of those chimneys are 40 to 70 years old.

Here is what the camera finds in them, over and over, when someone has just bought a house of this age:

• Cracked or shifted clay flue tiles. North Texas clay soil moves the whole chimney structure, and the tiles crack at the joints. A cracked liner lets heat and carbon monoxide reach the wood framing. The fix is a stainless steel liner, and our chimney liner installation page explains the typical DFW cost range.
• A smoke chamber that was never parged. Common in homes of this age. Rough corbeled brick above the damper collects creosote and is a repair item.
• A split or crumbled chimney crown. Decades of sun, hail and soil movement.
• Past chimney fires nobody mentioned. Puffy, honeycomb creosote buildup and tiles cracked in a pattern are the signature.

None of these chimney issues stop you from purchasing a home. All of them belong on your repair request to the seller, with a photo and a written price next to each one.

Prefab Fireplaces in Southwest Arlington and Newer Homes

The two-story homes in Southwest Arlington, around 76016 and 76017, and the newer houses toward Lake Arlington and Viridian mostly have factory-built fireplaces: a metal firebox with a metal flue inside a wood-framed, sided chase with a metal chase cover on top. They are a different inspection process.

What the camera and the attic check find on these:

• Cracked refractory panels in the firebox. Cracks you can fit a coin in mean the panels need replacing before you start using the fireplace. See firebox repair.
• A rusted or sagging chase cover that holds water and drips into the firebox.
• A flue that was never finished or has separated sections inside the chase, which only the attic check shows.

The Level 2 tells you whether you are looking at a panel swap or a whole new unit.

What to Ask the Seller

The short list:

1. When was the chimney inspected and swept last, and is there a report? Most Arlington sellers have no record. That alone justifies the Level 2.
2. Has there ever been a chimney fire, a leak or an animal in the chimney? The seller’s disclosure may not cover it unless you ask.
3. Will you pay for the Level 2, or credit the repairs it finds? A cracked liner found before closing becomes a seller credit instead of a surprise.

Bring the Level 2 report to that conversation. A written repair price next to a camera photo is hard to argue with. If you plan to sell your home, having the chimney inspected before listing takes the fireplace off the buyer’s repair request entirely.

What the Level 2 Inspection Includes, Step by Step

Plan on 60 to 90 minutes for a single flue; the future homeowner is welcome to watch what the chimney inspector does. Our crew checks the firebox, damper and smoke chamber, runs the recorded camera scan of the full flue, goes on the roof for the crown, cap and flashing, and checks the attic or chase. The report usually reaches your phone before the truck leaves the driveway. If the chimney is safe to use, the report says so. If it finds something, each item has a written repair price, and you decide what to ask the seller for.

Crownline Chimney Sweep is based at 700 Highlander Blvd near the Parks Mall and I-20. Our crew has worked on Arlington chimneys for more than 20 years. We are insured and bonded, and the price is in writing before we start. The Level 2 is one of many chimney services in Arlington we offer, and after closing, a yearly chimney sweep keeps the report clean.

Option period running out? Call Crownline at (817) 505-4222, tell us your deadline, and we will schedule the Level 2 chimney inspection around it.