How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Virginia Beach
Back in 2014, we were working as a sweep for another outfit in Hampton Roads when a call came in that stuck with us. A retired Navy captain out in Princess Anne had been quoted $4,200 for a “complete chimney rebuild” by a company that never ran a camera up his flue. We showed up, scoped it, and found cracked mortar joints that needed repointing, not a teardown. The job took a day and a half. He paid a fraction of what he’d been quoted and shook our hand so hard it hurt.
That night we drove back up I-264 thinking about how many homeowners in Virginia Beach were getting sold fear instead of facts. The industry here was full of seasonal operators with magnetic truck signs and no training, guys who’d quote a liner replacement before they’d even looked up the flue. We decided Virginia Beach deserved something steadier. Hearthstone Chimney Co. already existed as a brand built on honest inspection and craft, and we knew this market needed that standard. We opened our branch here to bring it. No scare tactics. No mystery bills. Just a camera, a trained eye, and a square deal.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
We didn’t grow up dreaming about chimneys. We grew up in a house with a wood stove that smoked every time the wind came from the northeast, and our father would curse and open windows while the rest of us froze. The first time we actually fixed that draft ourselves, we were twenty-three and home on leave. Bought a cheap chimney brush from a hardware store in Norfolk, climbed up on a January morning with frozen fingers, and knocked out a bird nest that had been there for two seasons. The next fire drew clean. The house warmed in twenty minutes instead of an hour. Something about that felt like we’d finally done something real.
That was over a decade ago. Since then we’ve crawled through attics in Great Bridge where the summer heat hits 140 degrees, stood on slate roofs in Sandbridge during nor’easters, and sat with homeowners in Hampton Roads who were scared their fireplace was going to hurt their grandchildren. The smell of creosote still wakes something up in us, the way diesel does for an old mechanic. It’s not romantic. It’s work. But it’s work that matters in a way that pushing paper never did for us.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be building furniture in a garage somewhere, making things that outlast the person who bought them. That’s the thread. Making something right, making it last, standing back and knowing it’ll hold. Every chimney we sweep, every liner we inspect with our camera, every joint we repoint, it’s the same impulse. We’re not saving lives. We’re keeping hearths safe so families can gather around them the way people have for ten thousand years. That’s enough.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is the Owner and Founder of our Virginia Beach branch. He’s a certified chimney sweep with level-2 inspection training and twelve years of hands-on experience in Hampton Roads masonry and venting systems. Before carrying the Hearthstone name, he spent years diagnosing chimney failures that other companies had misidentified or ignored, learning to read a flue the way a good mechanic reads an engine.
What separates Russell from a franchise technician sent from a dispatch hub is simple: he’s the one who answers for the work. He lives here. His kids go to school here. When he recommends a repair, he’s thinking about whether he’d sign off on it for his own mother’s house. He’s also the one who trains our local crew, inspects their camera footage, and makes the call when something’s borderline. Off the clock, he’s usually in his workshop restoring hand planes or fishing the Lynnhaven River at dawn. That patience shows up in his work. He doesn’t rush a job to get to the next one.
Here’s our commitment to you, directly: if Russell Haines puts his name on your inspection report, he’ll stand behind every word of it.
Our Promise to Virginia Beach Homeowners
Our values aren’t framed in a conference room. We call them K.E.Y.S., and we forged them from the jobs that taught us what matters.
Krafted right. We use proper materials, not whatever’s cheapest this week. When we specify a liner, we’re thinking about Gelco or Olympia Chimney products that’ll outlast the next decade of burns, not a no-name roll that saves us forty bucks.
Every time. The 400th inspection gets the same care as the first. We learned this the hard way, getting sloppy once on a routine sweep in Kempsville and missing a cracked crown that cost us a Saturday and our pride to fix free of charge.
Your home first. We work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s. Boot covers, drop cloths, vacuuming the hearth before we leave. It’s not extra. It’s baseline.
Standing behind it. The Keystone Standard: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork fight, no runaround.
No surprises on the bill. We’ll be there when we say. That’s the deal.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires
- Insured & bonded - Protection for your home and property while we’re on the job
- Years of local experience - Twelve years serving Hampton Roads homeowners, not seasonal fly-by operators
- Strong local reputation - Built one inspection at a time, one neighbor telling another
Here’s why this matters when you let someone into your home: a state license means someone’s verified we know the difference between a fire hazard and a cosmetic crack. Insurance and bonding mean if a ladder goes through your gutter or a tool scratches your floor, you’re not chasing us for damages. Local experience means we’ve seen what Virginia Beach’s salt air and shifting clay soil do to masonry, and we know the local codes that keep your family safe. Reputation means we can’t afford to burn you, because we plan to be sweeping your neighbor’s chimney next year.
Rooted in Virginia Beach
We’ve swept chimneys from Sandbridge to Great Bridge, from the older homes off Shore Drive to the new construction in Red Mill. We know the difference between a 1920s flu liner in Larchmont and a modern prefab in Pungo. Our crew lives here, shops here, pays taxes here. We’re not a truck with an out-of-state plate that shows up in October and vanishes by New Year’s. When you call (757) 573-9998, you reach a live coordinator who connects you with our local team, because a company that plans to be in Virginia Beach in thirty years acts like it. The hearthstone is the stone the whole home gathered around. We’re keepers of the hearth.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Virginia Beach since 2014.