Chimney Services in Ocean Township (Monmouth County), NJ

What the numbers suggest for chimneys in Ocean Township

Census estimates date about 33% of Ocean Township's 11,864 housing units to 1960 through 1979, 24% to 1980 through 1999 and 15% to 2000 or later, with about 29% older still. Masonry chimneys with clay tile flues and steel dampers are likely in the mid-century share. Later homes add more factory-built fireplaces with metal chimneys, and metal makes its own sounds as it heats and cools.

About 79% of occupied homes heat with utility gas and 16% with electricity. In an electrically heated house, the fireplace flue may be the only chimney, and it can go unused for long stretches. CSIA points out that a chimney nobody uses can still gain nests or deteriorate, one reason it points to yearly inspection.

About 62% of units are detached houses and 25% are in buildings of five or more units. Where people share a building, a sound heard through a wall may come from a chimney or vent serving a neighbor's unit, and building management should hear about it. The numbers sketch the township; they do not report on any particular chimney.

Three kinds of chimney noise, three responses

Leave the house now

A loud roar, cracking or rapid popping during a fire, sometimes with heavy smoke or sparks at the top of the chimney, may signal a chimney fire. Everyone leaves the house, and the 911 call is made from outdoors. Do the same any time a carbon monoxide alarm sounds.

Stop using it and book an inspection

• Debris landing in the firebox: soot flakes, bits of clay tile, mortar crumbs or nest material.
• Rattling or banging at the top in wind, which can come from a cap that has worked loose, a damper lid that no longer seats, or a chase cover.
• Tapping or dripping in the fireplace during rain, which suggests water is getting into the flue.
• Scratching, scrabbling or chirping from an animal. The Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management says only raccoons, chimney swifts and bats can climb back out of a flue; most other animals become trapped. Keep the damper shut so nothing drops into the room.

Note it for the next visit

Ticking or pinging from a metal chimney, insert or gas fireplace as it warms up or cools down usually comes from metal expanding and contracting, particularly if it has always done it. A steady hum or whistle over an open flue on a windy day can be just air moving across the opening. Mention either at your next inspection, and treat it as more urgent if it changes or comes with smoke, odor or soot.

Chattering in spring and summer

A chattering sound from a masonry chimney between spring and late summer may be chimney swifts. Swifts are covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so harassing the birds or harming their nests is illegal. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) says they come north in March or April to breed and depart in August or September. An active swift nest is left alone until the birds have gone; after that the flue can be swept.

FWS weighs caps differently for the two kinds of flue. It asks owners not to cap or screen a chimney just to keep out nuisance wildlife, which leaves swifts a place to nest, and it says a chimney with a metal lining should be capped so birds and other wildlife do not get trapped inside. Our animal removal service handles other animals humanely, following New Jersey's wildlife rules. For more sounds and what they suggest, see noises in the chimney and animals and nests in the chimney.

Local questions

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates (tables B25034, B25040, B25024), via Census Reporter
2. Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management: Chimney Cap
3. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Chimney Swifts
4. Chimney Safety Institute of America: Frequently Asked Questions