Chimney Services in Washington Township (Warren County), NJ

What the numbers suggest for chimneys in Washington Township

Census estimates for the township's 2,570 housing units show 91% detached houses and 8% attached. About 15% were built before 1940, 16% from 1940 to 1959, 25% in the 1960s and 1970s, 23% from 1980 to 1999 and 21% since 2000. Older masonry chimneys and newer factory-built ones are both part of that range.

About 54% of occupied homes heat mainly with utility gas, 28% with fuel oil, 10% with electricity, 4% with propane and 2.5% with wood. Gas and oil appliances that vent into a chimney rely on an open flue. CSIA points out that gas burns fairly cleanly, yet a nest or debris can still block a gas flue and stop it working. Blocked exhaust is a carbon monoxide risk, explained in carbon monoxide and your chimney.

With oil heating more than a quarter of homes, oil flues also collect soot and scale that need regular cleaning, covered in oil furnace and boiler flues. These numbers describe the township as a whole, not the condition of any single chimney.

Chimney swifts: protected birds that nest in flues

The chimney swift builds a small half-saucer nest of twigs and saliva glued to the inside wall of a chimney. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, swifts arrive in March or April and leave for South America in August or September. Swifts are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act: it is illegal to harass, injure or kill the birds, and the same protection covers their eggs and nests.

Timing follows from that. The Service advises having a chimney cleaned every year outside the nesting and roosting season, which for most of the country runs from about September or October to March or April. It also encourages owners not to cap chimneys, so swifts keep a place to nest. When we find an active swift nest, the work waits until the birds have gone.

Leaving a chimney open for swifts is a choice some owners make for an unused flue. A flue that vents a furnace, boiler or water heater is different, since a nest there can block the exhaust. If you want to host swifts, talk it through at your next inspection so the right flue stays open.

Raccoons, other birds and the case for a cap

Swifts are not the only visitors. According to the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management, raccoons, ducks, owls, pigeons, starlings and chimney swifts all turn up in chimneys. Only raccoons, swifts and bats can climb back out, the same source notes; the others become trapped.

It also says a properly installed cap helps keep wildlife out and deflects rain that cracks the crown. It advises against stretching hardware cloth over a flue, because the mesh can catch snow and hold gases such as carbon monoxide inside the house. A cap made for the purpose is the safer choice; the guide to chimney cap types compares them.

If an animal is already inside, removal comes before any cap goes on. Scratching, rustling or a smell near the fireplace or the cleanout door can all be clues, and the guide to noises in the chimney helps tell them apart. Our chimney animal removal is done in-house and humanely, in line with New Jersey wildlife rules.

Local questions

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates (tables B25034, B25040, B25024), via Census Reporter
2. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: On the Wing with Chimney Swifts
3. Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management: Chimney Cap
4. CSIA: Frequently Asked Questions