How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Paterson
We opened our doors in Paterson back in 2014, and the truth is, we almost didn’t. Russell Haines had spent years watching chimney work get treated like a side hustle - guys with shop vacs and a prayer, quoting one price over the phone and charging another at the door. The moment that broke something in him was a call from a homeowner in the Eastside section, a retired machinist who’d paid for a “complete sweep” and still had a chimney fire three weeks later. Russell went over with a flashlight and a camera. The flue was half-clogged with glazed creosote. The previous outfit had run a brush through the easy part and called it done. The man was out money and nearly out of a house. Russell sat at that kitchen table, drank the coffee the man insisted on pouring, and decided Paterson deserved something different - a crew that treated the hearth like the hearthstone it is, the stone the whole home gathered around. That week, he put in the paperwork to bring Hearthstone Chimney Co. to this city. Not to start something new and flashy. To do the work right, document it like an engineer, and let people see what they were paying for with their own eyes.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Russell didn’t stumble into chimney work. He was drawn to it, though he’ll shrug if you ask him why. The real answer is in his hands. He’s the kind of person who can’t leave a thing half-finished - a door that sticks, a flue that drafts wrong. Early on, he trained under an old-school tradesman in Passaic County who taught him to read a chimney the way a carpenter reads grain: by feel, by smell, by the color of the smoke at the cap. That training stuck. Twelve years later, Russell still climbs with a brush in one hand and a camera in the other, still notes the way creosote smells when it’s third-stage glazed versus flaky and benign.
What gets him out of bed isn’t the climb. It’s the kitchen-table conversation after. The look on a homeowner’s face when he shows them the photo of a cracked flue liner they couldn’t see from their living room, and explains exactly what it means and exactly what it doesn’t. He’s turned down jobs that weren’t truly needed. He’s told people their chimney could wait another season, here’s what to watch for. That honesty costs him revenue and buys him something he values more - the call two years later from that same homeowner’s neighbor, or their daughter, or the guy who bought their house and found Russell’s inspection report in the file.
If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be restoring old houses somewhere, working with mortar and stone, getting his hands dirty in the same way. The work satisfies the same itch: something broken, made whole, done in a way that lasts. He doesn’t talk about legacy much. But he’s proud that two of his original apprentices in Paterson are now running their own crews. That’s the trade continuing. That’s the hearthstone holding.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is the Owner and Founder of Hearthstone Chimney Co. in Paterson. He’s a certified chimney sweep with level-2 inspection credentials and over a decade of hands-on experience in North Jersey’s variable climate - freeze-thaw cycles that chew through mortar, salt air from the Passaic that corrodes caps, the particular way oak and locust burn differently in these old homes. Russell doesn’t send technicians into houses he wouldn’t enter himself. He still takes calls personally when the schedule allows, still reviews every camera inspection before the report goes out.
What separates Russell from a franchise technician is simple: he’s not filling a route. He’s building something that stays. He lives in Passaic County. His kids went to school here. On weekends, you’ll find him restoring a 1920s bungalow he bought near the Great Falls - slowly, himself, the way you do when you actually plan to live in a place. His commitment to you is direct: every job carries his name, and every job gets the care he’d give his own mother’s chimney. That’s not a slogan. That’s the standard he measures against.
Our Promise to Paterson Homeowners
Our values aren’t framed on a wall. We call them K.E.Y.S., and we use them to settle arguments.
Krafted right means trained journeymen, proper materials, no shortcuts. We use Gelco and Olympia Chimney components for cap and liner replacements because we’ve seen the cheap alternatives fail in three Paterson winters. When we repoint mortar, we match the mix to the existing joint - Type N for most of these pre-war homes, never a generic bag from the big-box store.
Every time means the 400th job gets the care of the first. Our camera inspections follow the same checklist whether it’s a routine sweep or a real estate transaction. No skipping steps because we’re running late.
Your home first means drop cloths on every floor we cross, HEPA filtration when we sweep, and boots off at the door unless you tell us otherwise. We work in your house the way we’d work in our mother’s.
Standing behind it means the Keystone Standard, applied to chimneys: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork, no runaround. We’ve honored it when we had to. We’d rather not have to.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. No exceptions, no “close enough.”
- Insured & bonded - Protection for your home and ours. Accidents are rare; preparedness isn’t optional.
- Years of local experience - Russell Haines has been sweeping, inspecting, and repairing chimneys in Paterson and surrounding communities since 2014. That’s not a credential from a course. That’s a decade of knowing which flues in the Hillcrest section were lined with terra cotta that crumbles, and which caps in South Paterson rust through first.
- Strong local reputation - We don’t chase reviews. We chase repeat customers. The best call we get is the one that starts, “You did my neighbor’s place.”
Here’s why these matter when you let someone into your home: a state license means someone checked that we know the difference between a smoke chamber and a damper. Insurance means if a ladder slips, you’re not calling your homeowner’s policy first. Local experience means we’ve seen the specific problems Paterson chimneys develop, and we don’t treat your house like a training exercise. Reputation means we plan to be here when you need us again - not just this season, but in fifteen years when you’re ready to sell and the buyer wants a clean level-2 report.
Rooted in Paterson
We’re not a truck that rolls through from Clifton with a GPS and a clipboard. Russell lives here. Our crews know the difference between a chimney in the Manor section and one in Totowa - different eras of construction, different mortar mixes, different patterns of water intrusion. We’ve swept flues in the old silk-mill worker housing near the river and inspected fireplaces in the hills above the Great Falls where the wind hits different. We don’t sponsor the county fair or the church roof fund - we’re a local branch of an established brand, and our community work is simpler than that: showing up on time, doing what we said we’d do, and being the company Paterson homeowners recommend to their neighbors without hesitation. That’s the only kind of rooted that lasts.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Paterson since 2014.