Chimney Service in Mercer County

Mercer County has two very different housing stocks. Trenton, the state capital, is old and attached: the Census Bureau's 2024 survey puts 38 percent of its homes before 1940, and 43 percent are row or twin houses. Princeton has 23 percent of its homes from before 1940. Around them, Hamilton, Lawrence and Robbinsville grew with newer detached houses and townhouses, and the county's median home dates to 1972. Each part of the county brings different chimney work.

About 71 percent of Mercer homes heat with gas and 6 percent with oil. In Trenton's rowhouses the chimney usually vents a gas furnace or water heater, often through an old shared stack that stands on the party wall between two homes. In the newer suburbs, gas fireplaces and factory-built fireplaces are common, and the usual work is a yearly gas service, a rusted chase cover, or a liner when a furnace is replaced, which also triggers New Jersey's F-370 chimney check.

Trenton rowhouse chimneys

Chimneys on rowhouses are often shared or sit right on the party wall, so a problem in one can affect the neighbor. Crumbling mortar, loose top courses and missing caps are common. Repointing typically runs $500 to $2,500 and rebuilding the top few courses $1,000 to $3,500. If the flue is unlined with open mortar joints, the New Jersey fire code says it shall be repaired or relined.

Princeton and Lawrence: older fireplaces

Older houses in Princeton and Lawrence often have fireplaces that get used every winter. The common work is a damper that no longer closes, at $150 to $450, a firebox or smoke chamber that needs repair, at $300 to $2,500, and a liner for an unlined flue, typically $1,500 to $5,000 in stainless. NOAA's normals give Trenton's airport about 97 freezing nights and 27 inches of snow a year, enough to work on any crack in the crown.