How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Taunton
Back in 2014, we were working out of a garage in Raynham with one truck and a borrowed camera rig. The call came from a couple on Winthrop Street in Taunton. Their chimney had been “swept” twice that year by two different companies, and they still couldn’t get a fire to draw without smoking back into the living room. We climbed that roof on a Tuesday morning in March, wind cutting hard off the Taunton River. What we found wasn’t creosote. It was a cracked flue liner hidden behind a layer of soot that had been pushed around, not removed. The previous sweeps had never run a camera. They’d charged for a service they hadn’t performed, and the homeowners had paid twice for peace of mind they never got.
That afternoon, driving back down Route 44, we made a decision. Taunton deserved a chimney company that documented what it found, explained it in plain English, and priced the fix before touching a tool. No phantom charges. No scare tactics. No bill that ballooned once we were inside the house. We opened our Taunton branch the following month. The promise was simple: you’ll see what we see, you’ll know the price before we start, and if we say it needs fixing, we’ll show you exactly why.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Russell Haines didn’t stumble into chimney work. He was pulled into it by the physical honesty of the job. Before 2014, he’d spent years in trades where the finished product was hidden behind drywall, where a mistake might not surface for a decade. Chimney work was different. You climb, you look, you know. The evidence is right there in the flue, in the mortar joints, in the draft reading on the manometer. There’s no faking it.
The smell got him first. Not the creosote, though that’s unmistakable, but the cold stone and old ash of a chimney that hasn’t been opened since spring. The way a flue smells tells you its history if you’ve got enough seasons in your nose. Russell spent his early years working alongside a tradesman in Middleborough who’d been sweeping chimneys since the seventies. That man never owned a computer. He kept his records in a spiral notebook and could tell you the construction date of half the chimneys in Plymouth County by the brick pattern alone. Russell learned to read a chimney the way that man read them: by touch, by sight, by the sound the brush makes when it hits a ledge of built-up glaze.
What gets Russell out of bed is the problem nobody else could solve. The chimney that three companies have given up on. The draft that fails only on northeast wind days. The mystery smell that turns out to be a dead squirrel in a abandoned cleanout door in Easton. If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be restoring old boats somewhere on the South Coast, working with his hands on something that either functions or it doesn’t. He likes that clarity. Chimney work has it in spades. A fire draws or it doesn’t. A liner protects or it fails. There’s no PowerPoint that fixes a smoking fireplace.
Twelve years in, Russell still climbs when the roof pitch allows. He still runs the camera on the jobs that puzzle the crew. He still calls homeowners himself when the inspection turns up something that can wait versus something that can’t. That distinction matters to him. Not every crack needs immediate repair. Not every flue needs relining. The ability to say “this is fine for now, check it next season” is, in Russell’s view, the mark of a sweep who’s seen enough to know the difference between caution and commerce.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines is Owner and Founder of Hearthstone Chimney Co. in Taunton. He’s held state licensure since opening this branch in 2014 and has trained extensively in level-2 inspection protocols, camera diagnostics, and masonry repair specific to New England’s freeze-thaw climate. Unlike technicians rotated through by national franchises, Russell knows the local building stock: the 1920s triple-deckers in Brockton, the center-chimney Colonials in Norton, the post-war ranches in Stoughton with their factory-built metal chimneys.
Outside of work, Russell keeps a small orchard in Halifax, which is how he marks time: by pruning season, by harvest, by the particular week in October when the Macouns come ready. That patience, that willingness to wait for the right moment, shapes how he runs this company. He won’t rush a liner installation to fit a quota. He won’t recommend a rebuild when repointing will do. His commitment to every customer is direct: if Russell Haines signs off on a job, he’s personally accountable for it. You have his name, his number, and his word.
Our Promise to Taunton Homeowners
Our values aren’t framed in a conference room. We call them K.E.Y.S., and we use them to settle real questions on real jobs.
Krafted right means we use proper materials for this climate. In Taunton, that means mortars rated for freeze-thaw cycles, stainless liners that handle the acidic condensate from efficient modern appliances, and brushes sized to the flue, not the truck. We’ve seen too many “quick sweeps” in this market that left glaze behind because the brush was two inches too small.
Every time is our answer to the question of whether the 400th inspection gets the same care as the fourth. It does. We photograph every flue, every smoke chamber, every damper assembly. The homeowner in Raynham gets the same documentation as the homeowner in Bridgewater.
Your home first means we lay drop cloths before we unload tools, we wear boot covers, and we don’t treat your living room like a job site. Russell’s standard: work in every house the way you’d work in your mother’s.
Standing behind it is The Keystone Standard, applied to chimneys: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork battle, no transfer to a warranty department, no voicemail tree.
Our Credentials
Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. We’re state-licensed, insured and bonded, with years of local experience and a strong local reputation built across Taunton, Brockton, Stoughton, Easton, Middleborough, Norton, Bridgewater, Halifax, Whitman, East Bridgewater, Raynham, and Middleborough Center.
Here’s why these credentials matter when you’re letting someone work inside your home:
- State-licensed: Licensing means accountability to a regulatory body. If something goes wrong, you have recourse beyond a bad review.
- Insured & bonded: Your property is protected. A chimney sweep works on your roof, in your living space, and around combustible materials. Insurance isn’t optional; it’s the floor.
- Years of local experience: We’ve seen the specific failure modes of chimneys in this region: the spalling brick from road salt exposure, the liner corrosion from high-efficiency furnace venting, the creosote buildup patterns from local hardwoods.
- Strong local reputation: We answer to neighbors. Our customers live on streets we drive regularly. There’s no corporate shield to hide behind.
When you hire a chimney company, you’re not buying a product. You’re trusting someone with access to your home and knowledge you can’t independently verify. These credentials are the minimum standard for that trust.
Rooted in Taunton
This branch opened in Taunton because the market needed sweeps who’d still be here in twenty years. Russell lives in the service area. His crew knows the difference between a chimney in the Whittenton Mills neighborhood and one in the historic district near Church Green. We’ve worked on houses along the Mill River and up near Massasoit State Park. We source materials through local suppliers when we can, and we train apprentices with the expectation that they’ll stay in the trade right here. The hearthstone is the stone the whole home gathered around. In Taunton, we’re still gathering around it.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Taunton since 2014.