Your Local Passaic County Chimney Team

Two counties in one

The southeastern half of Passaic County is flat or gently hilly and heavily built up; the northwest is rugged and mountainous, part of the New Jersey Highlands. Housing follows the same split. In the city of Passaic about 58% of housing units predate 1940, and the Passaic Park section is known for big Queen Anne and Tudor homes. Paterson, the old Silk City, has the Eastside Park Historic District, about 1,000 homes in Tudor, Georgian colonial, Victorian, Italianate and Dutch colonial styles.

Up north, many homes started as something else. In Wayne, summer bungalows became year-round houses during World War II, and West Milford turned from a summer resort into a place of year-round homes over the two decades after the war. Pompton Lakes also had summer resorts around its lake. A house that began as a seasonal cottage may have had its chimney and heating added or changed later, so it is worth knowing what was built and when.

In between are the older inner suburbs. About 31% of Clifton's housing and about 34% of Hawthorne's predates 1940. Little Falls, first settled by Dutch farmers in 1711, keeps the Speer Homestead from about 1785, and Woodland Park sits below Garret Mountain Reservation, which rises about 500 feet.

Highlands cold and lake-country snow

Average January lows in Paterson are around 19 degrees, and the higher ground to the north is cooler still; Bearfort Ridge in West Milford reaches about 1,480 feet. The county has dozens of lakes, and chimneys in wooded lake towns collect leaves and moisture along with snow. Wet masonry that freezes repeatedly loses mortar, and a cracked crown lets water into the flue and down into the house.

Ringwood State Park covers about 4,444 acres of the Ramapo Mountains, and many houses in Ringwood, Wanaque and West Milford sit on wooded lots where branches, leaves and animals all find their way into an uncapped chimney.

Gas in the cities, oil and wood in the hills

Countywide, recent Census estimates show utility gas heating about 81% of occupied homes and fuel oil about 4%. The local numbers tell a sharper story. In West Milford, gas heats only about 49% of homes, fuel oil about 27%, propane about 8% and wood about 2.5%. Ringwood is about 22% oil. Paterson, Clifton, Totowa and Wanaque sit at 82% gas or more.

Each fuel stresses the chimney differently. Wood leaves creosote, which is flammable and needs cleaning as it builds. Oil leaves soot and acidic scale. Gas and propane leave little visible residue but plenty of moisture, which condenses in an oversized flue.

A wood stove or fireplace insert should vent through a liner sized for it, connected all the way to the top of the chimney. Dropping a stove pipe into an old, oversized masonry flue invites creosote buildup and poor draft.

Where a house has both an oil boiler and a wood stove, each appliance should have its own flue.

Historic districts and who to ask

Besides Eastside Park, Paterson has the Great Falls of the Passaic and Society for Useful Manufactures Historic District and a downtown commercial district, while Passaic has the Botany Worsted Mills and Dundee Canal industrial districts. Ringwood Manor is part of a National Historic Landmark District. For a locally designated home, exterior chimney work can need approval from the municipal historic preservation body. Otherwise, check with your town's building department.

A Passaic County chimney checklist

Whatever the fuel, the same handful of habits applies across the county:

• Inspect chimneys, fireplaces and vents at least once a year, as NFPA 211 recommends.
• Clean wood-burning flues whenever creosote builds up, and oil flues whenever soot does.
• Keep a cap on the chimney in wooded lake towns to keep out leaves, nests and rain.
• After a chimney fire, have the system inspected before lighting another fire.