Meet the Team - Level Two Chimney Elmhurst

Meet the Elmhurst Team Behind Level Two Chimney Elmhurst

Our crew lives in the same neighborhoods we sweep. We know which Elmhurst chimneys were built with the narrow flues common in the 1920s Victorians near Wilder Park, and which ones out by Salt Creek have the clay liners that crack after twenty hard winters. Every technician here is background-checked, uniformed, and named on your appointment. We don’t send anonymous crews. We send people you can ask for again.

Our People

Corrine Halstead, Owner

I started Level Two Chimney Co. in 2009 after watching too many Elmhurst homeowners get a verbal “yeah, it’s fine” with no photos, no written scope, and a bill that somehow doubled once the tech was already on the roof. That doesn’t happen here. I hold a CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep credential and an Illinois Home Repair Contractor license, and I still climb when a job calls for a second opinion on liner integrity or crown reconstruction. I live in DuPage County, my kids went through Elmhurst schools, and I have strong opinions about which local coffee shop actually opens before 6 a.m. when you’re heading to a job in January. Every photo record in our archive, every written price under Haven Standard Clause 1, every 365-Day Done Right Promise, runs through this office first.

Marcus T., Lead Technician

Marcus has been sweeping and inspecting chimneys for fourteen years, the last seven with us. He specializes in NFPA 211 Level 2 camera inspections, the kind required for real estate transactions and insurance claims, and he’s the person we assign when a homeowner in Elmhurst calls with a suspected chimney fire or a CO alarm that traced back to a blocked flue. He holds CSIA certification and factory training on HeatShield cerfractory flue resurfacing systems. Off the clock, Marcus restores vintage motorcycles in a garage near York and Vallette, which means he’s unusually good at explaining to customers exactly why a corroded chimney cap is structurally similar to a rusted exhaust header. He texts when he’s fifteen minutes out. Always has.

Diana K., Senior Installer

Diana handles our liner installations, crown pours, and full rebuilds, the jobs where you’re cutting into masonry or dropping a stainless steel DuraFlex liner down a three-story chase. She came to us from commercial HVAC sheet metal work, so her transitions and collars fit the first time, and she’s trained on Gelco and Olympia Chimney systems through Haven’s vendor network. Diana is the reason we can quote liner jobs with a real number instead of “we’ll see when we get in there.” She keeps a battered field notebook from 2016 with sketches of every unusual flue configuration she’s encountered in Elmhurst’s older housing stock. She also has a dog named after a type of mortar. We’re not sure if she’s joking.

James R., Service Coordinator

James answers the phones. More precisely, he answers the phones at 11 p.m. when someone in Elmhurst smells smoke in their living room and isn’t sure if it’s an emergency. He’s been with us since 2019, and he’s heard every variation of “my fireplace smells funny” and “the home inspector said what?” James schedules every appointment, assigns the technician, sends the written price and scope before anyone dispatches, and follows up after the job to make sure the photo record and warranty documentation arrived clear and complete. He grew up in Lombard, knows the permit office hours in DuPage County by heart, and can explain why your chimney needs a cricket, what a cricket actually is, and why the name makes no sense, all in one phone call.

Elena V., Apprentice Technician

Elena joined us in 2023 after completing the chimney technology program at her trade school, and she’s working toward her CSIA certification under Marcus’s direct supervision. She already runs sweeps and basic inspections solo on single-flue systems, and she’s our designated apprentice on every rebuild Diana takes on. Elena has sharp eyes for spalling brick and deteriorated mortar joints, probably from her previous job in historic masonry restoration. She lives in an apartment near Elmhurst College and is slowly convincing every landlord in her building to let her inspect their chimneys. We expect she’ll have her own route inside two years.

One Standard, Every Job

The Haven Standard wasn’t designed in a boardroom. It was built from what we learned across 38,000 chimney inspections and cleanings, starting right here in Elmhurst. Clause 1 says you get a written price, written scope, and written warranty before work starts, not after a technician is already in your living room. Clause 4 requires a documented photo record on every visit, included as standard, not sold as an upgrade. The 365-Day Done Right Promise is stamped on every job, and our Free Second Opinion policy applies to any competitor’s written estimate you bring us.

Our materials come through Haven’s buying network, DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield, specifically to keep customer prices honest. Every technician on this page is background-checked, uniformed, and carries license information you can verify. When we say “one standard,” we mean one standard. Whether we’re sweeping a flue in a Wilder Park bungalow or rebuilding a crown on a Salt Creek colonial, the same person answers the phone, the same documentation leaves with the customer, and the same owner stands behind the work.

Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Level Two Chimney Elmhurst, serving Elmhurst since 2009.