How Level Two Chimney Atlanta Was Born in Atlanta
Corrine Halstead still remembers the phone call that made the decision for her. It was late 2015, a wet Tuesday in November, and a homeowner in Decatur was describing how another company had quoted them $4,200 for a “collapsed liner” they couldn’t show her. The homeowner had paid a deposit. The work was scheduled for the following week. Something about the story didn’t sit right, so Corrine drove over with a borrowed camera rig and found a cracked clay tile, third from the top, that any competent sweep could point to in five minutes. The liner wasn’t collapsed. It wasn’t even failing. The homeowner cried on her porch.
That same week, Corrine learned that Level Two Chimney Co. was looking for someone to open an Atlanta branch. The brand had been running camera inspections as standard since 2009, archiving every scan, building a record that could prove what a flue looked like before a fire rather than after. It was exactly the opposite of what she’d just witnessed. She signed the agreement in January 2016. The promise she made that day was simple: every Atlanta homeowner who calls us will see what we see, in writing, before anyone touches a tool.
Corrine Halstead’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Corrine didn’t grow up in this trade. She came to it sideways, through a rental property she owned in East Point back in 2008, the year before Level Two Chimney Co. was even founded. The chimney smelled like a wet campfire every time it rained. Three companies came out. Two said the flue was “probably fine” and sold her a rain cap. The third never showed. She ended up on a roof herself, flashlight between her teeth, staring down a flue lined with glazed creosote so thick it looked like black glass. The smell was acrid, chemical, wrong. She could feel the heat radiating off the brick even though no fire had burned in weeks.
That afternoon she called a tradesman who actually owned a camera. He let her watch the feed. She saw the creosote buildup, the cracked crown, the water pooling where the mortar had failed. He explained each thing without selling her anything. She spent the next six months apprenticing with him on weekends, learning to read a flue the way you’d read a river: the color of the smoke stain, the pattern of the cracks, the particular sound a liner makes when you tap it and it’s separating from the wall.
What gets Corrine out of bed isn’t the work itself. It’s the moment when a homeowner sees their own flue for the first time. Most people have never looked inside their chimney. They don’t know that Atlanta’s clay soil shifts seasonally, stressing masonry in ways that northern chimneys don’t experience. They don’t know that the pine-heavy firewood common around North Druid Hills burns fast and deposits creosote differently than oak. When Corrine shows them the scan, explains what the image means, and they nod because they actually understand, that’s the point. That’s why she’s still climbing roofs after more than a decade in this trade.
If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be restoring old houses somewhere, working with her hands, solving problems that don’t come with a manual. The chimney trade found her because it demands exactly that: reading a structure that’s been standing for fifty or eighty years, figuring out what it needs to stand for fifty more.
Meet Corrine Halstead - The Person Behind Every Job
Corrine Halstead is the Owner and Founder of Level Two Chimney Atlanta. She holds every state license required to perform chimney inspection, cleaning, and repair work in Georgia, and every pro working under her name is required to hold the same. Her training includes NFPA 211 certification, hands-on apprenticeship in masonry restoration and stainless steel liner installation, and continuous education in the documentation systems that underpin the Haven Standard.
What separates Corrine from a corporate franchise technician is simple: she’s the one who answers when something goes wrong. Not a regional manager. Not a customer service line. Her cell number goes on every invoice, and homeowners in Sandy Springs and College Park have used it at 8 PM on a Sunday when they smelled something odd after their first fire of the season. She keeps a wood stove in her own workshop in North Atlanta, burns exclusively with seasoned hardwood, and can tell you the moisture content by the crackle. Her personal commitment is direct: if we document something, we stand behind it. If we miss something, we fix it. No paperwork, no argument.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Atlanta Homeowners
Our values aren’t framed on a wall. They’re practiced until they become reflex.
Honest pricing, in writing, before we start. This is Clause 1 of the Haven Standard, and it exists because Corrine once watched a homeowner in Clarkston agree to a verbal “ballpark” that tripled by the final invoice. We name our price range on every page, in dollars, and we put the exact scope in writing before any work begins. A chimney sweep in Atlanta typically runs $189 to $289, depending on accessibility and buildup. A Level 2 camera inspection adds $149 to $199. If we find something that changes the scope, we stop, show you the image, and write a new quote.
Quality parts that we can trace. We specify the brands we install: HeatShield for crown repair and flue resurfacing, Gelco and Olympia Chimney for stainless steel liners and caps, Famco for ventilation hardware. We don’t use “comparable” substitutes without written approval. Every part has a part number that appears on your invoice.
Standing behind every job with evidence. Clause 4 of the Haven Standard requires that we archive every camera scan. If a liner we certified develops a problem, we can pull the original footage and compare. The documentation protects you and it protects us. That’s why we do it.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed chimney contractor in Georgia. We do not display our license number on this page, but we provide it on every written estimate and upon request. A state license means the work meets minimum safety standards, and in a trade where unlicensed operators still operate regularly, it’s the first thing a homeowner should verify.
- Insured and bonded for residential chimney work. No policy number is listed here, but our certificate of insurance is available before we step onto your property. This matters because chimney work involves roofs, ladders, and sometimes masonry demolition. If someone gets hurt or something gets damaged, you need to know the coverage exists.
- Years of local experience in the Atlanta market. Corrine Halstead has been climbing roofs in this climate, with this soil, and these building codes, since before she opened this branch. Local experience means recognizing that a chimney in Dunwoody, built in 1987 with a certain clay flue tile, probably has the same stress cracks as the one she inspected in Roswell last month.
- Strong local reputation built on documented work. We don’t quote review counts or star ratings. We quote the Haven Standard: 38,000+ chimneys inspected and cleaned since 2009, every one with a written price before we started, and a documented record when we left.
Each credential matters because chimney work happens inside your home’s structural envelope. The person on your roof is touching the system that vents carbon monoxide from your living space. License and insurance are not marketing points. They are the minimum threshold for trust, and we treat them that way.
Rooted in Atlanta
Level Two Chimney Atlanta is independently owned and operated, and Corrine Halstead lives in the market she serves. Her trucks carry parts for the specific chimney types common in North Druid Hills ranch homes and Decatur bungalows. She knows which neighborhoods in East Point still have unlined brick flues from the 1960s, and which new construction in Sandy Springs was built with factory-built metal chimneys that need different maintenance. The Atlanta branch doesn’t pretend to be from somewhere else, and the parent brand doesn’t pretend to be local. What Haven contributes is the standard, the documentation system, and the buying power. What Corrine contributes is her license, her trucks, and her neighbors.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Level Two Chimney Atlanta, serving Atlanta, Decatur, Sandy Springs, and surrounding communities since 2016.