How Ashby Chimney New York Came to New York
We didn’t pick New York. New York picked us. Nathan Corliss spent years watching homeowners in this city get burned by the same story: a sweep shows up, takes a quick look, quotes a number on the spot, then “discovers” a problem halfway through the job that doubles the bill. No camera. No photos. No proof. Just a hand out for more money. The straw that broke it came when a homeowner in Murray Hill called us after another company told her she needed a full liner replacement at a price that made no sense for the age of her home. We ran a camera through the flue. The liner was fine. She needed a sweep and some minor mortar work, nothing more. That was the day Nathan decided he was done watching this happen to people. He brought the Ashby Chimney Sweep brand to New York because the model was already right: every job gets a written price before any work starts, and every customer sees the flue with their own eyes. No scare tactics, no mystery pricing, no repairs recommended on a hunch. Just honest work, documented with real images, for homeowners who’ve been let down before and aren’t about to be let down again.
Nathan Corliss’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Nathan Corliss has spent more than a decade in the chimney and masonry trade, and he’ll tell you the same thing he tells every new technician: if you don’t respect what’s inside that flue, find another line of work. He started the way a lot of people in this trade start, on the messy end of the work, hauling creosote and mortar in the heat of a Brooklyn summer, learning the feel of a brush through a clay liner before he ever touched a camera. The first time he scoped a flue and saw a hairline crack that an eye-level inspection missed, something clicked. The chimney is the one part of a house that carries fire out and keeps the weather out at the same time, and most homeowners will never see the inside of it. It’s a blind trust. Nathan took that personally. He fell for the craft because it rewards patience and punishes shortcuts. The soot that cakes the walls of an uncleaned flue isn’t just dirt, it’s fuel, and the smell of a chimney that’s been neglected is something you don’t forget. Sharp and oily, like a campfire left out in the rain. That smell is why he gets out of bed in the morning. The homeowner who hasn’t cleaned their flue in five years doesn’t know what’s in there, and they shouldn’t have to. That’s our job: to show them, plainly and honestly, what’s happening above their fireplace. If Nathan weren’t running Ashby Chimney New York, he’d probably be doing the same work in some other city, because the trade doesn’t let people go. It’s a hands-on, boots-dirty, camera-verifiable kind of work, and that’s exactly why he trusts it.
Meet Nathan Corliss – The Person Behind Every Job
Nathan Corliss is the Owner & Founder of Ashby Chimney New York, the local branch of the Kingswell family of brands. He leads a team that believes the only way to prove a chimney is safe is to show the homeowner the inside of it. Every job gets a camera inspection, a photo report, and a written price before any work begins. Nathan’s background is in chimney and masonry work itself, not management from a distance. He’s been in the trade long enough to know that every neighborhood in this city has its own quirks: older brickwork in Brooklyn Heights, wind-driven rain patterns off the East River that hit Red Hook and Greenpoint harder than they hit the Upper West Side, and vintage flue designs in Manhattan that require real care. What sets Nathan apart from a franchise technician with a van and a checklist is that he actually cares about the craft. He’s the kind of person who notices when mortar was mixed wrong a decade ago and wants to know why. He works a full day, comes home covered in soot some evenings, and still answers the phone during business hours with his own name. His commitment is simple: you’ll know the price before we start, you’ll see the flue before you decide, and if a repair fails inside the guarantee period, we come back and fix it at no charge.
Our Promise to New York Homeowners
The Kingswell Way isn’t a slogan. It’s five rules every job has to pass, and Nathan holds his crew to every one of them: Say the price before the work. Show up in the window we gave. Leave the place cleaner than we found it. Put the guarantee in writing. Come back if it fails. That last one matters most. We’ve had homeowners who’d been burned by a warranty that vanished when they called to use it. That doesn’t happen here. If a repair fails inside the guarantee period, we return and fix it at no charge. We also don’t recommend work you don’t need. Nothing gets suggested without camera evidence you can look at yourself. If your flue is dirty but sound, we’ll say so. If it can safely wait a year, we’ll tell you that too. Honest pricing and clean work aren’t extras. They’re the whole point.
Our Credentials
Ashby Chimney New York operates to the standards of the Ashby Chimney Sweep brand, which means every professional working under our name is required to hold the license their state requires and to carry insurance appropriate to the work. All work is covered by The Kingswell Guarantee, which every Kingswell location agrees to honor in writing. That guarantee covers our workmanship: if a repair fails inside the guarantee period, we come back and fix it at no charge.
What we bring to every job is plain-spoken and verifiable. We’re state-licensed and insured. We’ve been serving New York homeowners through the Ashby Chimney Sweep brand for years, with Nathan Corliss leading the local team. Our reputation in the city is built on the same thing every honest trade reputation is built on: showing up when we said we would, doing the work we quoted, and leaving the place cleaner than we found it.
Why this matters for a homeowner: a chimney cleaner works inside your home and on your roof, often around the most expensive system in the house. A real license means someone with authority has verified the business meets basic professional standards. Insurance means you’re not left holding the bill if something goes wrong. A written guarantee means you’re protected if the repair fails. And honest camera documentation means you’re never taking anyone’s word for the condition of your own chimney.
Rooted in New York
We work across the neighborhoods that make this city what it is: Morningside Heights and East Harlem up top, Murray Hill and Midtown in the middle, Brooklyn Heights, Red Hook, Greenpoint, Maspeth, and East New York across the water. The houses here aren’t uniform. Brownstones, prewar walk-ups, new builds in Greenpoint, old brick in Red Hook. We know the difference, and we treat each one like it belongs to a real family, because it does. This isn’t a stop on a route for us. It’s home.
Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner at Ashby Chimney New York, serving New York City since 2002.