Priced the way Chimney Sweep work is billed
A service call / inspection and a chimney cap install don't get quoted the same way, so why would every trade? SideWRK prices Chimney Sweep the way the work is really billed: off a flat service-call menu — a $125 service call, then priced work (e.g. $189 a Level 1 sweep). Tap the work, put in the numbers, and the line prices itself — no napkin math, no undercharging a job because you rushed the quote.
What Chimney Sweep jobs actually run
These are the starting numbers SideWRK loads for common Chimney Sweep work — researched to be realistic, so you can send an estimate that isn't a guess. Adjust any of them to your market in a tap.
Typical starting prices in the app — your area, your materials, and your reputation move them. You set your own; these just keep you from undercharging on the first quote.
Crown repair / re-seal, priced out
Numbers only mean something on a real job, so here's how SideWRK builds the ticket on a common one:
SideWRK puts the parts on at what you actually paid — so the $339 of labor is what you clear, not a marked-up parts total dressed up as profit.
What moves a Chimney Sweep price
Two Chimney Sweep jobs that look the same on paper can be a hundred dollars apart once you're on site. Here's what actually changes the number — the things to size up before you quote:
- Inspection level — a Level 1 sweep and a Level 2 camera inspection after a sale or a fire are different jobs.
- Buildup — a heavy, glazed creosote needs more than a brush and prices accordingly.
- Repairs — a cracked crown, a missing cap, or a liner problem is separate from the sweep.
What a Chimney Sweep job puts on the record
Every trade documents something different, and Chimney Sweep is no exception. SideWRK captures the appliance and flue — wood, gas, pellet and the rest of what your work needs on the record — the details that protect you and make the invoice stand up:
- the appliance and flue — wood, gas, pellet
- the flue construction — masonry, metal, lined, unlined
- the roof access
- the inspection level (NFPA 211 Level 1 or 2) and a creosote and carbon-monoxide note
Example note on a job: "Level 2 recommended — creosote glaze noted; cap rusted, replacement quoted."
How to price a Chimney Sweep job in SideWRK
- 1
Start the job and add your work
Open a Chimney Sweep job and tap a suggestion like "Service call / inspection" or "Level 1 chimney sweep" — the common work is already loaded, so you tap instead of type.
- 2
Price it off a flat service-call menu
Enter the numbers and the line prices itself, off a flat service-call menu — a $125 service call, then priced work (e.g. $189 a Level 1 sweep). Put parts on at your cost so what you clear is real profit, not just the Chimney Sweep ticket total.
- 3
Note the details
Add a plain-English note — for example, "Level 2 recommended — creosote glaze noted; cap rusted, replacement quoted." — and a photo of the work.
- 4
Log what the job needs
Capture the Chimney Sweep-specific records: the appliance and flue — wood, gas, pellet, and the flue construction — masonry, metal, lined, unlined.
- 5
Send it and get paid
Send the Chimney Sweep estimate for approval. Your customer approves from their phone, the invoice goes out, and you get paid — card or Apple Pay, on the spot.
Staying on the right side of the rules
SideWRK documents your Chimney Sweep work — it doesn't make you licensed, and it says so plainly. What to know: a business license in some places and NFPA 211 inspection guidance — relining, gas connections, and structural masonry can need a certified or licensed pro, and you confirm the CO alarms.
Chimney Sweep pricing — common questions
How do I price a Chimney Sweep job in SideWRK?
You bill off a flat service-call menu — a $125 service call, then priced work (e.g. $189 a Level 1 sweep). Add the work — Service call / inspection, Level 1 chimney sweep, Level 2 inspection (camera) — enter the numbers, and each line prices itself. Parts go on at your cost, so you see real profit and not just the total.
What does a typical Chimney Sweep job cost?
It depends on the work, but as a realistic starting point a common job like crown repair / re-seal runs about $485 in the app — roughly $339 of that is your labor and about $146 is parts at your cost. Common Chimney Sweep work ranges from about $125 to $485. Those are defaults you can change — you always set your own prices.
What does SideWRK document on a Chimney Sweep job?
The records Chimney Sweep work actually needs: the appliance and flue — wood, gas, pellet; the flue construction — masonry, metal, lined, unlined; the roof access. They stay on the job as you work, so the paper trail is built instead of reconstructed later, and the disclosures this trade needs print on the estimate and invoice themselves.
Do I need a license to do Chimney Sweep work?
That depends on your state and the job, but here's the shape of it: a business license in some places and NFPA 211 inspection guidance — relining, gas connections, and structural masonry can need a certified or licensed pro, and you confirm the CO alarms. SideWRK documents the work; it doesn't certify you.
Does SideWRK work for trades other than Chimney Sweep?
Yes — it runs all 42 trades, each priced and documented its own way. If you run more than one, the Multi-Trade plan unlocks them all and switches between them in a tap.
Your first jobs
The six priced lines up top answer the easy question. The day-zero question is trust: you're asking a stranger to take your word about the inside of a flue they can't see — and to believe the problem you found is real. What earns that:
- Insurance first, credential second. That is an order of operations, not a preference. The Chimney Sweep Credential That Actually Books Jobs is this trade's certification deep-dive: what the CCS exam covers, why certification and insurance are two different documents, and where a contractor license still applies to cap and masonry work. Its math alone is worth the click — the exam costs less than two Level 1 sweeps bring in.
- Show the camera, don't pitch the fear. Photograph what the brush and the camera actually found and quote off the picture. A homeowner who can see the glaze doesn't need convincing — and one who watches you find nothing wrong learns something better: that you would have said so. The honest all-clear is what gets you invited back next fall.
- Start before the season does. The first cold weekend fills every sweep's phone in the county, and the established routes book out fast. That overflow goes to whoever answers, shows up insured, and leaves photos behind. A brand-new operator's best week of the year is somebody else's waitlist.
Repeat business — the fall calendar
The annual sweep is the easiest sale in this trade, and the one most often lost to a date nobody wrote down. The Chimney Sweep Repeat-Customer Playbook is where that argument gets made and the math gets done — what month the reminder goes out, what belongs in it, why you hold a date instead of cutting the price, and what sixty rebooked sweeps a year add up to. What the app contributes is narrower: none of it has to live in your head.
- "Do this again" is a button. On a finished job, one tap copies the whole ticket into a fresh estimate — same customer, same chimney, same lines at the same prices, sitting there to edit before you send it. Last fall's sweep becomes this fall's quote without retyping a line of it.
- Let the app hold the standing date. Set the annual up as a recurring plan — the plan form deals the same priced menu, so you tap the sweep, set how often, and leave it. Each cycle it spawns a pre-filled job into your list, ready to schedule. A route you don't have to remember to build.
How chimney sweep work bills
A flat service-call menu, not a meter. Open a chimney sweep estimate and the form deals the six lines priced up top — tap one, it fills in, the price stays editable. The $125 service call is what gets you on the roof; the work goes on beside it as its own line. What the menu can't show is the shape of the standard visit, because the annual call in this trade is really two services on one ladder:
Two taps off the menu, each its own line the customer can read. When the camera turns up a rusted cap, the cap install goes on as a third line at $350 — quoted while the ladder's still against the house, approved from their phone — and the same visit closes at $664. The other way to bill it is one lump number at the bottom, and a lump number is exactly what makes a homeowner wonder which lines were real.
Not everything fits a menu line. A damper swap, custom flashing, the odd masonry patch — those go on as a time-based line at your hourly rate. The app starts chimney sweeps at $125/hr for exactly that kind of line, with parts riding at your cost so the ticket shows what you cleared. One discipline to keep: the service call is the floor for showing up. The drive, the ladder work, and the tarp-out all live inside that $125 — wave it off "since I'm here" and the season's math leaks a little on every roof.
Multiplying jobs
Past the first season, growth is mostly follow-through, and follow-through is what slips away between a morning roof and a 4 o'clock inspection. The app carries it:
- Estimates chase themselves. The cap install nobody answered gets a friendly email at 3 and 7 days, two at most — the homeowner who meant to say yes usually just lost the thread. A toggle you own, on every estimate.
- So does the money. An invoice still open after the work wraps sends its own reminder at 3, 7, and 14 days, pay link attached. Prefer to be paid into an app you already use? Send a payment request instead and it goes customer-to-you — SideWRK tells you each app's rules for taking money for work as you set the handle up. Either way you stay out of the awkward-text business.
- The review gets asked for. One emailed request once the job wraps, one reminder a few days later, then it stops. Reviews are how a homeowner picks between two strangers with ladders, and asking is the step that gets forgotten.
- The before-and-after does the arguing. A flue photographed black, then swept clean — paired into the gallery on your public page from the job's own photos. Nothing you could write about yourself says as much.
- Truck stock that warns you first. The app's chimney list is already real — creosote remover, poly and drop cloths, HEPA bags and filters, caps, refractory sealant, gasket rope — each with its own reorder point in inventory. Use the last cap on a Tuesday roof and the count says so before you promise one on Thursday.
The tap-to-fill menu, the seeded jobs, and the gallery are all there to poke at in the live chimney sweep demo — free, no signup.
Price it now
The sweep, the inspection level, the cap if it needs one — a number before the ladder comes off the truck. The same free calculator the chimney sweep page runs, right here:
The paper worth keeping
The records list above says what the app captures on a chimney job. This is why each line earns its place:
- The chimney, on the record. The appliance and the flue, the construction, the roof access, and the notes line — creosote level, cap and crown condition, damper, liner, when it was last swept. That is the list. What a list like that is worth the next time you pull up to that address is the repeat-customer playbook's argument.
- The inspection level, in writing. NFPA 211 is the industry's inspection guidance — an annual inspection, and a Level 2 when a home is sold, an appliance changes, or after a chimney fire or a weather event. The estimate and invoice carry that guidance as a plain-English notice, and the level you performed is on the ticket by name, because the menu line itself says Level 1 or Level 2. The app doesn't verify your certification or your inspection level — saying what you did, in writing, is the protection.
- The license line. Relining, gas-appliance connections, and structural masonry can cross into licensed-or-certified territory depending on where you work — the document notice states that rule plainly, and confirming working carbon-monoxide alarms before an appliance goes back into service belongs on every ticket. Where you carry a business license, the app holds the number once and prints it on the estimate and the invoice.
- Tax season, pre-assembled. Numbered invoices, payments, and receipts roll up in Know your numbers — category totals, CSVs, and a printable year-end summary a preparer can use without calling you. The passenger-seat shoebox retires.
SideWRK is a documentation tool, not legal advice — it helps you keep the records; the rules stay your state's, and meeting them stays yours.