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This calculator vs. a flat $199 house sweep special
"$199 house sweep" is not a price for a chimney — it is a price for one easy flue on a walkable roof, quietly applied to a three-story wood stove with glazed creosote.
What a flat house-sweep special is
A flat house price is the fastest way to quote over the phone: one number on a postcard, a truck wrap, or a search ad, next to "chimney sweep near me." Homeowners shop it because it is easy to compare between sweeps, and it is the number a caller holding a competitor's coupon will ask you to match on their own chimney.
The number behind it was set for one job — usually a single easy flue on a walkable one- or two-story roof with light soot, no inspection add-on, no animal — and then reused for every chimney afterward, whether or not the next roof is a third-story climb, glazed, or crawling with a Level 2 camera pass.
What this calculator is
This page keeps no account and sends nothing to a server. You enter each flue's type and hours, the number of stories, roof access (easy, steep, or snow/ice), creosote condition, the work being done (sweep only, Level 2, or camera), animal removal, and add-ons, along with your own wage, payroll burden, travel, and overhead. It prices the height, the roof, the creosote, and the inspection separately, and returns a walk-away price and price per flue below which the stop loses money — for this chimney, not a generic one.
| Job | $199 special | Walk-away price | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-story gas fireplace, easy roof, light creosote, sweep only | $199.00 | $136.06 | Covers, $62.94 to spare |
| 2-story wood fireplace, steep roof, moderate creosote, sweep only (this calculator's own default job) | $199.00 | $193.30 | Covers, $5.70 to spare |
| 3-story wood stove, snow/ice roof, glazed creosote, Level 2 inspection, animal removal | $199.00 | $366.12 | Short $167.12 |
Worked using this calculator's own flue presets at a $28 hourly wage, 32% payroll burden, 18% overhead on direct cost, and a 30% target margin — the form's own shipped defaults, not numbers invented for this page. Open the calculator to check any row yourself.
Notice the middle row: it is this calculator's own shipped starting point, not a job picked to prove a point, and a $199 special already clears it by less than six dollars. One more story, one worse creosote grade, or one inspection add-on is the difference between a special that happens to work and one that does not.
| What a flat house-sweep special does | What this calculator does instead |
|---|---|
| Charges the same price whether the flue is a one-story gas fireplace on an easy roof or a three-story wood stove on snow and ice — up to 75% more on-site hours for the tallest roof access alone. | Multiplies base sweep hours by a story factor and a roof-access surcharge entered for the actual job, so a third-story, steep, or icy stop prices differently from a one-story easy one. |
| Has no separate line for creosote condition, so a glazed, stage-3 flue gets the same price as one with light soot from last season. | Adds creosote scrape hours and glazed-flue chemical cost per flue, scaled to the condition entered. |
| Prices "a sweep" the same whether or not a Level 2 or camera inspection is added on top. | Adds inspection hours per flue only when a Level 2 or camera pass is selected. |
| Has no line for a nest or animal removal, or for the drive, so a twelve-mile round trip and an hour of animal work are absorbed into the same flat number as a five-minute stop next door. | Prices animal-removal hours and round-trip travel time separately, on top of the sweep itself. |
| Gives the sweep a price to quote, not a number to check a quote against when a caller's chimney turns out to be a third-story climb with glazed creosote after the special was already promised. | Reports the walk-away price and price per flue for the job as entered, so a shopped price can be scored against real cost before it is confirmed. |
A flat house-sweep special is not wrong because it is simple — it is wrong when it is applied to a flue, height, roof, or creosote grade it was not set on, and "a house" alone never tells you that has happened. This calculator does not replace judgment about your market; it replaces the arithmetic a flat special skips.
Common questions
Why does a flat $199 house-sweep special get the price wrong?
Because chimney-sweep cost scales with flue type, stories, roof access, creosote buildup, inspection level, and whether there is an animal to remove — not with "a house." A one-story gas fireplace on an easy roof is a different job from a three-story wood stove with glazed creosote on a snow/ice roof. A flat house price quotes both the same and is wrong on one of them every time.
What does a flat house-sweep special usually leave out entirely?
The height, the roof, the creosote, and the inspection. A published house price is set on one configuration — usually a single easy flue on a walkable one- or two-story roof with light soot — and has no separate line for climbing a third story, working a steep or icy roof, scraping glazed creosote, doing a Level 2 or camera inspection, or removing a nest.
How much do height, roof access, creosote, and inspection actually add over the special?
On this calculator's own worked examples, at a $28 hourly wage, 32% burden, 18% overhead, and a 30% target margin: a one-story gas fireplace on an easy roof with light creosote walks away at $136.06, comfortably under a $199 special. This calculator's own shipped two-story, steep-roof, moderate-creosote default — the form's starting point, not a job picked to make a point — walks away at $193.30, just $5.70 under that same $199. A three-story wood stove on a snow/ice roof, with glazed creosote, a Level 2 inspection, and an animal removal, walks away at $366.12, $167.12 short of the same $199 special.
Is a flat house-sweep special ever the right way to quote?
For something close to the easy job it was probably priced on — one accessible flue, light creosote, no inspection add-on or animal work — a flat rate can land close, and on this calculator's own numbers even the default two-story job barely clears it. The risk is a third story, a steep or icy roof, glazed creosote, an inspection add-on, or an animal removal stacking on top of each other, because a flat house price has no way to see any of them until the sweep is already on the roof.
Does this calculator know what to charge in my market?
No. It has no data on local rates or what competitors charge. It takes the flue, stories, roof access, creosote, inspection, animal work, and travel you enter, plus your own wage, burden, and overhead, and turns them into a walk-away price for the stop you describe — the arithmetic a flat special skips, not a market survey.
Nothing here says or implies that quoting a flat house-sweep special is a bad-faith practice — it is a common, honest shortcut that works until the job stops matching the flue, height, and roof it was set on. This page describes where that shortcut breaks down, not a fault in anyone who uses it.
Open the Chimney Sweep Bid Calculator and price your own stop.