Hillsdale County
Chimneys in Hillsdale County
Hillsdale County sits on the Ohio and Indiana border in south-central Michigan, with the city of Hillsdale as the county seat. It is one of the older-settled parts of the state, and a substantial share of its housing predates 1900 – particularly in Hillsdale, Jonesville and Litchfield.
Housing that old was built for wood and coal, with flues and fireplaces sized accordingly. Very few of those chimneys are doing today what they were designed to do, and the mismatch between original design and current use is the main thing an inspection here needs to establish.
Nineteenth-Century Masonry in Hillsdale County
Pre-1900 chimneys in this county are frequently unlined – built as bare brick shafts, because clay tile liners were not standard practice yet. An unlined chimney venting a modern appliance has no barrier between flue gases and the mortar joints, and over decades those joints erode until gases can pass into wall cavities.
This is not visible without a camera and it is not something a sweep alone addresses. Where we find unlined masonry in service, relining is the fix, and we will explain why rather than simply quoting for it.