Top Hat Chimney in Iowa
Top Hat Chimney has been sweeping, inspecting, and repairing flues across Iowa since 1999. That’s over 29 years of climbing roofs in weather that turns on you fast, of pulling bird nests out of caps in May and diagnosing smoke problems in January. Wendell runs it owner-operated, which means when you call, there’s a live person on the line, and it may well be Wendell himself. Every Top Hat Chimney job in Iowa carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing, and every customer gets the Locally guarantee: the price you hear on the phone is the price on the invoice, the owner publishes his name and license number, and you can drive to the address before you ever make the call.
Why Iowa Homeowners Choose Top Hat Chimney
Wendell started this work the same year a lot of the national chimney outfits were figuring out how to franchise. He went the other direction. Top Hat Chimney is named for the old answer you give when somebody asks, “Who’s actually coming to my house?” The top hat, the brush, the face you recognize. Not a rotating crew from three counties over.
In Iowa, that matters more than it might somewhere else. Our heating season runs long, our flues take a beating from temperature swings that would crack lesser masonry, and when you’ve got a backdraft on a February night, you need somebody who answers the phone, not a recording that tells you to hold for the next available representative. Wendell’s line is live around the clock. No voicemail box, no call center queue.
Here’s what that looks like in practice. You call, you get a person, you get a real arrival window. If it slips, you get a call. The technician who shows up is background-checked, uniformed, and carrying the right tools for DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield systems. Wendell publishes his license number. He puts his name on the work. And if something isn’t right, the 90-Day Done Right Promise means one call brings him back. That’s not a slogan stamped on a magnet. It’s in writing on every job.
The pricing works the same way. Wendell gives you the number upfront, before a single tool comes off the truck. No trip charge inside the county. Seniors and veterans get 10% off, always. Any repair over $200, there’s $40 off. And if another company handed you a written estimate that doesn’t sit right, Wendell will come give you a free second opinion. He’s been in these Iowa communities long enough that “ask anyone on your street” is a real thing he can say.
That’s the difference between an owner-operator and a franchise that rotated in last spring. Wendell lives twenty minutes from most of his customers. He runs into them at the hardware store on Saturday. That’s the oldest accountability mechanism there is.
Backed by the Locally Family
Top Hat Chimney carries the Locally name because Wendell met a standard that hasn’t changed since 1997, when Ward Selby started this whole thing with a simple list: a local phone number a person answers, an address you can drive to, the owner’s name and face, and a license number you can look up. Any company that publishes all four can carry the name. Wendell does, and has for more than two decades.
The Locally L.O.C.A.L. values code applies to every Top Hat Chimney job across Iowa. Local roots, not a call center three states away. On time, with a window that means something. Community first, hiring and buying here. Accountable, with the owner answering the phone and putting his name on the work. Loyal, building twenty-year relationships instead of chasing one big ticket. That’s the Locally promise, and that’s what Iowa homeowners get when Top Hat Chimney comes to the door.
Written by Wendell, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Iowa since 1999.