How Apex Chimney Cleaning Greater New York Was Born in Greater New York
It was a Tuesday in November, the kind of damp cold that settles into your bones in Greater New York, and we were standing in a living room in Hempstead watching a retired firefighter get quoted $4,200 for a chimney liner job that didn’t need half the work they were selling him. The company had sent a kid in a clean uniform who spent twenty minutes with a flashlight and forty minutes writing up “urgent” problems on a tablet. The homeowner’s hands were shaking as he read the estimate. He’d already written the check for the “inspection fee.”
We were working for someone else then, a mid-sized outfit that cared more about ticket averages than whether someone’s house would actually be safe that winter. We’d seen the playbook: scare the customer, pad the scope, move fast to the next appointment. But that Tuesday, watching a good man in Hempstead consider draining his savings for work he didn’t need, something cracked open. We drove back to our apartment in Brooklyn that night and made a list on the back of a diner receipt. Three promises. No scare tactics. No phantom repairs. Show the customer exactly what we see, let them decide, and sleep fine either way. Apex Chimney Cleaning Greater New York started with that receipt. We’re still keeping those promises seventeen years later.
Robert Garcia’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Robert Garcia didn’t stumble into chimney work — he was practically raised in it, though he didn’t realize that for a long time. His uncle Miguel ran a small masonry crew in Queens, and as a teenager Robert spent summers hauling bricks, mixing mortar, and learning to read a flue the way other kids learned to read a playbook. The work smelled like creosote and wet ash, like the particular mineral dust that coats your forearms and doesn’t wash off completely until the third shower. He hated it at sixteen. Couldn’t imagine anything worse than crawling into a dark shaft on a July afternoon when the brick held heat like a furnace.
What changed was a fire. Not a chimney fire — a house fire in Flatbush, 2004, caused by a blocked flue that a “certified” inspector had cleared six months earlier. Robert was twenty-three, working construction between community college classes, and he happened to be passing when the trucks were still there. He stood on the sidewalk with the family, a couple about his parents’ age, watching their kitchen fill with smoke that had nowhere else to go. The inspector’s report was in their file. “Clean and safe for operation.” It was neither.
Robert went back to his uncle that week and asked to learn the inspection side for real. Not the checklist version — the actual work of understanding how fire behaves in a confined space, how draft pulls, how a hairline crack in the wrong place can redirect carbon monoxide into a bedroom. He spent three years apprenticing, then started taking every certification course he could find, then spent five more years working for other companies before he couldn’t stand the compromises anymore.
If he weren’t doing this, Robert would probably be teaching. He nearly went that direction — still thinks about it sometimes, especially when he’s explaining to a first-time homeowner in Gramercy Park why their venting configuration matters. The part that gets him out of bed isn’t the climb or the tools. It’s the moment in a darkened living room when he hands someone his phone with a photo of their flue interior, and they finally understand what they’ve been breathing. That moment of real comprehension, of someone taking control of their own safety because they actually see what’s at stake. He’s been chasing that feeling for seventeen years. It hasn’t gotten old.
Meet Robert Garcia — The Person Behind Every Job
Robert Garcia is Owner & Lead Technician at Apex Chimney Cleaning Greater New York. He’s the person who answers your call, runs your inspection, and climbs your roof. He’s state-licensed, holds CSIA certification, and has completed advanced training in chimney fire damage assessment and solid fuel appliance installation. In an industry where many companies send salespeople who’ve never held a brush, Robert still does the physical work himself on most jobs — he believes you can’t price or recommend what you haven’t personally touched.
What separates him from franchise technicians is simple: he’s not building toward a management promotion or a territory expansion. He’s building a reputation he can stand in front of, in a city where your neighbor will remember if you did right by them. Robert lives in Hillside with his family, still takes his daughter to the same pizza spot in East Flatbush where his uncle took him, and maintains a stubborn habit of calling customers back personally even when the office staff could handle it. He believes showing up is a skill most people have forgotten.
Here’s his commitment, direct and plain: when Robert Garcia works on your chimney, he treats it like his mother’s chimney. No shortcuts, no hidden problems, no invoice surprises. If he wouldn’t sign his name to it, he won’t ask you to pay for it.
Our Promise to Greater New York Homeowners
Honest pricing, always. We quote by the actual scope of work, not by what we think your ZIP code can bear. In 2019, a homeowner in Kensington called us for a second opinion after receiving a $3,800 estimate for “immediate liner replacement.” We inspected, found minor mortar deterioration that we repaired with HeatShield for under $900, and that customer still calls us every year for maintenance. We keep every estimate we write — if the scope doesn’t change, neither does the price.
Quality parts that last. We install Gelco and Olympia Chimney liners and caps because we’ve seen what the discount alternatives look like after three winters of Greater New York freeze-thaw cycles. We warranty our installations because we know the materials. If we wouldn’t put it in our own home, we won’t put it in yours.
We stand behind every job. In 2016, a repair we completed in Briarwood developed a separation at the crown after an unusually harsh February. The homeowner didn’t call to complain — she called to ask if this was normal. Robert drove out that evening, found our error, and rebuilt the crown at no charge the next morning. We don’t debate whether something is “our fault.” We fix it, figure out why it happened, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed chimney contractor — verified and current
- Insured & bonded — full liability and workers compensation coverage
- 17+ years serving Greater New York homeowners
- 1,096 verified reviews averaging 4.7/5 stars
- CSIA-certified technician on every job
- Member, National Chimney Sweep Guild
These credentials aren’t decorations — they’re protections for you. State licensing means we’ve met New York’s standards for technical competence and business practices. Insurance and bonding means if something goes wrong on your property, you’re not chasing a subcontractor or hoping someone’s personal policy covers it. Those 1,096 reviews represent real homes in Hempstead, Flatbush, Uniondale, and across Greater New York where we’ve been invited inside and trusted with people’s families. Seventeen years in this market means we’ve seen the specific challenges of local construction — the pre-war masonry in Hell’s Kitchen, the converted boiler systems in East Village walk-ups, the salt-air corrosion in coastal Hempstead properties. Experience here isn’t interchangeable with experience elsewhere.
Rooted in Greater New York
We’ve cleaned chimneys in Hollis homes where three generations cook Sunday dinner together, and in Gramercy Park brownstones where the fireplace hasn’t been used since the original owners moved in in 1987. Robert’s daughter plays soccer in the same East Flatbush league where he coached his nephew fifteen years ago. We’ve sponsored the Hillside Little League and contributed to the Hempstead volunteer fire department’s annual fund — not because it generates leads, but because those are our people, and their safety equipment matters as much as their flues. When you call Apex Chimney Cleaning Greater New York, you’re not getting a national dispatch center. You’re getting someone who knows why the traffic on the Belt Parkway affects whether we can make your afternoon appointment, and who will call you honestly if we can’t. That’s the difference between working in a community and being part of one.
Written by Robert Garcia, Owner at Apex Chimney Cleaning Greater New York, serving Greater New York since 2007.