How Hearthstone Chimney Co. Was Born in Milford
We remember the exact afternoon. It was late autumn, 2014, and we’d just finished a sweep on a farmhouse outside Milford. The homeowner, a woman in her seventies who’d lived there since her husband built the place in 1968, walked us to the door and said something that stopped us cold. She told us the last company had charged her for a “complete liner replacement” she later learned she didn’t need. They’d shown her a blurry photo, scared her with talk of carbon monoxide, and walked out with her check. She’d been heating her kitchen with a space heater for two winters because she couldn’t afford to trust anyone again.
We stood on her porch that day and made a decision. Milford deserved better. Pike County deserved better. The Hearthstone Chimney Co. brand had already earned its reputation in other Pennsylvania markets for doing things the old way - the right way - and we were going to bring that standard here. No scare tactics. No recommendations without camera evidence a homeowner could see for themselves. No surprises on the bill. That woman became our first customer in Milford, and her kitchen stove became the first hearth we restored to working order. Twelve years later, we still think about her when we pull into a driveway.
Russell Haines’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Russell Haines didn’t stumble into chimney work. He was drawn to it the way some people are drawn to old houses or woodworking - by the smell of it, the patience it demands, the visible proof of a job done well.
He’d spent years in construction, the kind of rough framing and finish work that teaches you to read a structure by eye. But chimneys were different. They were hidden systems, the lungs of a house, and most homeowners never thought about them until something went wrong. Russell liked that responsibility. He liked that a sloppy sweep could leave creosote behind to catch fire, and that a careful one could let a family sleep soundly through January.
The training was grueling in the way good training always is. He learned to read flue gases, to spot pyrolyzed wood framing three feet from a thimble, to recognize the particular white efflorescence that means water is eating a flue from the inside out. He remembers his first level-2 inspection, crawling into a fireplace with a camera on a flexible rod, the dust in his nose, the strange quiet of being inside a chimney’s geometry. The image on his monitor showed a cracked flue tile no one had known was there. The homeowner stood behind him, watching over his shoulder. That moment - finding what others missed, explaining it in plain English, knowing a fire had been prevented - that’s what still gets Russell out of bed before dawn on cold mornings.
If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be restoring old boats or rebuilding stone walls. Something with his hands, something that outlasts him. The work means something because it matters to people who plan to die in the homes we service. That’s not sentimentality. That’s the job.
Meet Russell Haines - The Person Behind Every Job
Russell Haines, Owner & Founder
Russell leads every aspect of Hearthstone Chimney Co.’s Milford branch. He’s a certified chimney sweep with level-2 inspection credentials, trained in masonry repair, flue relining, and the installation of stainless steel and cast-in-place liners. He’s worked with HeatShield refractory systems and Gelco stainless products long enough to know which applications hold up in our freeze-thaw climate and which don’t.
What separates Russell from a franchise technician sent from a dispatch hub is simple: he’s the one who answers for the work. He lives in this service area. His crew is local. When he recommends a repair, he’s the one who’ll be back to check it if something isn’t right. On weekends, you’ll find him on the Delaware River in a drift boat, fly fishing the same stretches his grandfather taught him. That patience - waiting for the right moment, reading the water - is the same patience he brings to a chimney inspection. He doesn’t rush. He doesn’t oversell. He treats your home the way he’d treat his mother’s.
That’s not a line. That’s the standard he holds himself to, every job, every time.
Our Promise to Milford Homeowners
We operate by a code we call K.E.Y.S., and it isn’t decoration.
Krafted right means our journeymen train apprentices the way Russell was trained - on actual chimneys, with actual tools, until the work is muscle memory. We use proper materials, name-brand components from suppliers like Olympia Chimney and Famco, and we never substitute cheap alternatives without telling you.
Every time means the 400th inspection gets the flashlight beam in the same corner as the first. Complacency is how things get missed. We don’t get complacent.
Your home first means drop cloths on every floor we cross, shoe covers at the door, and a vacuum run after we’re done. We’ve heard the stories about crews who tracked soot through white carpet. That doesn’t happen here.
Standing behind it means our Keystone Standard guarantee: 90 days, in writing, no arguing. If it’s not right, we come back. No paperwork battle, no phone tree, no “let us check with the office.”
Our Credentials
State-licensed - Every professional working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. We don’t send untrained labor into your home.
Insured & bonded - Protection for you and your property while we’re on the job. No exceptions, no gaps.
Years of local experience - Russell and our Milford team have been serving Pike County and surrounding markets since 2014. We’ve swept chimneys in the Delaware Water Gap, inspected flues in Shohola, and rebuilt fireboxes in Matamoras. We know the local building stock, the regional codes, and the particular challenges of heating in a climate that swings from humid summers to single-digit winters.
Strong local reputation - We don’t buy our way into rankings. Our business grows when a neighbor tells another neighbor that we showed up when we said, charged what we quoted, and left the house cleaner than we found it.
These credentials matter because chimney work happens inside your home, around your family, near your roofline. You’re not buying a product you can return. You’re trusting someone with your safety. That trust has to be earned, and we’ve spent twelve years earning it in Milford.
Rooted in Milford
We’re not passing through. Russell raised his family here. Our trucks roll past the Pike County Courthouse, up Route 6 toward Lake Wallenpaupack, down the back roads to Dingmans Ferry. We’ve swept chimneys in the historic district and in the new developments off Milford Road. When the county fair runs in August, our crew is there, not because it’s marketing but because it’s where the community gathers. The hearthstone is the stone the whole home gathered around - that’s why the brand bears the name, and that’s how we try to show up for this place. Milford isn’t where we work. It’s where we live.
Written by Russell Haines, Owner at Hearthstone Chimney Co., serving Milford since 2014.