How Emberly Chimney Cleaners Denton Was Born in Denton
It was late fall in Denton, 2015. We’d just moved our family here from the Dallas side, and the house on Sherman Drive had a fireplace that hadn’t run in years. The technician who came out spent eleven minutes in our living room, waved a flashlight up the flue, and handed us a handwritten slip for $3,800 in “recommended repairs.” No photos. No explanation of what he’d actually seen. When we asked about the liner, he said it was “probably cracked” and that we’d smell carbon monoxide if it got bad enough.
That was the moment. We called three more companies in Denton and got the same routine: vague anxiety, no documentation, price delivered verbally after the tech was already packing up. The industry was running on trust-me intimidation, and homeowners had no way to verify a thing.
We already knew about Emberly Chimney Cleaners from back east. They’d been doing camera inspections as standard since 2009, archiving every scan, building a record that could prove a liner had failed before a fire rather than after. That archive was why their guarantee meant something. We reached out, spent six months training under their standards, and opened the Denton branch in 2016. Our promise from day one: every homeowner gets the footage, every quote is written before we touch a tool, and nobody in Denton gets sold a repair they can see for themselves.
Corrine Halstead’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Corrine Halstead didn’t plan on chimney work. She was managing commercial properties in Plano, spending her days in fluorescent-lit hallways arguing with HVAC contractors about whether a coil was actually leaking. The work paid fine. It meant nothing.
The shift happened on a Saturday in 2012, helping a tradesman who’d trained us clear a nest from a flue in a Little Elm ranch house. The homeowner was a widow in her seventies, heating her whole living room with that fireplace because she couldn’t afford to run the central unit. The flue was packed with baked-on creosote, a chimney fire waiting to happen. We ran a brush through it for three hours, and when we finally dropped the camera down, the difference was visible: before, the walls were glazed black and tarry; after, you could see the terracotta joints again. The woman made us coffee and sat there watching the monitor like it was a movie. She said she’d been cold for two winters, afraid to use it, afraid not to.
That smell of creosote and wood ash, the weight of a fiberglass rod in your hands, the grainy camera feed revealing what was actually true inside a wall you can’t see - it hooked something. Corrine started apprenticing evenings and weekends. By 2014 she was running her own sweeps. The physical work was a relief after years of spreadsheet management. More than that, it was the only trade she’d found where the customer could literally watch the problem and the solution on the same screen. No faith required. No jargon to hide behind.
If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be restoring old motorcycles or teaching herself to weld. She likes systems you can see and test. Chimneys are that: a flue is either clear or it isn’t, a liner either passes inspection or it doesn’t. The camera doesn’t care how persuasive you are.
What gets her out of bed is the call from a Denton homeowner who’s been told they need a full rebuild, and we run the scan and show them the flue is sound except for one cracked tile that can be spot-repaired. Watching someone realize they weren’t crazy to doubt the first quote - that’s the work.
Meet Corrine Halstead - The Person Behind Every Job
Corrine Halstead is the Owner and Founder of Emberly Chimney Cleaners Denton. She holds state licensure for chimney and fireplace work in Texas, carries full insurance and bonding, and trained under Emberly Chimney Cleaners’s certification program before opening this branch in 2016. She personally reviews every camera inspection recorded by her crews, spot-checking documentation against the Haven Standard’s Clause 4 requirements.
What separates Corrine from a corporate franchise technician is simple: she’s the one who answers when something goes wrong. No regional manager to escalate to. She lives in Denton, shops at the same grocery stores as her customers, and has a personal stake in every review posted. Her hobby is trail running on the Greenbelt, which she’ll talk about too long if you let her. The discipline of it - same route, measured pace, no shortcuts - mirrors how she runs the business.
Her commitment to you is direct: if she wouldn’t have the work done in her own home on Hickory Street, she won’t sign off on it in yours.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Denton Homeowners
We operate under the Haven Standard, and we mean every clause.
Have it in writing. Every sweep and inspection in Denton starts with a flat price, a written scope of work, and a written warranty before anyone touches your chimney. We learned this the hard way: early in 2016, a crew underestimated a job in Krum, and Corrine ate the difference rather than go back to the homeowner. Now the price is locked before we start, period.
Evidence on every job. We use Gelco and Olympia Chimney equipment for our camera systems, and every homeowner receives timestamped photos and video of what we found. Not a summary. The actual footage. If we recommend a liner replacement, you’ll see the spalling clay or corroded stainless we saw.
No surprises. No “while we’re in here” upsells at your door. If we find something outside the quoted scope, we stop, show you, and give you a separate written price before proceeding. We’ve walked away from jobs where the homeowner wanted time to think. That’s fine. The Haven Standard is built for people who research before they decide.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed for chimney and fireplace services in Texas
- Insured & bonded - full coverage for work performed in your home
- Years of local experience serving Denton, Krum, Corinth, Lantana, Lake Dallas, Highland Village, Sanger, Flower Mound, Little Elm, Lewisville, Roanoke, and Trophy Club
- Strong local reputation built through documented work and accountable service
- Haven Standard certified - every job meets the five-clause code: written price, scheduled arrival, verified crews, evidence on every job, no surprises
These credentials matter because chimney work happens inside your home’s structure, often on your roof, always with fire safety at stake. A state license means someone verified our training. Insurance and bonding mean if something goes wrong, you’re not relying on a handshake. The Haven Standard means there’s a documented record of what we found, not just what we said. When you’re deciding whether a $2,400 liner replacement is necessary, that documentation is the difference between trust and guesswork.
Rooted in Denton
This branch opened in 2016, but Corrine and her family live here, pay taxes here, and sweep chimneys from Lantana to Sanger. We’ve worked on historic flues in the original Denton square and on new builds in Corinth’s expanding subdivisions. Our crews know which neighborhoods in Little Elm were built during the 2012-2014 rush and which in Flower Mound have the prefab fireplaces that need specific clearances. We’re not passing through. When you call (940) 373-6912, you’re reaching a team that knows whether your chimney was built before or after Denton County’s 2014 amendment to the International Residential Code. That’s the difference between a local branch and a dispatcher reading from a map.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Emberly Chimney Cleaners Denton, serving Denton and surrounding communities since 2016.