Chimney Caps & Animal Removal in New Castle County

Keep the rain, raccoons, and nesting birds out — and the embers in — with a properly fitted stainless cap.

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Cap the Flue Before It Costs You a Crown

An open flue is collecting weather and wildlife right now. Get a cap sized, priced, and installed in one visit. Call (302) 592-2196.

  • Stainless caps with spark screens
  • Chase cover fabrication and replacement
  • Humane, legal wildlife removal
  • Top-sealing dampers that stop heat loss

Chimney Caps: Small Part, Outsized Job

An uncapped chimney is an open hole in your roof — that's the whole story. Rain falls straight down the flue and into the smoke chamber, where it mixes with creosote into an acidic sludge that eats masonry and smells exactly like you'd think. Animals move in. Debris blocks the draft. Embers exit unscreened. A properly fitted stainless cap fixes all of it at once, which is why the first note on so many inspection reports is simply: no cap.

Animal Removal, Done Legally and Humanely

Every spring, New Castle County chimneys fill with tenants. Raccoons — typically a mother who's chosen your flue as a den for her kits — and nesting birds are the usual cases, and each has a right way and a wrong way. The wrong way involves fire, smoke, or a coat hanger, and it ends with dead animals in the flue or a panicked raccoon in your living room. The right way is humane eviction or removal, timed correctly, followed by a full cleaning of the nesting debris (a serious draft blockage and fire hazard) and a cap installation so the vacancy is never re-listed.

One case is special: chimney swifts are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and active nests cannot legally be disturbed — by anyone. The good news is the nesting window is short. The service that's actually available, and the one we connect you with, schedules the removal and capping for the week the young fledge, and tells you the truth about the wait instead of quietly breaking federal law up your flue.

The Cheapest Insurance on the House

Most of the expensive chimney repairs on this site — spalled brick, washed-out mortar, rusted dampers, rebuilt crowns — begin with water that a cap would have kept out. Delaware gets its rain year-round and its freezes all winter; an uncapped flue funnels the first into the masonry and lets the second do the demolition. If you cap one thing this year, cap the chimney.

One Part Prevents Most Chimney Repairs

Cap it once, stop the water damage cycle for good. Call for a same-week install.

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Common questions

Do I actually need a chimney cap?

If your chimney doesn't have one, this is the cheapest meaningful upgrade in the trade. A cap keeps out rain (the source of most masonry damage), animals, birds, and debris, and its spark screen keeps embers off the roof. An uncapped flue is an open pipe collecting Delaware weather year-round.

There's an animal in my chimney. What do I do?

Don't light a fire, and don't try to smoke it out — that kills the animal and fills your house. Raccoons (usually a mother with kits in spring) and nesting birds are the common cases. Removal is done humanely, timed around the animals when the law requires it, and the flue gets capped afterward so it doesn't happen twice.

Why can't the birds in my chimney be removed right away?

If they're chimney swifts — and in this region they usually are — they're protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and active nests can't be disturbed. The nesting window is a few weeks in late spring and summer. Once the young fledge, the flue gets cleaned and capped. It's an inconvenience, it's also the law, and anyone who offers to pull an active swift nest is telling you something about how they work.

What's the difference between a chimney cap and a chase cover?

A cap sits over an individual flue. A chase cover is the metal lid over the whole top of a framed (usually prefab) chimney chase, with the cap above it. Rusted-through chase covers are one of the most common leak sources on 1980s–90s construction, and stainless replacements end the problem permanently.

What is a top-sealing damper?

A damper mounted at the top of the flue instead of the throat, sealing with a gasket when closed. It stops the winter heat loss of a leaky throat damper, keeps weather and animals out like a cap, and opens with a cable at the fireplace. On a fireplace with a worn-out throat damper it's usually the better replacement.

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