Meet David York, the Owner Behind Chimney Experts
Owner-operated chimney and masonry work in Louisville, KY. The person who answers the phone is the person on your roof.
The Story, Told Straight
David York founded Chimney Experts in Louisville in 2020, after more than 15 years of hands-on chimney and masonry work. He didn't start the company to build a sales operation — he started it because he kept seeing homeowners quoted for repairs nobody had actually looked at, by companies where the person selling the job would never touch the chimney.
Chimney Experts is owner-operated on purpose. When you call (502) 744-0341, you're not reaching a call center or a dispatcher reading a script — you're reaching the person who will climb your roof, run the camera down your flue, and stand behind the work afterward. That's not a limitation of a small company. It's the whole point of one.
David is NFPA 211 trained — the National Fire Protection Association standard that governs chimneys, fireplaces, and venting systems. NFPA 211 is the benchmark fire officials and home inspectors reference when they evaluate a chimney, and it's the standard every one of our inspections and repairs is measured against. The business is fully insured. Insured and owner-operated: those are the two facts we'd want to know about anyone we let on our own roof, so they're the two facts we lead with.
Fifteen-plus years in this trade also means fifteen-plus years of Louisville-area chimneys specifically — the older masonry stacks in established neighborhoods, the factory-built systems in newer subdivisions, and the freeze-thaw cycles and driving rain that work on crowns, caps, and mortar joints year after year. The problems here follow patterns, and experience with those patterns is what separates an accurate diagnosis from an expensive guess.
Why Owner-Operated Matters
"Owner-operated" gets used as a slogan by companies with dispatch boards and sales teams. Here it's a literal description of the business — and it changes four concrete things about how your chimney gets handled.
No Commissioned Salespeople
Nobody at Chimney Experts earns a commission for selling you work, because nobody here sells — we diagnose. There are no quotas to hit and no incentive to find problems that aren't there. The recommendation you get is the one David would give his own neighbor.
The Diagnosing Tech Is the Repairing Tech
At larger outfits, one person inspects, another quotes, and a third shows up to do the work — and details get lost at every handoff. Here, the person who found the problem is the person who fixes it, so nothing is lost in translation.
Camera-Documented Findings
Every inspection is documented with photos, and drone shots of caps and crowns where the roofline makes them hard to reach. You see exactly what we see — cracked crown, failed flashing, open mortar joint — before anyone talks about a repair.
Honest Referrals
Sometimes a "chimney leak" is actually a roof problem, and sometimes a job sits outside our wheelhouse. When that happens, we say so plainly and point you to the right trade instead of stretching to keep the work.
How We Work
- 1
Diagnose first
Every job starts with a camera-documented inspection, from $195. We look at the firebox, flue, crown, cap, flashing, and masonry before anyone suggests a repair — because you can't fix what you haven't actually seen.
- 2
Written findings with photos
You get the findings in writing, with the photos to back them up. No vague verbal warnings, no scare tactics — documented conditions you can review on your own time and share with anyone you like.
- 3
A no-pressure quote
The quote covers what the inspection actually found, itemized so you can see what each piece of work addresses. If something can wait, we tell you it can wait. If a repair isn't justified, we tell you that too.
- 4
Repair done right
When you're ready, the same person who diagnosed the problem completes the repair and verifies the fix before calling the job done.
That process covers everything we do: chimney repair, chimney leak repair, crown repair, caps and chase covers, waterproofing, and masonry and structural work. Whatever the job, it starts with a look, not a pitch — and it ends with photos of the finished work, so you know what was done and why.
One thing you'll never get from us: a quote over the phone for a repair nobody has seen. Chimney problems hide — behind flue tiles, under flashing, inside smoke chambers — and any number given before an inspection is a guess dressed up as an estimate. We'd rather earn your trust with a documented answer than win a job with a low number that changes later.
What Louisville Homeowners Say
We'd rather point you to what customers say than write our own praise. Chimney Experts is rated 4.7 on both Angi and HomeAdvisor, and was named one of ThreeBestRated's 3 Best Chimney Sweeps in Louisville with a 4.8/5 rating.
- Rated 4.7 on Angi and HomeAdvisor — updated by real homeowners after real jobs
- One of ThreeBestRated's "3 Best Chimney Sweeps in Louisville," rated 4.8/5
- Insured and owner-operated, NFPA 211 trained
Those ratings come from the same approach described above — look first, document everything, and never quote work the photos can't justify.
Where We Work, and When
Chimney Experts serves Louisville and the surrounding communities across Jefferson, Oldham, and Shelby counties. That range is deliberate: staying local means the truck that shows up is ours, the schedule stays honest, and follow-up visits don't fall through the cracks. If you're nearby but don't see your town listed, call — we can usually tell you over the phone whether you're in range.
Communities We Serve
- Louisville
- St. Matthews
- Middletown
- Crestwood
- Prospect
- Anchorage
- Lyndon
- Pewee Valley
- La Grange
- Shelbyville
- Simpsonville
- New Albany, IN
- Jeffersonville, IN
See every location on our service areas page.
Business Hours
- SundayClosed
- Monday9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Tuesday9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Wednesday9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Thursday9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Friday9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- SaturdayClosed
Call (502) 744-0341 or book an inspection online any time — the booking page takes requests around the clock.
Talk to the Person Who Does the Work
No call center, no sales handoff, no mystery crew. One owner, one standard, and a camera-documented answer to what's actually going on with your chimney.
Camera-documented inspections from $195 — you see exactly what we see before any repair is quoted.