Way Back in Time – A History of Luce’s Chimney
In 1980 while employed as a park ranger, my wife Lou and I borrowed $1500.00 from my dad to purchase an August West Chimney Cleaning System.  This was stimulated from an ad we saw in The Mother Earth News titled, “Be a Chimney Sweep - earn $40.00 per hour”.  We needed to supplement the modest park ranger income and this was something we could do "on the side". We almost instantly fell in love with being chimney sweeps and being in business for ourselves.  As time went on and after a lot of soul searching, we decided to leave the park ranger thing behind and pursue the business full-time.
 
We had already been selling things like rain caps and installing stainless steel chimney liners so the next natural step was to add woodstoves.  Then gas hearth appliances became the trend so we obtained some training in gas installations and added gas to our products and services.  As our kids grew, several of them became well accustomed to this type of work and were interested in it.  One son is our Service Manager, and another son is one of our technicians.

We worked out of our garage at home for many years; the garage was our store and office. This worked well for some time. It was when we had eight service technicians meeting at the house in the morning to get their jobs, use our restroom, drink coffee, etc. and customers showing up when we were closed, that we decided to take the plunge and get a real store. We found a great location that is easily found.
 
Luce’s Chimney Today
Presently, we have eight full-time employees, a full retail location with a full service department.  We carry most stoves and fireplaces in stock so customers don't have to wait on their installation.  We sell almost every hearth product imaginable and provide complete chimney services, ranging from sweepings to full blown fireplace restorations.