How We Brought Level Two Chimney to Annapolis
When Corrine Halstead first saw what a camera inspection could reveal inside a chimney flue, she knew Annapolis homeowners were being asked to make expensive decisions in the dark. The problem wasn’t a shortage of chimney sweeps around here. It was that most of them were still working the way sweeps worked decades ago: a flashlight, a brush, and a verbal report that ended with a handshake and a bill. If a liner was cracked, a homeowner couldn’t see it. If a flue was holding creosote behind a bend, there was no evidence. Homeowners in neighborhoods like Parole and Severna Park were being told to spend thousands on repairs based on a technician’s word alone. Corrine believed that had to change.
That’s why she chose to bring Level Two Chimney Co. to Annapolis. The company had been doing something unusual since 2009: running a camera down every flue as standard practice, and archiving the footage so a homeowner could see exactly what was found, before and after. Corrine wanted that standard here. Not a regional brand dropped into a new market with a marketing budget, but a working philosophy that fit what Annapolis homeowners actually needed: evidence before expense. She built the local branch around that idea.
Corrine Halstead’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
There’s a particular smell in an old chimney flue, especially in a coastal town like Annapolis. It’s not just soot. It’s salt air, damp mortar, a decade of fires burned by families who seasoned their wood differently, opened their dampers differently, lived differently. Corrine learned to read that smell before she could articulate what it meant. Her years in the trade started the way most real careers do: doing the unglamorous work, asking questions, getting dirty, and learning that the difference between a chimney that’s safe and one that isn’t can be hidden behind a single brick, invisible from the hearth.
She’s spent over a decade in the trade, long enough to know that most homeowners don’t think about their chimney until something goes wrong. A puff of smoke in the living room. A strange odor in summer. A chimney fire they heard about on the next street over. What keeps her in the work is the moment after the camera comes back up and she can show a homeowner exactly what’s inside their flue. The relief is real. The confusion lifts. They’re not being asked to trust a stranger’s opinion; they’re looking at the evidence themselves. That’s what the work means to her. Not the cleaning itself, though she respects the craft of it. It’s the clarity.
If she weren’t doing this, she says, she’d still be working with her hands somewhere, probably complaining about people who cut corners. She’d rather be the one who doesn’t.
Meet Corrine Halstead – The Person Behind Every Job
Corrine Halstead is the Owner & Founder of the Annapolis branch of Level Two Chimney Co. She built her career on the unglamorous side of home services: the crawlspaces, the rooftops, the flues nobody thinks about until December. Her background is in the hands-on side of the trade, and she holds the license and insurance her state requires for the work she oversees. What separates her from a technician at a corporate shop is that she’s the one who set the standard for this branch. When a homeowner in Crofton or Odenton has a question about what was found during an inspection, the answer comes from someone who has done this work herself, not someone reading a script.
She’s direct. She’d rather show you a problem than describe it. And she believes a chimney sweep’s job is not to sell repairs; it’s to tell the truth about what the camera sees. That’s the commitment she makes to every customer who calls.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Annapolis Homeowners
We work to the Haven Standard, and that’s not a vague promise. It’s a five-part code, and each part exists because someone, somewhere, got burned by the old way of doing things.
- Have it in writing. Flat price, written scope, written warranty, before anyone starts. No verbal estimates. No “we’ll see when we get up there.”
- Arrive on schedule. A real window, a named tech, and a text when they’re on the way. We know you’re taking time out of your day.
- Verified crews. Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. Their license number should be on the page.
- Evidence on every job. Photos and readings of what we actually found, not a summary from memory.
- No surprises. No door upsell, no scope creep, no “while we’re in here” additions.
That last one matters most to Corrine. She’s seen too many homeowners quoted one price and charged another. We’d rather lose a job than win it by surprise.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed. The business holds the licenses Maryland requires for the work we perform.
- Insured and bonded. We carry the coverage that protects both our crew and your home while we’re working on it.
- Founded in 2009. Level Two Chimney Co. has been operating for 17 years, and the Annapolis branch brings that standard to this market.
- Strong local reputation. We’ve built trust with homeowners across Anne Arundel County the old-fashioned way: by showing them evidence of the work we do.
Why does that matter to someone hiring a chimney sweep? Because the person coming to your home should be someone you can verify. A license means the state has checked that they know what they’re doing. Insurance means an accident at your house doesn’t become your liability. And a reputation built on camera evidence means you’ll never be asked to take a contractor’s word for a problem that exists inside your flue.
Rooted in Annapolis
We work in the neighborhoods where Annapolis actually lives: Parole, Arnold, Severna Park, the waterfront streets near Lake Shore, the newer developments out toward Crofton and Odenton. We know what the salt air and the bay humidity do to masonry over time. We know which flue configurations are common in homes built during Annapolis’s post-war expansions and which ones were retrofitted through the 1980s remodeling boom. That local knowledge isn’t a marketing slogan. It’s what allows us to anticipate problems before the camera even goes down.
We serve homeowners from Annapolis north to Glen Burnie and Pasadena and west through Bowie and Severn. When you call, you’ll reach a live coordinator who connects you with our local team. We’ll quote your chimney job in writing before anything starts. That part is non-negotiable, and it always has been.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Level Two Chimney Annapolis, serving Annapolis and the surrounding Anne Arundel County communities.