How Level Two Chimney Littleton Was Born in Littleton
We remember the exact afternoon in late 2014 when we knew Littleton needed something different. Corrine had been running sweeps out of Denver for Haven for three years already, and we’d gotten a call from a couple in the Ken Caryl Ranch area. Their chimney had been “inspected” twice that season by two different companies. Both had sold them a sweep. Neither had put a camera up the flue. The third company, called after a smoking problem wouldn’t quit, quoted them $4,200 for a stainless liner they were told was “mandatory” - no photos, no code citation, just a verbal push in their living room.
Corrine brought our Level 2 gear that evening. The flue was dirty, yes, but the real issue was a cracked crown letting water straight down the terracotta. A $340 crown seal and proper sweep solved it. The couple sat on their porch steps afterward, quiet for a long moment, then asked why nobody else had actually looked. We didn’t have a good answer. That night, Corrine called Haven and asked to open the Littleton branch. We opened in March 2015. Our promise was simple: every customer gets what NFPA 211 actually calls an inspection - Level 2, camera, documentation - and every recommendation comes with evidence they can hold in their hand. Clause 4 of the Haven Standard was already in our blood by then. We weren’t going to run a shop that sold fear and invoices. Littleton deserved better.
Corrine Halstead’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Corrine didn’t grow up in this trade. She came to it sideways, through a season of fixing up a 1926 bungalow in West Washington Park that had a chimney held together by little more than pride and old mortar. The first sweep she hired showed up with a wire brush, a shop vac, and a receipt pad. He was done in twenty minutes. Something felt wrong about that, so Corrine started reading - NFPA codes, the Chimney Safety Institute of America manuals, whatever she could find at the Denver Public Library. She bought a used chimney camera off a retiring sweep in Aurora, climbed her own roof in January, and spent three weekends learning what creosote actually looked like when it was glazed and hazardous versus just dusty.
The smell of that first proper cleaning is still vivid: wet ash, old soot, the sharp metallic tang of the flue itself. Her hands were black for days. But the moment that hooked her was showing the footage to her neighbor, a retired firefighter who’d spent twenty years with Denver Fire. He watched the camera climb past a cracked flue liner near the smoke shelf, paused the video, and said, “That’s how houses burn. People don’t know because nobody shows them.” That was it. Corrine was already working in project management, already good at it, already bored. She called Haven the following week.
Ten years in, what gets her out of bed is still that pause in the footage. The moment a homeowner sees what their chimney actually looks like inside. Not her explanation - the evidence itself. If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be teaching somewhere, showing people how systems they ignore actually function. She still climbs roofs when the weather’s right. Still gets her hands dirty. Still carries her own camera to jobs in Columbine and Highlands Ranch when the schedule allows, because the work itself is the point.
Meet Corrine Halstead - The Person Behind Every Job
Corrine Halstead, Owner & Founder, Level Two Chimney Littleton
Corrine holds state licensure for chimney and fireplace work in Colorado and has completed the National Fireplace Institute’s certification track for woodburning systems. She trained under a master sweep in the Haven network for eighteen months before leading her own crew, then spent three years proving the model in Denver before bringing it to Littleton in 2015.
What separates Corrine from a corporate franchise technician is simple: she’s the one who answers when the documentation system flags an anomaly. She’s the one who calls a homeowner back to explain why a reading matters. On weekends, she’s usually trail running in Deer Creek Canyon or rebuilding vintage mountain bikes - work that demands the same patience and attention to worn parts that chimney inspection requires. She believes a homeowner should never pay for a recommendation they can’t see and verify. That’s not a slogan. It’s how she runs her shop.
Every job that carries our name in Littleton, Englewood, Ken Caryl, or Centennial has Corrine’s direct commitment behind it: honest scope, documented findings, and a written record you can reference when you sell your home or file your insurance.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Littleton Homeowners
Our values aren’t framed on a wall. They’re practiced, and when we fail, we own it.
Honest pricing, locked before we start. Clause 1 of the Haven Standard - Have it in writing - means your estimate is a flat price, not an opening bid. In 2019, a homeowner in Greenwood Village called us after another company added $890 in “unexpected labor” mid-job. We don’t do that. If we find something we didn’t anticipate, we stop, show you the camera footage, and quote the addition separately. You approve it or you don’t. No leverage, no surprises.
Quality parts we can name. When a liner replacement is genuinely needed, we spec HeatShield for cerfractory resurfacing or Gelco stainless systems, depending on the application. We don’t use “equivalent to” parts we can’t document. Every component carries a manufacturer’s warranty plus our labor backing.
Standing behind every job. In 2021, a sweep in Lakewood developed a draft issue two weeks after our service. Corrine drove out herself, re-ran the camera, found a blocked damper we’d missed on the initial scan - rare, but it happens - and fixed it at no charge. The Haven Standard doesn’t have a “not our fault” clause. It has a “make it right” clause.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed for chimney and fireplace work in Colorado
- Insured & bonded - general liability and workers compensation coverage active
- Years of local experience serving Littleton, Columbine, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Ken Caryl, Greenwood Village, Centennial, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Denver, Parker, and Golden
- Strong local reputation built through documented inspections and transparent recommendations
These credentials matter because chimney work happens inside your home’s structure, often on your roof, always with fire safety implications. A state license means Corrine has met Colorado’s technical and legal requirements to perform this work. Insurance and bonding protect you if something goes wrong - a damaged roof, an injury on your property, a fire-related claim. Local experience means we know how Littleton’s freeze-thaw cycles affect crown mortar, how the clay soils in Parker shift hearth foundations, and which Englewood neighborhoods built in the 1980s share common factory-built fireplace defects. We don’t guess. We’ve documented it.
Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires, and to perform to the Haven Standard - camera inspection, photo report, written price, written record.
Rooted in Littleton
We’ve swept chimneys in the original downtown cottages near Main Street, in the post-war ranch homes off Broadway, and in the newer builds climbing toward Roxborough. Corrine runs the Columbine Turkey Trot most years, and our shop sponsors the chimney safety education table at the Littleton Fire Department’s open house each fall. We hire locally - our current lead technician lives in Centennial and trained through the community college’s building trades program. When you call (720) 439-4666, you’re reaching our live coordinator who connects you with the local team, not a distant dispatch board. Littleton isn’t where we advertise. It’s where we work, where we live, and where we prove the standard every day.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Level Two Chimney Littleton, serving Littleton and surrounding communities since 2015.