How Emberly Chimney Cleaners Marietta Was Born in Marietta
Corrine Halstead still remembers the phone call that made it clear Marietta needed something different. It was late 2015, early winter, and a homeowner in East Cobb was describing a $4,200 quote she’d received for a “collapsed” liner that another company refused to photograph. Corrine asked the question that had become habit after years in this trade: “Did they show you the collapse on camera?” The line went quiet. Then: “They said the camera was broken that day.”
That evening, Corrine drove past the big-box hardware stores on Roswell Road, past the franchise vans with their out-of-state plates, and thought about what Emberly Chimney Cleaners had already proven in other markets since 2009. The parent brand’s archive of scanned flue footage, Clause 4 of the Haven Standard, meant no failure had to be taken on faith. Marietta had plenty of sweeps. What it didn’t have was a local branch that treated a camera inspection as the starting point, not an upsell. Corrine opened the Marietta branch in early 2016, operating out of a small warehouse off Canton Road, with one promise: every customer sees what we see, in writing, before anyone touches a tool.
Corrine Halstead’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Corrine didn’t plan on chimneys. The plan, such as it was, involved a lot more uncertainty and a lot less soot. But in 2009, Corrine took a job assisting a sweep crew for a season, figuring it was temporary work while sorting out next steps. The first day involved crawling into a crawl space in Sandy Springs, flashlight between teeth, trying to trace a smell the homeowner had lived with for two winters. The crew leader handed Corrine a borescope, threaded it up a thimble, and suddenly there it was: a cracked flue tile, blackened at the seam, leaking combustion gases into the wall cavity. The homeowner watched the screen and started to cry. Not from fear. From finally understanding.
That was the moment. The smell of creosote, sharp and acrid, became something Corrine associated with clarity rather than grime. The weight of a stainless steel brush, the particular sound of it catching on a mortar joint, the way light behaves in a dark flue - these became sensory anchors. Over the next decade, Corrine worked every role: sweep, inspector, repair tech, the person who explained findings to skeptical spouses. The work meant showing people the inside of a system they’d ignored for years, then giving them a record they could hold in their hands.
If Corrine weren’t doing this, the honest answer is probably something with old houses - restoration carpentry, maybe, the kind of work where you uncover what previous generations built and decide what to keep. The through-line is inspection as respect: looking closely at what exists before changing it. That impulse is what gets Corrine out of bed, still, after more than ten years in this trade. Every flue is a mystery until you look inside. Most people never do.
Meet Corrine Halstead - The Person Behind Every Job
Corrine Halstead is Owner & Founder of Emberly Chimney Cleaners Marietta. Before bringing the Haven Standard to Cobb County, Corrine spent over a decade in the field - sweeping, inspecting, and documenting chimneys across north Georgia. Training came initially through hands-on apprenticeship with established sweeps, followed by pursuit of every applicable certification in a trade that lacks mandatory licensing in this state. Corrine holds the credentials that exist, and more importantly, maintains the documentation habits that the parent brand has required since 2009.
What separates Corrine from a corporate franchise technician is simple: Corrine is the person who answers when the local coordinator connects a call, reviews every photo before it reaches a customer, and has personally climbed most of the roofs in this service area. Outside of work, Corrine restores vintage hand tools - planes, chisels, the kind of implements that reward patience and punish rushing. That same patience applies to every inspection. No flue gets a rushed scan. No customer gets a verbal estimate when a written one is possible.
Corrine’s direct commitment: if your chimney is in Marietta, Kennesaw, Sandy Springs, Acworth, Woodstock, Roswell, Dunwoody, North Atlanta, Atlanta, Holly Springs, Alpharetta, or Dallas, Corrine Halstead stands behind the documentation you receive and the price you were quoted.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Marietta Homeowners
Our values aren’t posters on a wall. They’re policies with consequences.
Have it in writing. Clause 1 of the Haven Standard means your price is fixed before we start, your scope is described in plain language, and your warranty is printed on the same page. Corrine learned this the hard way early in her career, watching a homeowner shake with anger over a verbal “estimate” that tripled once the crew was on the roof. That doesn’t happen here. The written estimate is the contract.
Evidence on every job. Clause 4 is the reason for our name. Level 2 inspection per NFPA 211 requires a camera. We don’t own a flashlight-only Level 1 package. Every customer receives dated photos of their flue condition, stored in the same archive system that has documented 38,000+ chimneys since 2009. If a liner in Marietta fails, we can show whether the failure preceded or followed a fire - because the record exists.
No surprises. No “while we’re up here” additions. If we find something outside the quoted scope, we stop, photograph it, and present a separate written estimate. The original price holds until you approve the new scope. Corrine has walked away from jobs where a customer wanted to skip the documentation step. The documentation is the job.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license their state requires.
- Insured & bonded - Coverage that protects your property while we work.
- Years of local experience - Corrine Halstead has spent more than a decade in this trade, with the Marietta branch serving north Georgia since 2016.
- Strong local reputation - Built on documented work and written estimates, not marketing claims.
These credentials matter because chimney work happens inside your home’s structure, on your roof, and in systems that affect your family’s safety. A homeowner can’t verify a technician’s skill before they arrive. What you can verify is whether the company has the legal and financial standing to stand behind mistakes, and whether their process creates a record you can reference later. We build that record on every visit.
Rooted in Marietta
The Marietta branch operates from a warehouse off Canton Road, not a PO box in another state. Corrine’s crews have swept chimneys in the historic homes near Marietta Square, the new construction in West Cobb, the split-levels off Johnson Ferry, and the stone cottages up toward Kennesaw Mountain. We’ve worked burning season rushes when the temperature first drops below forty, and we’ve worked the quiet weeks in late February when only the prepared homeowners are thinking ahead. Corrine lives in this service area, shops at the same hardware stores, drives the same congested stretches of I-75. Emberly Chimney Cleaners Marietta is independently owned and operated, working to the Haven Standard that the parent brand established in 2009. The standard travels. The person answering for it is local.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Emberly Chimney Cleaners Marietta, serving Marietta and north Georgia since 2016.