Meet the Team - Top Hat Chimney

Meet the Jamesburg Team Behind Top Hat Chimney

Wendell started Top Hat Chimney in 1999 with one truck, a set of brushes, and a simple rule: leave every flue better than you found it. Twenty-nine years later, the crew has grown, but the rule hasn’t. The people who show up at your door in Jamesburg are neighbors as much as they are technicians. They shop at the same stores, sit in the same Friday-night traffic on Forsgate Drive, and they know which houses in the area still have the original clay liners from the 1960s. Nobody here is a subcontractor. Nobody is “on loan” from another branch. This is the team.

Our People

Mike R. – Lead Technician

Mike has been with Top Hat for 14 years, longer than any other crew member besides Wendell. He’s the one who trains every new hire and he’s the one Wendell calls when a job goes sideways and somebody needs to figure it out on the spot. Mike holds his CSIA certification and specializes in stubborn third-degree creosote glazing, the kind that laughs at a standard brush. When he’s not on a roof, he’s restoring a 1972 Chevelle in his garage in Monroe. He says chimney work and carburetors have the same motto: if it isn’t breathing right, it isn’t working right.

Sarah T. – Senior Installer

Sarah joined the crew eight years ago after working residential construction, and she runs most of the liner and rebuild jobs in and around Jamesburg. She’s certified on DuraFlex and HeatShield systems, which means the manufacturer warranties on those installs stay fully valid when she does the work. Sarah is the one who’ll tell you straight up whether your flue tiles are salvageable or whether you’re looking at a full stainless liner, and she’ll show you the camera footage to prove it. She coaches youth softball in Helmetta in the spring and keeps a pair of binoculars in the truck because she’d rather watch a red-tailed hawk than listen to the radio.

Denise W. – Service Coordinator

If you call the office, there’s a good chance Denise picks up. She’s been answering the Top Hat phone for six years and she knows the scheduling board better than anyone. Denise is the one who gives you the real arrival window, not a four-hour shrug, and she calls if the crew is running late. She grew up in Spotswood and still lives there, and she can tell you which local diners are worth the stop and which ones aren’t. Before this, she worked dispatch for a plumbing company, and she says the biggest difference at Top Hat is that nobody’s reading from a script.

Kevin P. – Apprentice

Kevin is the newest member of the crew, coming up on his second year. He started with zero trade experience and now runs the lower-access jobs under Mike’s supervision, handling firebox cleanings, cap inspections, and damper adjustments. He’s working toward his CSIA certification and spends a lot of his off-hours studying code requirements for solid-fuel appliances in New Jersey. Kevin lives in Jamesburg and went to Monroe Township High School, class of 2019. Wendell hired him because he showed up early to the interview, brought a notebook, and asked whether the company would pay for his training. It doesn’t.

One Standard, Every Job

Every job leaves the shop the same way, whether it’s a $189 sweep in a Jamesburg rancher or a full rebuild on a Victorian in Cranbury. The price is set before the first tool comes off the truck. The crew shows up in uniform, background-checked, and on the schedule Denise gave you. Wendell and his crew do the work, they don’t hand it to a sub. The 90-Day Done Right Promise goes on the invoice in writing, and if something isn’t right, one call brings the same crew back, no charge, no argument. That’s how it’s worked since 1999, and nobody on the team sees a reason to change it now.

Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Jamesburg and surrounding communities since 1999.