Meet the Team - Top Hat Chimney

Meet the Long Beach Team Behind Top Hat Chimney

Top Hat Chimney has been working on Long Beach chimneys since 1999, and the crew that shows up at your door still answers to Wendell Pike in person. No rotating cast of subcontractors. No guy who got hired last Tuesday. Just a small team of sweeps and installers who know Long Beach, know salt air, and know what it does to a flue. They answer the phone, keep their trucks clean, and treat your house the way they’d treat their own on a Saturday afternoon.

Our People

Wendell Pike, Owner and Lead Technician

Wendell founded Top Hat Chimney in 1999 after more than a decade working on roofs and fireplaces across Nassau County. He is NFI-certified and still runs the majority of sweeps and inspections himself. Wendell has seen third-degree creosote glazes that looked like glass, squirrel nests big enough to fill a beach cooler, and one flue liner from the 1960s that crumbled in his hand when he touched it. He writes estimates in plain English and will tell you straight if your chimney can wait another season. His rule: the camera footage goes to the homeowner, and the verdict comes with it. If your neighbor on Long Beach has called Top Hat, Wendell has probably waved to them at the grocery store since.

Dave M., Senior Installer

Dave has been with Top Hat Chimney for seventeen years. He handles most liner installs, rebuilds, and crown work, and he is the one Wendell trusts with the fine masonry repairs that need a steady hand. Dave grew up in Island Park and spent five years on a commercial roofing crew before moving to chimneys full-time. He swears by DuraFlex and HeatShield products and keeps his own trowel in the truck because he does not like anyone else’s. When Dave is not on a roof, he is either fishing off the Narrows or restoring a 1972 Chevelle that has not run in three years, by his own honest admission.

Sonia R., Service Coordinator

Sonia joined Top Hat in 2014 and runs the phone lines, scheduling, and paper trail. She is the reason a real person answers at two in the morning when you call about a smell coming down the flue in July. Sonia knows every customer by name, remembers who has a senior discount on file, and keeps Wendell’s schedule tight without double-booking anyone. She has lived in Long Beach since 2008 and worked dispatch for a local HVAC company before coming aboard. Sonia is the one who makes sure you get a real arrival window and a call if the truck is running late, which she hates.

Tommy K., Apprentice Sweep

Tommy came to Top Hat in 2022 as a driver and now works the brush under Wendell’s direct supervision. He is training for his CSIA certification and has already logged over a thousand sweeps across Long Beach, Lido, and Point Lookout. Tommy carries the rods, lays the drop cloths, and runs the soot-vac without complaining. He is the one who will wave off a job if the weather turns bad enough to make a roof unsafe. When the crew stops for coffee at the spot on Park Avenue, Tommy orders the same thing every time and nobody knows why: a medium iced coffee with two butters and a lid that never stays on.

One Standard, Every Job

Every name above works under the same rules Wendell set down in 1999. Upfront price on the phone before any tool comes off the truck. The 90-Day Done Right Promise stamped on the job sheet in writing. Background-checked, uniformed, and sober on every call. The senior and veteran discount is automatic, never something you have to ask about twice. A free second opinion on any written estimate no arguments, no pressure. And Wendell’s name goes on the work the same way it goes on the truck: visible, and a little scuffed from the road. If anything is wrong, one call brings him back. Ask anyone on your street. They will tell you the same thing.

Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving Long Beach since 1999.