Pinckletink Chimney Service unique to western Maine

Photo: Kayla Collins

CHIMNEY SWEEP — Bill Rice, owner of Pinckletink Chimney Service in Sumner.

SUMNER — For 13 years, Bill Rice and his wife, Beth, have been servicing chimneys throughout western Maine, one of the top heating capitals in all of the northeast. 

And they do it proudly, Bill says. "We are very professional at what we do." 

Bill is the president of the Maine Association of Chimney Service Professionals. But according to Bill, chimney sweeping is not just a profession – it's also fun and rewarding.  

Pinckletink Chimney Service is the first certified chimney sweep in western Maine. Bill said since April 2003 he and Beth have been certified through the Chimney Safety Institute of America to provide the highest level of service available. 

"We are familiar with thousands of chimneys," Bill said, on behalf of his and his wife's experience. 

"We've have been in the National Chimney Sweep Guild for all of our business lives," he said. 

A retired member of the U.S. Coast Guard, Bill first began sweeping chimneys in Long Island, NY, before returning home to Maine in 1998. 

Pinckletink gives regular service to every town throughout western Maine and occasionally to the Auburn-Lewiston area. It is even known to service chimneys in a few towns in New Hampshire, Bill said. 

"We do cross the [state] line on occassion," he said. 

Unique

A Pinckletink, said Bill, has nothing to do with the business, however, other than giving it a unique name. 

"It's an old Yankee colloquialism – a word for spring-peeper frogs. They use it commonly in Nantucket [MA], but up here, not so much.

"My wife loves the word, and my father had a sailboat called the Pinckletink. It's catchy," he said, "and everybody remembers it." 

Bill said he first became interested in the chimney sweep business when he bought his first home in Alaska. He remembers he had a fireplace that he, Beth and his four children used to enjoy. 

"I was all excited. We even got popcorn and hot chocolate, and I went to light the fire ... and it wouldn't light," he said. "I got so embarrassed and mad because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it." 

So he tore out the fireplace and replaced it with a woodstove, Bill explained.

"I started reading about putting in a chimney and how dangerous woodstoves are. I was always studying it and learning about it, and always cleaning it because I was afraid I was going to burn the house down," Bill said. 

Years later, he said, he saw an advertisement in a magazine for becoming a chimney sweeper. "It just struck a cord with me," he said. 

 Needed

"All those chimneys out there need to be serviced," Bill says, or at least inspected annually, according to the National Fire Protection Association Standard 211. 

As a provider of chimney sweeping services, customer safety is one of Pinckletink's top concerns, Bill said. He and Beth say meeting and getting to know customers is one of the things they actually love most about owning a business. 

"We help prevent chimney fires by keeping the chimneys clean," he explained, especially of creosote, a highly-flammable and corrosive byproduct of burning wood. 

Bill said he considers chimney sweeping a "dangerous and dirty job." 

According to Beth, Pinckletink services around 600 chimneys per year. 

Services include chimney sweep and inspections, chimney liner installations, waterproofing and repair and improving indoor air quality. 

Basically, Pinckletink is equipped to address any and all chimney maintenance and safety needs, Bill said. 

"It's not one that people relish; that's why I can do it for them," he said. 

Bill and Beth say they love what they do and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. 

"We want to be your sweep for life," Bill said.