Three Brothers, One Chimney Crew
Zenith Chimney Service is Rick Lee and his brothers Jack and Andy, working out of Geneva, Illinois. Nineteen years in the trade, no call centre, and the person who quotes the job is the person who does it.
- Insured & Bonded
- 19 years in the trade
- Family-owned and run
- Geneva, Illinois
How Zenith started
Rick Lee has been sweeping and repairing chimneys for 19 years. He learned the trade the ordinary way — on roofs, in cold weather, alongside people who had been doing it longer than he had. Somewhere in there he worked out that the part of the job customers valued most was not the brushing. It was being told the truth about what was wrong, in language they could act on, by someone who was not trying to sell them a liner they did not need.
Zenith is built around that. Rick runs the crew and his two brothers, Jack and Andy, work with him. Being a family business is not a marketing line here, it is the operating model: there are three of us, we all do the work, and a complaint reaches the owner the same day because the owner was on your roof.
Rick has been recognised for his work in the trade. We deliberately do not dress that up with badges we did not earn — you will not find invented certifications or borrowed logos anywhere on this site.
How we work
Look before quoting
We do not price a repair we have not seen. An inspection comes first, with a camera, and the quote follows the photographs.
Show, do not tell
If we say a crown is cracked, you see the crack. Every finding comes with an image, and you keep them.
Sort by urgency
Findings get split into what is a safety issue now and what can wait a season. Most things can wait. We say so.
Leave it clean
Drop cloths, sealed opening, HEPA vacuum at the firebox. Soot belongs in the vacuum, not on your carpet.
Stay in our lane
Chimneys, fireplaces and their vents. When the problem is roofing or masonry beyond the stack, we hand it over honestly.
Answer the phone
Seven days, 7am to 8pm. A person, not a queue.
Where we work
We are based at 602 Commons Dr in Geneva and cover fifteen towns across Kane County and the western edge of DuPage — from Elburn and Sugar Grove in the west to Wheaton and Carol Stream in the east, and from Elgin down through Batavia and Aurora. Each town has its own page describing the housing stock and the chimney problems we run into there most.
Geneva has a lot of genuinely old housing, and old housing means unlined or clay-lined flues, soft mortar and crowns that were never built to last a century of freeze-thaw. Newer subdivisions bring the opposite problem: factory-built fireplaces that have sat unused for years and prefabricated chimneys with caps that have blown off. We work on both every week.
Want to talk to the person who will do the work?
That is the whole idea. Call and you get Rick, Jack or Andy.
Questions about us
Who actually turns up at the house?
One of the three of us, and usually a second pair of hands on repair work. Zenith is not a franchise and there is no rotating roster of subcontractors. If Rick quotes the job, Rick or one of his brothers does the job.
How long have you been doing this?
Rick has 19 years in the chimney trade and leads the crew. Jack and Andy work alongside him. Between them they have worked on everything from 1890s Geneva farmhouses with unlined brick flues to new-build subdivisions where the fireplace has never been lit.
Are you insured?
Yes. Zenith is insured and bonded, on every job and every roof. If you want to see the certificate before we start, ask and we will show you.
Do you do roofing as well?
No, and we say so early. We work on chimneys, fireplaces and the vents attached to them. When a leak turns out to be a roofing problem rather than a flashing or crown problem, we tell you that and we do not invent chimney work to fill the gap.
Why is the company called Zenith?
The zenith is the highest point directly overhead. It is where we spend most of the working day, and it was shorter than naming it after three brothers.
Do you charge to come out and look?
We quote repairs after an inspection rather than guessing from the driveway, so an inspection is a paid piece of work in its own right — you keep the photographs and the written findings whether or not you hire us for the repair. Current rates are on the pricing page.
What areas do you cover?
Geneva and the surrounding Fox Valley and western DuPage towns — fifteen of them, each with its own page. If you are just outside that ring, call and ask.
What is the fastest way to reach you?
The phone. We are on it seven days a week from 7am to 8pm, and a call gets a real answer faster than a form. If it is outside those hours, leave a message or book online and we will come back to you.
Written by Rick Lee, owner of Zenith Chimney Service in Geneva, Illinois. 19 years in the chimney trade.
Published August 27, 2026