Meet the Team - Top Hat Chimney

Meet the Quakertown Team Behind Top Hat Chimney

Top Hat Chimney has been working out of Quakertown since 1999, and the crew that shows up at your door is the same crew you’ll run into at the Quakertown Farmers Market on a Saturday morning. We’re not a franchise that rotates technicians through a territory. We live here. We raise kids here. We know which houses on Broad Street have the old stone chimneys and which new builds in the developments off Route 309 hide framing quirks behind the drywall. The team below is the reason Top Hat keeps getting calls from the same families year after year. They’re background-checked, they show up in uniform, and they give you a real arrival window, not a four-hour guess. Wendell Pike started this company with one truck and a brush set. Now he runs a crew that treats every flue in Bucks County like it belongs to a neighbor. Because it usually does.

Our People

Wendell Pike — Owner and Lead Technician

Wendell founded Top Hat Chimney in 1999 after spending his early twenties working for a heating company that sent him up on roofs no one else wanted to climb. He likes ladders. More than that, he likes the moment when a customer sees their own camera footage and understands exactly what’s going on inside their chimney. Wendell still answers the phone when he’s not on a roof, and the 90-Day Done Right Promise has his name on it: if the work isn’t right, one call brings him back, no charge, no argument. He holds certifications through the Chimney Safety Institute of America and keeps up with code changes the way other people keep up with the Phillies. On weekends you’ll find him poking around the antique shops downtown or running his dog along the rail trail. If you’ve lived in Quakertown long enough, you’ve probably already met him.

Dave M. — Senior Installer, Liners and Rebuilds

Dave has been with Top Hat for fourteen years and handles the heavy work: stainless steel liner installations, flue rebuilds, and the masonry repairs that make a chimney safe again. He’s certified on DuraFlex and HeatShield systems and has installed more liners in Upper Bucks homes than he can count. Dave is the guy who can look at a crumbling crown and tell you in plain English whether it needs a patch or a full repour. He grew up in Coopersburg, went to trades school instead of college, and would rather mix mortar than talk on the phone. His claim to fame around the shop is that he’s never once missed a scheduled arrival window in fourteen years. His wife runs a bakery in Hellertown, and yes, the crew occasionally gets the day-old stuff.

Luis G. — Service Coordinator and Chimney Sweep

Luis is the voice on the phone most afternoons and the sweep who shows up for the majority of routine cleanings in Quakertown, Richlandtown, and Milford Township. He joined Top Hat in 2018 after moving up from Philadelphia, and he’s since become the guy who remembers every customer’s dog’s name. Luis handles first-degree creosote like it’s nothing, keeps the truck stocked, and walks every homeowner through the before-and-after photos before he leaves. He’s the reason no call goes to voicemail after hours, even when Wendell is fast asleep. Luis takes the “live person answers every call” rule seriously. He’s also the unofficial grill master at the company cookout, and he claims his chimney sweeping skills translate directly to brisket temperature control. The crew does not dispute this.

Alyssa R. — Apprentice Sweep and Inspection Assistant

Alyssa joined the team in 2023 as an apprentice and has already worked her way through hundreds of inspections alongside Wendell and Dave. She’s the extra set of hands on every liner install and the one running the camera system during Level 2 inspections. Alyssa earned her first certification in 2024 and is working toward full CSIA credentialing. She came to Top Hat after a stint in property management, where she learned how many homeowners get burned, literally, by companies that skip the camera work and push liner replacements nobody needs. That’s why she’s strict about the rule here: no recommendation without footage to back it up. Alyssa is a Quakertown native, a Panther Valley grad, and the person most likely to tell you your chimney cap is fine when it’s fine. When she’s not on a roof, she’s coaching youth softball at Memorial Park.

One Standard, Every Job

The crew changes, the trucks get newer, but the rules don’t move. Wendell set them in 1999 and they’re still taped inside the shop door. Every job starts with a camera inspection. Every quote is delivered before a single tool comes off the truck. The number you hear on the phone is the number on the invoice, no surprise line items, no “while we’re up there” upsells. The 90-Day Done Right Promise is stamped on every single job, whether it’s a $12 inspection or a full liner rebuild. If it’s not done right, one call brings Wendell back. Background checks for every hire. Uniforms on every visit. A real live person answering the phone at 2 a.m. when you smell something odd in the living room. It’s not a complicated system. It’s just what happens when the owner’s name is on the truck and he runs into you at the grocery store on Sunday. Ask anyone on your street.

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