Has a squirrel, a raccoon, or a family of birds made a home in your chimney? Has water been pooling in your fireplace every time it rains? If so, either you need to install a chimney cap on your chimney, or your existing cap is damaged and needs to be replaced. The question naturally follows: how much is this going to cost me?

That’s a tough question to answer, but the good news is that we’re no stranger to chimney caps and covers at HY-C. In fact, we’ve been designing, manufacturing, and selling them since 1947. During those 75+ years, we’ve pinpointed three factors that determine the price of a chimney cap: metal type, flue size, and labor.

By the end of this article, you’ll understand how these three factors affect the price of a chimney cap. You’ll also be armed with the information you need to go into an installation consultation with clear options and a focused budget in mind.

How Metal Type Determines Chimney Cap Cost

Most of the chimney caps on the market today are made of metal. And, while the type of metal may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, the three used most often in chimney cap construction are galvanized steel, stainless steel, and copper. Each type is weather-resistant, rust-resistant, and designed to keep animals out of your chimney. The differences between them come down simply to aesthetic and price.

Galvanized steel is the most budget-friendly chimney cap metal. Aside from its relatively low price, galvanized steel is typically treated with a black powder paint finish for a sleek, low-profile appearance.

Stainless steel tends to be more expensive than galvanized steel, but its classic, shiny metal finish proves attractive to customers who are willing to spend a little more.

Finally, copper is far and away the most expensive chimney cap metal. Its brilliant, new-penny color develops a natural patina over time, though, so if you’re looking for an eye-catching chimney cap with a premium price tag, copper is hard to beat.

How Flue Size Determines Chimney Cap Cost

After you’ve decided on the metal of your chimney cap, the next variable in determining its price is the size of your chimney’s flue. The flue is the duct that runs directly from the fireplace, up through the chimney, and out the top of the chimney crown. Flues are generally made of clay, concrete, or steel, and a chimney cap is designed to cover the portion of the flue that sticks out of the chimney itself.

Some homeowners may find that their chimney has two flues; if that’s the case, there are multi-flue chimney cap options available. But, as they are the most popular, we’ll assume you have a single-flue chimney.

How does flue size determine chimney cap cost? It’s pretty simple: the bigger the flue, the bigger — and more costly — the chimney cap. Flue sizes fall into two categories: round and rectangular (or square). Round flues have a diameter between 8” and 18”. Rectangular flues tend to measure between 9” x 5” and 20” x 20”. After you’ve measured your flue and chosen a metal, consult this table to get a general sense of how much your chimney cap will cost at retail:

How Labor Determines Chimney Cap Cost

With the chimney cap metal and size in mind, there’s one last thing to figure out: how much will it cost to pay someone to install (or replace) the chimney cap? Do-it-yourself homeowners won’t need to worry about this cost factor, as they’ll be able to install the cap themselves. However, even though it may be tempting to attempt a self-installation to save some money, we do not recommend installing chimney caps yourself. It’s better to hire a trained professional with knowledge of fireplace and chimney mechanics and proven experience in roof safety.

That having been said, a few variables will affect how much you’ll pay for an installation. A simple, single-flue chimney cap installation on a single-story house may run you anywhere from $100 to $200. A more complicated installation could cost between $500 and $1,500. Why the discrepancy? Multi-story houses, high-angle roofs, or roofs with slate tile instead of shingles present more danger to the installer and, therefore, a higher bill. Depending on your home and your roof, the installer may also need to utilize specialized equipment like scissor lifts or ladders that are taller than the standard seven to ten feet.

Whatever your circumstances, be sure to get multiple quotes from a few licensed, insured chimney service professionals. Comparing these quotes will ensure you end up with competitive pricing options and will allow you to choose an installer who will complete the job safely and correctly.

Which Chimney Cap Is Best for Me?

Raccoons, squirrels, birds, and precipitation are the last things you want inside your chimney. These nuisances are annoying at best and dangerous at worst, and the most frustrating thing is knowing a simple chimney cap could have kept them out from the start.

Now that you know how metal type, flue size, and labor costs determine the price of a chimney cap, you’re ready to find one that fits the size and style of your home. After you make your purchase and hire a professional chimney cap installer, you’ll be well on your way to keeping your home safe and protected.

“If you own anything, you’ve got to clean it.” Those are words that Paul Manning, the inventor of SpinAway, lives by. He and his wife Connie, both Louisianans, had been passionately developing, tweaking, and championing SpinAway for over 10 years before they decided to partner with HY-C.

Paul has run his own janitorial service for decades — he knows how to clean. But one day, a heart attack limited his ability to (quite literally) do the dirty work. Paul hated not being able to operate at full capacity; he believes that you should never ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t do, and his condition was causing him to have to do just that. Determined not to sit on the sidelines, Paul — with the help and support of Connie — began developing SpinAway.

But what is SpinAway? How is it different from other cleaning tools? What is it good at — and what isn’t it good at? In this guide, we’ll answer those questions (and more) to prepare you to jump into the world of rotary cleaning. By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how tools like SpinAway work, and you’ll be ready to decide whether or not it’s the right tool for you.

What is SpinAway and How Does it Work?

SpinAway is an extendable rotary cleaning brush. Other extendable cleaning brushes get the job done just fine, but SpinAway comes with a drill bit on the end of its handle to attach to any cordless drill. That’s where the “rotary” component comes in: attach a SpinAway to your drill, extend or collapse it to the length you need, and pull the trigger. The removable brush head will spin as you hold onto the guide grip built into the handle and pull dirt and debris off surfaces (rather than rubbing it in).

SpinAway features no rustable components — the telescopic handle is made from aluminum and fiberglass. Its brush heads wear evenly as they rotate, ensuring consistent contact with surfaces as you use it.

Need to clean the brush head after a heavy-duty job? Just throw it in the washer and let it air-dry, or replace it entirely after it wears out. SpinAway can be used in wet or dry conditions. As far as using it with cleaning agents goes, wash & wax, neutralizing agents, Pledge, Windex, and soap all work very well.

Who Is SpinAway a Good Fit For?

One of the toughest things about using SpinAway is putting old cleaning habits out of your head. There’s no need to push or scrub; in fact, the brush works best if you simply rest it on a surface, pull the trigger on your drill, and let the bristles do their work with minimal pressure applied. Anyone from a custodian who cleans professionally all day long to a homeowner just looking to tidy up their house or car can make good use of the versatile brush head.

Paul developed it during his convalescence, and it’s still a powerful, effective cleaning tool for anyone who may be temporarily or permanently disabled. It’s adjustable between about three and five feet in length, and offers at least ten feet of total reach. It’s very light, too — weighing in at just 1.9 pounds, it takes minimal effort to maneuver.

Who Is SpinAway Not a Good Fit For?

SpinAway has some trouble with thick, sticky debris. Mechanics, septic tank cleaners, or any other roles which may encounter grease or coated residues may have better luck with more robust tools.

While SpinAway has many versatile uses, some cleaning tools are tailor-made for specialized jobs (and are hard to replace). Crime scene cleaners, for example, utilize specific, irreplaceable tools in their jobs. SpinAway isn’t a great fit for cleaning the inside of a barbecue pit, a surface that becomes greasy and oily after many uses. It’s also not best for cleaning grass off of a lawnmower — a job better left to a battery or gas-powered blower.

Advantages of SpinAway

We’ve tried out SpinAway on quite a few cleaning tasks. And despite its superb flexibility, there are three applications it serves particularly well: pest control, homes and businesses, and vehicles.

1. Pest Control

SpinAway can clean out bird nests and other animal-related debris, but we’ve found that it works especially well on spider webs. Spiders tend to make their webs in hard-to-reach-places like ceiling corners or soffits and fascias. SpinAway’s extendibility not only allows you to reach up high to these spots, but also to spin webs away to eliminate every last thread.

2. Homes and Businesses

Walls, windows, crowns, baseboards, ledges, edges, cracks, crevices — if you own a home or a business, it has these. And SpinAway can clean them. Use it wet or dry and polish up every square inch of your property. Outdoor furniture, bird baths, and swimming pools are also perfect targets for SpinAway’s rotating brush head.

3. Vehicles

Own a car or truck (or a fleet of cars or trucks)? Use spinaway to buff up your fenders, clean off your windshield, and remove debris from your doors — inside and out. It works well on ATVs and motor homes, too.

If you have more of a nautical bent, SpinAway is great for boats. Whether you need to clean algae off the hull or slime out of the live well, SpinAway can tackle it, wet or dry.

Disadvantages of SpinAway

While SpinAway’s cleaning functions are pretty far reaching, we’ve found that it has a lot of trouble with axle grease on vehicles. We would recommend sticking to a more traditional degreaser-and-rag-style solution in this case.

This isn’t necessarily a cleaning limitation, but something to look out for when using SpinAway: be careful near dangling strings, like those attached to your blinds. Like a vacuum, SpinAway’s spin doesn’t pair well with small components that may get caught in it.

Unlike a vacuum, though, SpinAway doesn’t always need to be used with the drill running. If you want to avoid getting things tangled up in the bristles, just run it without the drill — you can still use it effectively, wet or dry.

Is a SpinAway Right for You?

If you have a trusty extendable cleaning brush that works well for you already, no problem. But if SpinAway has piqued your interest, you can find one on HomeDepot.com or on Amazon. We’ve outlined what we know it can do, but try one out for yourself. Get creative with it. Push it to its limits. We want to know where it succeeds and, more importantly, where it fails, so we can continue to take Paul Manning’s ingenious tool to the next level.