Meet the Team - Alcott Chimney Austin

Meet the Austin Team Behind Alcott Chimney Austin

We’ve been working on Austin chimneys since 2002, and the crew we send to your door has walked through Hyde Park bungalows, Mueller new-builds, and Tarrytown mid-centuries enough to know exactly how each neighborhood’s fireplaces age. What unites every person on this team is simple: we don’t want to sell you work you can’t verify. Every tech carries a camera, every recommendation comes with photos, and every one of us has passed the Threshold Standard background check and identity verification before we ever ring a doorbell in Austin. You’ll know who’s coming by name and photo before we arrive.

Call (361) 420-8585

Our People

Marcus T., Lead Technician

Marcus has been sweeping chimneys in Central Texas for 14 years, the last nine of them with Alcott. He’s the guy we send when a homeowner in Round Rock or Cedar Park calls about a fireplace that smokes back into the living room on cold snaps. Marcus holds a current CSIA certification and specializes in diagnosing draft problems in single-story ranch homes, which behave completely differently than two-story builds when wind hits the flue. He keeps a running mental catalog of the strangest things he’s pulled out of dampers, and swears the weirdest was a fully intact wasp nest the size of a football inside a Lakeway chimney that hadn’t been opened since the Bush administration. Marcus is married, coaches his son’s little league team in Pflugerville, and will tell you honestly when a chimney just needs a sweep and not a $4,000 rebuild.

Dana R., Senior Installer

Dana has spent 12 years installing and repairing chimney systems, and she’s our specialist for stainless steel liner work and HeatShield resurfacing. When a chimney inspection reveals cracked flue tiles, Dana is the person who walks you through whether a DuraFlex liner or HeatShield resurfacing makes more sense for your specific setup, and she’ll show you the camera footage that explains why either one is necessary. She’s factory-trained on Olympia Chimney and Copperfield products and has completed over 600 liner installations across the Austin metro. Dana lives in South Austin, keeps a ridiculously well-organized work van that our other techs tease her about, and can identify most common Austin bird species by their chimney entry patterns, which matters more than you’d think when you’re diagnosing why a fireplace suddenly drafts poorly in spring.

Elena V., Service Coordinator

Elena began with Alcott as a scheduling assistant in 2016 and now runs dispatch for the Austin location. She’s the voice you’ll hear when you call (361) 420-8585 at 11 a.m. or 11 p.m., because our phones are answered by a live person around the clock, not a voicemail queue. Elena knows every technician’s current job, drive time, and specialty, which means she can tell you exactly who’s coming before they head your way. She grew up in San Antonio, moved to Austin for UT, and never left. If you tell her you smell something like campfire smoke coming from your fireplace in July, she’ll know whether that’s a “schedule a standard sweep” situation or a “let’s get someone out this week” situation, and she’ll be straight with you either way.

James H., Apprentice Technician

James joined our Austin team in 2023 after working residential construction for five years, and he’s currently completing his chimney service training under Marcus and Dana. He handles a lot of the roofing-side work on steep Austin hillside homes, repointing brick crowns, and prepping fireboxes for resurfacing. James passed his background check and identity verification on day one, same as every Alcott tech, and he’ll show you his photo ID badge at the door without being asked. Originally from Corpus Christi, he moved to Austin in 2021 and is still getting used to how many fireplaces in this city burn purely for ambiance nine months out of the year. James is the one who’ll haul the heavy equipment up your spiral staircase in a Westlake convertible without complaining, at least not until the drive back.

One Standard, Every Job

Every tech on this page works under the same set of rules, and those rules don’t change depending on which Austin neighborhood you live in or how big your house is. Before any work starts, you get a written price. No exceptions, no negotiation at the door. Every repair carries a written guarantee, and if that repair fails within the coverage period, the second visit is free. That’s the 365-Day Done Right Promise, and it applies to a $189 sweep in Buda the same way it applies to a full liner replacement in West Lake Hills. Ruben Castellano, who owns Alcott Chimney Austin, built this location on the idea that a homeowner should never have to take a technician’s word for a problem they can’t see. So we show you the camera footage. We hand you the written quote before we touch anything. And we put our names on the work, because you’ll know exactly who did it.

Written by Ruben Castellano, Owner at Alcott Chimney Austin, serving Austin homeowners since 2002.