Meet the Team - Top Hat Chimney

Meet the Alexandria Team Behind Top Hat Chimney

Top Hat Chimney has been working Alexandria chimneys since 1999, and the crew hasn’t changed much in character since Wendell Pike first knocked on a door in Del Ray with a brush over his shoulder. What unites the team is simple: they live in the same ZIP codes they work in, they know a third-degree creosote glaze from a first-degree brush job, and they’d rather show you the camera footage than talk you into something your flue doesn’t need. Ask anyone on your street. One of these folks has probably been up on their roof.

Our People

Marcus T. – Lead Technician

Marcus has been with Top Hat for 14 years, starting as an apprentice and working his way up to lead technician. He holds his CSIA certification and handles the more complicated liner inspections and rebuilds that come out of older Alexandria homes, particularly around Rosemont and Beverly Hills where the chimneys date back to the 1940s. He’s the one who can tell you whether that crack in your crown is cosmetic or worth addressing this season. Marcus keeps a small notebook in his truck where he sketches flue configurations he’s never seen before.

Elena R. – Senior Installer

Elena joined Top Hat eight years ago after working in masonry restoration, and she leads the chimney cap, crown, and rebuild work. She’s trained on DuraFlex and HeatShield liner systems and has done enough copper cap installs to handle any flashing detail Old Town throws at her. Elena is known for the way she explains things with a pencil and a piece of scrap cardboard rather than a brochure. She lives in Fairfax County and spends her weekends restoring a 1960s split-level, so she understands old house problems from the inside out.

Dana W. – Service Coordinator

Dana is the voice on the phone when you call Top Hat, and she’s been answering it for nine years. She knows Alexandria’s neighborhoods well enough to ask the right questions before a sweep ever gets scheduled: whether you’re in a townhouse off King Street or a single-family off Braddock Road, whether your flue is masonry or prefab, and whether you’re calling before burning season or in the middle of January. Dana keeps the schedule honest. If she says the crew will arrive in a two-hour window, that’s the window.

Terry J. – Apprentice

Terry is in his second year with Top Hat and came to the trade after a stint in building maintenance. He shadows Marcus on most jobs and has already earned his OSHA 10 card, with his CSIA certification on the horizon. Terry grew up in Arlington and worked summers cleaning gutters, so ladder work and rooflines don’t faze him. If you see someone on the truck practicing a brush technique with an old broom handle in the parking lot, that’s Terry.

One Standard, Every Job

Wendell started Top Hat in 1999 with a rule that hasn’t changed: the crew treats every chimney like it belongs to someone they’ll run into at the farmers market on Saturday. That means background-checked, uniformed people who give a real arrival window and call if it slips. It means upfront pricing before a single tool comes off the truck, the number on the phone staying the number on the invoice. And it means the 90-Day Done Right Promise goes on every job in writing. One call brings the crew back, no extra charge. Whether it’s a sweep in Del Ray, a liner rebuild in Seminary Hill, or a crown repair off Eisenhower Avenue, the standard is the same: show the customer the camera footage, give them a plain-English verdict, and only recommend work that actually needs doing. Wendell puts his name on the work. The crew does too.

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