Toronto conditions that change how chimney inspection is done
If you mapped our Toronto service calls on a calendar, you would see the same shape every year: the problems are created in February and paid for in November.
Range hoods and basement bathroom fans routinely out-pull an older flue, so the house depressurises and the flue reverses — a Toronto problem that looks like a chimney fault but starts elsewhere in the building.
Post-war subdivisions across Toronto share the same construction generation, so when one street starts showing the same defect, the neighbours usually follow within a couple of seasons.
Across Hoggs Hollow, Riverside, East York, Downtown and Yorkville, the housing stock changes street by street, and the correct method changes with it. A century home with a soft-brick stack does not get the same treatment as a 2010 build with a factory-built vent — using one method on both is how systems get damaged.
If you live anywhere near the CN Tower, the practical takeaway is that a chimney inspection visit should start with an assessment, not a tool. Any crew that begins work before telling you what they found is guessing on your behalf.

