Meet the Team - Alcott Chimney Fresno

Meet the Fresno Team Behind Alcott Chimney Fresno

We’re a small crew by design, and that’s the point. Since 2002, the Threshold Group has sent background-checked technicians into Fresno homes, and the local team here carries that same standard on every ladder climb and into every crawlspace. You won’t get a rotating cast of subcontractors. You’ll get the same faces, the same trucks, and the same phone number answered by a person who knows your street. The four people below are the ones who show up in Clovis, Tower District, and up toward Rolling Hills.

Call (559) 215-1714

Our People

Miguel A., Lead Technician

Miguel has been sweeping and inspecting chimneys in Fresno for over eleven years, and he’s the first person we send when a fireplace hasn’t been touched in a decade. His specialty is heat-damaged flue liners and the damage our valley inversions can hide. Miguel carries manufacturer certification for DuraFlex liner systems and HeatShield resurfacing, so when he tells you a repair can wait or can’t, he’s speaking from the install side, not a sales script. He got his start as a roofer’s helper in Madera and still takes the steep pitch jobs nobody else wants. On his days off, he restores a 1965 Ford F-100 and swears he’ll have it running before the next burn season. It hasn’t run since 2019.

Sandra R., Senior Installer

Sandra came to Alcott from a commercial HVAC background, and she’s the one who handles the serious repair work: full liner replacements, masonry crown rebuilds, and gas fireplace retrofits. She’s factory-trained on Olympia Chimney and Famco components and is the first call when a job involves matching an older fireplace to modern clearance codes. Customers regularly mention that Sandra explains the work in a way that makes sense without making them feel talked down to. She keeps a clean tarp line and photographs every step, so you’re never guessing what happened inside your flue. Sandra is also the reason our trucks carry extra heat-rated sealant during cold snaps, because she’s the one who’s had to run back for it twice.

Dana K., Service Coordinator

Dana is the voice on the phone at 11 p.m. when you smell smoke and you’re not sure if it’s normal. She’s been with the Threshold Group family since 2016 and knows the Fresno service area block by block, which means she can usually tell you whether a same-week visit is realistic before she even checks the calendar. Dana is the person who sends you the technician’s name and photo before anyone heads your way, and she’ll walk you through exactly what to expect on the written price sheet before you ever schedule. She keeps a hand-written log of every customer’s chimney history, which is old-school and occasionally spills coffee on the desk. It works better than the software, and she won’t apologize for that.

Chris M., Apprentice

Chris is in his second year with Alcott and works alongside Miguel on most sweeps and inspections. He’s passed his background check and identity verification like everyone else, but the real training is happening on rooftops across Fresno, learning how creosote behaves differently in a pre-1960 masonry chimney versus a newer factory-built unit. He’s the one hauling the rotary brushes and setting up the HEPA containment before a sweep, and he’s getting trained on gas fireplace diagnostics, which is where a lot of our repair calls start. Chris keeps a small notepad in his back pocket and writes down every fireplace model he encounters, which has turned into a running reference the team actually uses. He’s also the only one of us who can back a trailer into a Fig Garden driveway on the first try, and we don’t let him forget it when one of us can’t.

One Standard, Every Job

The Threshold Standard isn’t a slogan around here. It’s the reason you get a text with the technician’s name and photo before they arrive, and the reason that technician will have their photo ID badge visible when you open the door. Every person on this page has passed a background check and identity verification before they ever stepped onto a Fresno property, and that isn’t an optional add-on. It applies on every job, to every tech, with no exceptions. That standard covers the paperwork too: a written price before any work begins, a written guarantee on every repair, and a free return visit if a repair fails within the coverage period. And because Ruben Castellano owns this location, there’s no corporate runaround when something needs attention. You call, you talk to Dana or Ruben, and the person who shows up already knows what they’re walking into. The 365-Day Done Right Promise is just the name we put on a habit we’ve kept since 2002: if the work isn’t right, we make it right.

Call (559) 215-1714 and you’ll get a live person, not a voicemail tree. If you want to know who’s coming to your house before you even schedule, we’ll tell you.

Written by Ruben Castellano, Owner at Alcott Chimney Fresno, serving the Fresno area since 2002.