Company History

We started in Brady Texas in 1980 when we could not find a chimney sweep for our own chimney. Asking around we were told "I don't know of one but if you find one let me know." We bought the equipment, studied the manuals and did it ourselves. Several friends then asked us to do theirs and we haven't stopped cleaning chimneys since.

Service Area

We have cleaned chimneys along a 250 mile stretch from San Angelo to Waco but now focus mainly in the Lampasas, Coryell and Bell county areas of central Texas. We will go outside of the area if you have several friends who want their chimneys cleaned at the same time. When we  come and do several in a day, it pays for us to come and help you out. Give us a call and we can discuss it.

We simply think we are the best chimney sweeps in Central Texas, if not Texas. We guard our good name with great customer service.

Experience

Doug Ables was one of, if not the first chimney sweep in Texas to be certified by the Wood Heating Safety Alliance and continues to maintain the level of knowledge the process intended. Few other southern chimney sweeps have gone to the lengths he hasletting his customers know they can trust him. This knowledge is coupled with over thirty years experience and translates into many, many happy customers who have benefited from his work. One of the comments often heard is "Doug is not a pushy salesman. He tells me what I need and why and lets me decide and consider the consequences." 

Helping Doug in the family business from time to time is his oldest son Shandy who currently lives in Temple and is a motorcycle patrolman with the Temple Police Department. The youngest son, Micah helped but has other obligations now as he is attending the United States Military Academy at West Point where he is in his second year. Sons-in-law Derland Bahr and Daniel Priestly help as needed. Derland is the company accountant also. Grandsons Joseph and Samuel Bahr also help in the busier times of the year.

Doug's wife Mary handles all the sectretarial work and most of the phone answering and patiently counsels distraught callers with chimney problems. We have been complimented many times on the helpful and pleasant way she conducts business. Our small family business has been doing this for 30 years and growing every year. While we want to grow we never outgrow the personalized customer service and friendliness we are known for. And we won't, I guarantee that. Every once in a while we have customers bothered by us not answering the phone in a business like fashion. Too bad-we are just down to earth, friendly people and want to treat everyone as friends---not as customers.

Ables graduated from Brady High School in 1970. He was scouted by the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees to play baseball. He was invited to a tryout with the Dodgers and was hurt in the process ending his dreams. He then decided to stay close to his dream and by becoming a baseball sportscaster. He attended Career Academy of Broadcasting in Houston in that quest. His first job out of school was in Childress, Texas at KCTX where he was a dj and covered High School basketball for the Hollis Oklahoma team. He then moved to Kerrville when his health started giving him problems. There he worked at KERV radio as DJ and color analyst with Jack Bailey. They covered Kerrville Tivy Antler and Shreiner Mountaineer College basketball.

Doug was slowly migrating into news and moved to KBST in Big Spring to become News Director at age 19. He was to appear on "The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" covering a freak August killer tornado but was pre-empted by the resignation of President Richard Nixon. He was also heard many times on the Texas State Network with regional news reports and  given the Newsman of the Year award by the local Civitan club. As his health worsened Doug moved back to Kerrville, where his grandparents lived and  he returned to KERV as News Director and sports color following an ownership change. His health worsened and after a stroke was advised by doctors to get out of radio and the stress filled environment.

He elected to return to Brady and work with his dad house painting with Ables Brothers Painting. His health did not improve and several strokes and hospital stays later led him to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN where he had open heart surgery.

Following the surgery Doug recuperated and returned to radio as a DJ in Brady at KNEL. In a short time he became News Director and garnered The Texas Association of Broadcasters Newsman of the Year for small market stations while there.

Wanting to recapture his dream of being in baseball, Doug decided to branch into TV after being in radio for 16 years. He worked in news at KOOV in Copperas Cove while attending Central Texas College in Killeen where he earned a degree in Telecommunications. While at KOOV  he was awarded the Associated Press' Mark Twain Award for coverage of a helicopter crash killing several National Guardsmen on Fort Hood. His first job after graduation was as General Manager of KGID, Giddings. There he was the voice of the Giddings Buffalo football team. He then became General Manager and News Director of KSTB/KROO in Breckenridge, Texas. From there he went to KNUZ/KNUZ radio in Houston where he was made News Director after 2 years. He was routinely heard on TSN, AP Radio, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN radio with stories of national interest.
While in Houston Doug was awarded the Best Feature Story in Texas for Large Market Radio Stations. It featured an interview with Dr. John Stehlin of Houston on progress in finding a cure for cancer.

The next stop was Restoration Radio Network International in Nashville, TN. There he worked with Clayton Pepper in helping to spread the gospel in Africa and other nations. He was supported in part in his mission effort by the Copperas Cove Church of Christ. 

The chimney sweep business was started in 1980 and continued on the side all through the radio work Ables did. In 1995 he moved his family and business back to Copperas Cove and worked part time sweeping chimneys while working full time at Lowes in Killeen. In 2007 he began working full time chimney sweeping and dryer vent cleaning while working part time at Lowes.

Doug and Mary continue to attend the Copperas Cove Church of Christ where he has served as elder for 8 years.