Chimney Cleaning, Inspection
& Repair in Los Angeles

Los Angeles has an unusually old residential masonry stock for a western city. Large parts of the basin, the Westside and the northeast were built before 1960, and a great many of those homes still have their original brick chimneys. Masonry of that age is generally still serviceable — but the mortar joints, the crown and the liner are all well past the point where they should be looked at rather than assumed to be fine.

The county is also not one climate. Homes near the coast sit under a marine layer that corrodes metal chimney components — caps, chase covers and damper plates — noticeably faster than the same parts a few miles inland. The valleys swing through a much wider annual temperature range, and that repeated expansion and contraction is what opens mortar joints and cracks crowns over time.

Rain arrives concentrated into a short winter season rather than spread through the year, which means water problems tend to announce themselves all at once. A crown crack or failed flashing that caused no trouble for months will produce a ceiling stain during the first serious storm.

Southern California is seismically active, and movement can crack a flue liner without leaving anything visible on the outside of the chimney. That is the main argument for a camera inspection rather than a visual one: the exterior of a chimney is a poor guide to the condition of the flue inside it.

Wood burning in the Los Angeles basin is subject to seasonal air-quality advisories. Check the current South Coast AQMD advisory before lighting a wood fire in winter.