Chimney & Fireplace Services in Pasadena

It depends on the district, the designation and how visible the work is from the street. Pasadena operates historic preservation review, and exterior alterations to designated properties can require it. Repointing that changes the colour or profile of a joint is exactly the kind of thing that can fall in scope. Check with the City of Pasadena planning department for your address before work is scheduled — it is a short call and it is far easier than unwinding a finished job.

Because the brick and the mortar were designed as a pair. Historic lime-rich mortar is softer than the brick around it, so when the wall moves or takes on moisture, the joint gives. Modern Portland-cement mortar is harder than much pre-war brick, so the brick gives instead — and a brick face, once shed, does not come back. The National Park Service preservation brief on repointing historic masonry is the standard reference, and it is the reason this is a slower job on a 1915 chimney than on a 1985 one.

Any unreinforced masonry chimney in the region has been through seismic events, the 1994 Northridge earthquake most obviously. The relevant point is that exterior appearance is a poor predictor of internal liner condition afterwards — a stack can be repaired at the face while the clay tile behind it stays cracked. If a chimney has been repaired at some point in its history and nobody looked inside the flue at the time, that is worth establishing rather than assuming.