My ceiling stains after storms but the roofer says the roof is fine. Could it be the chimney?

Quite possibly. The joint between the chimney and the roof is a separate detail from the roofing itself, and flashing eaten by salt air can let water in while the shingles or tiles around it are sound. A cracked crown, a missing cap and water soaking through the brick are the other usual suspects. Checking each in turn, ideally soon after rain, beats sealing everything and hoping.

Can salt air affect a direct-vent gas fireplace?

Yes, at the termination, the vent cap on the outside wall or roof where exhaust leaves and combustion air comes in. Corrosion or debris there can upset the airflow the appliance depends on, and a unit can then light poorly or shut itself off. If you smell gas at any point, leave the house and call the gas utility from outside. Otherwise, an unreliable direct-vent unit is a gas fireplace repair question rather than a chimney one.

Person pushing a chimney brush down a brick chimney on a tile roof

Los Angeles County

Chimney & Fireplace Services in Redondo Beach

Local information for Redondo Beach, CA — what the climate and the housing stock here do to a chimney, and the services that deal with it.

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Redondo Beach, CA

Chimney service in Redondo Beach

In Redondo Beach, the metal parts of a chimney are usually the first place to look. Salt-bearing marine air reaches every steel part of a chimney: the cap, the spark arrestor mesh, the damper plate, the flashing and, on a factory-built fireplace, the chase cover. Where a house has been remodeled or rebuilt, a direct-vent gas unit or a prefab fireplace may stand where masonry once did, and each fails in its own way.

What Redondo Beach does to a chimney

Redondo Beach meets the ocean along its western side, and here corrosion tends to announce itself as a leak before anyone sees rust. Salt pits the flashing where the stack meets the roof, and the first sign is often a brown stain on a ceiling or on the wall beside the fireplace. Wind off the water also drives rain sideways into joints that would stay dry on a sheltered inland chimney. That is why a leak in Redondo Beach is worth tracing from the roof down instead of blaming the crown by default: corroded flashing, a failed cap and a rusted chase cover can all leave the same mark indoors.

Redondo Beach homes and what it means for the chimney

Where the fireplace is factory-built, the chimney is a framed chase clad to match the house and topped with a sheet-metal chase cover. A cover that has rusted or sagged holds water, and a rust streak down the siding below it is usually the first thing anyone notices. Where the chimney is original masonry, the salt works on the flashing instead. The fixes differ: a chase cover is replaced as a part, while flashing on masonry is set into the mortar joints and has to be reset properly or the leak comes back.

Redondo Beach sits in the South Bay, where the dominant chimney risk is coastal corrosion + factory-built service needs.

Local services

Chimney services in Redondo Beach

Written for Redondo Beach specifically, rather than for the county as a whole.

Sealing work at the joint where a brick chimney meets the roof

chimney leak repair in Redondo Beach

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fireplace repair in Redondo Beach

Two workers setting a mesh cap and troweling the crown of a brick chimney

chimney repair in Redondo Beach

Services

Chimney and fireplace service topics

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What this site covers

Chimney & fireplace services
Los Angeles County Service Areas
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What this site covers

Chimney & fireplace services
Los Angeles County Service Areas
Estimate requests online

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Around Redondo Beach

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Common questions

Redondo Beach questions

On a framed chimney it is almost always the chase cover, the metal lid at the top, corroding and letting water sit. On a brick chimney a rusting cap or damper assembly shedding into the runoff is the likelier source. Either way, the stain shows water staying where it should drain. Replacing the failed part fixes it; painting over the streak does not.

Other things homeowners ask are covered on the FAQ page.

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Chimney and fireplace questions in Redondo Beach

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