Chimney Services in Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County stretches from the coast through the basin and over the mountains into the high desert, and the chimney picture changes completely across that span. Coastal communities fight metal corrosion. The basin carries an enormous stock of pre-war and post-war masonry. The Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley communities north of the mountains get genuine winter cold and burn accordingly. What unites them is age: this county's housing stock is old by Californian standards, and the fireplaces in it were built when annual sweeping was assumed.

What matters about Los Angeles chimneys

• The 1994 Northridge earthquake cracked flue liners across the county. Much of the damage was repaired cosmetically above the roofline without the flue interior being assessed, and properties have changed hands repeatedly since.

  Source: USGS

• Housing built before 1960 — Craftsman, Spanish Colonial and post-war ranch — typically has a masonry firebox with a clay tile liner now sixty to a hundred years old.

• Most of the county falls under the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which declares mandatory no-burn days through winter and restricts wood-burning device installation in new construction under Rule 445. The Antelope Valley, including Lancaster and Palmdale, is under the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District instead.

  Source: SCAQMD; Antelope Valley AQMD

• Coastal communities from Malibu through the South Bay experience accelerated corrosion of caps, chase covers, dampers and spark arrestor screens from persistent marine air.

• Foothill communities along the San Gabriel range sit in wildland-urban interface land where spark arrestor screening is required on chimneys serving wood-burning appliances.

  Source: CAL FIRE