Salt air, a hard-blowing marine layer and the highest fire risk in the county, all working on the same chimney. We sweep, inspect and repair the length of Malibu, from the beach houses on PCH up into the canyon and hillside streets.
Send the details and we will get back to you the same day. We inspect first and price after, so the number we give you is the number you pay.
Rather talk it through? Call (818) 854-5578
We cover sweeping, inspection and repair the length of Malibu, from Carbon Beach and the Colony out to Point Dume and Broad Beach, and up the canyon roads into the hills.
Malibu is really a thin ribbon of coast, about twenty-one miles of it along Pacific Coast Highway, and the housing follows the road. Down at the water are the beachfront rows, Carbon Beach, Malibu Colony and Broad Beach, packed tight above the sand. Behind and above them the land climbs fast into Point Dume, Serra Retreat and the canyon streets off Malibu Canyon, Latigo and Encinal, where the lots spread out and the driveways get steep.
The houses are as varied as the setting, from original beach cottages and midcentury builds to large modern estates and a steady run of rebuilds. What ties the chimneys together is the ocean and the wind. Living this exposed changes how a stack ages, and it is the first thing we look at here.
Access is the other Malibu factor. Homes sit on narrow beachfront lanes, gated drives or steep canyon roads, and PCH itself is slow going most of the day. We plan the timing and the roof access around that rather than turn up and rush it.
All of it is available across the neighborhood, and every job opens with an inspection.
Where everything else begins. You get photos and a plain read on the chimney's condition.
Crowns, mortar, flashing and flue liners. The usual work on coastal stacks of this age.
Flue cleared of creosote and soot, with the mess held in from start to finish.
Tracing water back to its source, which matters where the marine layer keeps masonry damp.
Caps and spark arrestors fitted right, which counts for more up in the fire zone.
Firebox, damper and hearth work on the older and remodeled fireplaces here.
The thing that shapes a Malibu chimney is the ocean, up close and constant. Salt sits in the sea air, and salt is hard on metal. The steel parts of a chimney, the cap, the spark arrestor, the damper and the flashing, rust far faster here than a few miles inland. On the beachfront rows we see caps only a few years old already going orange.
The wind and the marine layer add to it. Malibu takes the weather off the water with almost nothing in the way, and damp salt air keeps masonry from ever fully drying. Brick that stays wet spalls and blooms with efflorescence sooner, and crowns and mortar joints show it earlier than they would inland.
Then there is fire, and nowhere in the county carries more of it. Almost all of Malibu sits in a very high fire hazard severity zone, and the area has burned more than once in living memory. A sound spark arrestor on the cap is what keeps an ember inside the flue where it belongs, and on a coast this exposed that is not a small thing.
You can check some of it from the ground. Look at the cap for rust runs, and drag a screwdriver along any mortar joint you can reach. If the metal is flaking or the mortar crumbles under light pressure, the stack is ready for a proper look, and after a big blow or a nearby fire is a good time for one.
Call for the quickest answer, or send the form higher up the page and we will come back to you the same day.
Usually the same week. We cover the coast and the canyons regularly, so a Malibu visit slots in without much wait, PCH traffic allowing. Call and we will give you the next open day and a realistic arrival window.
It does, more than most people expect. Salt in the coastal air rusts the metal parts of a chimney faster than inland, so caps, spark arrestors, dampers and flashing wear out sooner here. The damp marine layer also keeps masonry from drying, which brings on spalling and staining earlier. It is the main reason we check the metal and the crown closely on Malibu homes.
Yes, and it matters a great deal here. The hillside and canyon streets sit in a very high fire hazard severity zone, and a spark arrestor on the cap keeps an ember from drifting out of your flue into dry brush. If yours is rusted through or missing, we would sort that before the season rather than leave it.
Usually yes. A flue that sits mostly unused still collects nesting material and debris, and near the coast the damp keeps working on the masonry whether you light a fire or not. A yearly look catches the small things while they are still small.
Once a year for most homes if you burn wood, ideally before the first cold night. Even light use lays down creosote, and the annual visit is also when we catch a rusting cap or an opening joint before it turns into a leak.
No. Everything gets covered before a tool comes out, and the vacuum runs the whole visit. You should not be able to tell we were there.
We look at it, you see the photos, then you get a written price. Call, or fill in the form above.
