Ocean salt, sundowner winds off the mountains and a lot of old adobe and tile-roofed masonry. We sweep, inspect and repair chimneys across Santa Barbara, from the beach blocks and State Street up onto the Riviera and out to Montecito and Hope Ranch.
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 handle sweeping, inspection and repair across Santa Barbara, from the Mesa and the downtown blocks up onto the Riviera and out to Montecito, Hope Ranch and Mission Canyon.
Santa Barbara sits on a south-facing stretch of coast with the Santa Ynez Mountains rising close behind it, and the houses run from the water straight up the slope. Near the beach and around downtown you get older bungalows and Spanish-style homes on smaller lots. Climb toward the Riviera, Mission Canyon and out to Montecito and Hope Ranch and the estates spread out under the oaks, many with tile roofs and tall masonry chimneys.
The building stock leans old and traditional here, a lot of 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival, adobe and red clay tile, alongside newer custom homes. Those tile roofs and thick masonry stacks are part of the town's look, and they also shape the work. Flashing a chimney into clay tile is its own job, and the older the mortar, the more careful the sweep and the repair.
Getting to the roof is the other thing we plan for. Montecito and Hope Ranch runs mean long gated drives, and the Riviera and Mission Canyon streets climb and twist. We sort the access and timing before we come out rather than turn up and improvise.
All of it is available across the neighborhood, and every job opens with an inspection.
Where every job starts. You get photos and a straight read on the chimney's condition.
Crowns, mortar, flashing and flue liners, the usual work on the older masonry stacks around town.
Flue cleared of creosote and soot, with the mess kept inside from start to finish.
Tracing water back to its source, which matters under tile roofs and winter storms off the coast.
Caps and spark arrestors fitted right, worth more with the brush and the sundowner winds nearby.
Firebox, damper and hearth work on the old adobe-era and remodeled fireplaces here.
The coast puts salt in the air, and salt goes after metal. The steel on a chimney, the cap, the spark arrestor, the damper and the flashing, rusts quicker within a mile or two of the water than it does inland. On the Mesa and the beach blocks we see caps starting to streak orange while they are still fairly new.
Santa Barbara's other wind is the sundowner, the dry gust that pours down off the Santa Ynez range in the evening. It drives the fire danger in the foothills, and it also finds its way into a flue with a poor cap or a cracked crown. A tight cap and a sound crown keep both the embers and the weather where they belong.
Then there is the age of the masonry. A lot of these chimneys were laid in the 1920s and 30s, and old lime mortar gives up its grip over the decades. Add the shaking this coast gets and you find hairline cracks, loose crowns and gaps behind the flashing that let water in slowly.
You can check some of it yourself. Look at the cap for rust, and run a screwdriver along a mortar joint you can reach. If the metal flakes or the mortar crumbles, the stack is ready for a proper look, and after a hard sundowner or a big winter storm is a sensible 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 run up the coast regularly, so a Santa Barbara visit slots in without a long wait. Call and we will give you the next open day and a realistic arrival window.
It does. 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 near the water. We always look hard at the metal and the crown on homes close to the beach.
Yes. The slopes above town carry real brush-fire risk, especially on a sundowner evening, and a spark arrestor on the cap keeps an ember from leaving your flue. If yours is rusted through or missing, we would fit one before fire season rather than after.
It changes the flashing and the access. Sealing a chimney into clay tile takes more care than a composition roof, and we work off the tile without cracking it. It is common here, so it is routine for us.
Once a year for most homes if you burn wood, ideally before the first cold night. Even light use lays down creosote, and the yearly visit is when we catch a rusting cap or an opening joint before it becomes a leak.
No. Everything gets covered before a tool comes out, and the vacuum runs the whole time. 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.
