From the older homes around the village and UCLA to the towers along the Wilshire Corridor, we sweep, inspect and repair chimneys across Westwood.
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 the whole of Westwood, from the tree-lined streets north of the village down to the condo towers on Wilshire.
Westwood is not one kind of housing, and the chimneys reflect that. North of the village, up toward Sunset and into Holmby Hills, you get the grand older homes, a lot of them Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean stock from the 1920s and 1930s with original stucco stacks and clay flue tile. East along Wilshire the picture flips to high-rise condominiums, where a fireplace is a design feature more than a heat source and the flue behind it can sit unused for years.
Those older homes near UCLA are the ones we spend the most time on. A stucco-clad chimney from the twenties hides its brick core, so a crack in the crown or a soft mortar joint does not announce itself the way it would on bare brick. By the time a stain shows on a ceiling, water has usually been getting in for a while.
Westwood is off the Valley for us, a straight run over the hill on the 405. It is not our shortest drive, but it is a familiar one, and we hold the same schedule here that we do closer to home.
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 stacks of this age.
Flue cleared of creosote and soot, with the mess held in from start to finish.
Repointing and brickwork on the older stucco and masonry stacks around the village.
A proper cap keeps the damp marine air and debris out of a flue that rarely gets lit.
Firebox, damper and hearth work on original 1920s fireboxes and condo installs alike.
Westwood sits a few miles from the coast, and the marine layer that rolls in most mornings is part of daily life here. That steady damp is easy to ignore, but a chimney feels it. Moisture settles into old mortar and clay flue tile, sits there through the cool part of the day, and never fully dries out in the way brick does further inland.
Damp masonry is the problem behind a lot of the repairs we do on this side of town. Water that soaks into a joint and stays there breaks the mortar down from the inside, freezes on the rare cold night, and loosens the brick over time. On a stucco chimney the trouble hides longer, because the crack that is letting water in is behind a coat of render you cannot read from the ground.
There is a second Westwood pattern worth naming. In a lot of these homes the fireplace barely gets used, so no one is watching the flue. A stack that goes years without a fire still collects moisture, rust and the odd bird, and the damper seizes up from disuse. When someone finally does want a fire, that is when the surprises turn up.
A sound cap is the cheapest guard against most of it. It keeps the damp air, the rain and the debris out of a flue that would otherwise sit open to the sky between the handful of nights a year it gets lit.
Call for the quickest answer, or send the form higher up the page and we will come back to you the same day.
We cover Westwood regularly. Our shop is in the Valley, so it is a drive over the hill on the 405 rather than a five-minute hop, but it is a route we run often and it does not change how soon we can book you. Call and we will usually get you on the schedule the same week.
Yes. A lot of the older Westwood homes have stucco over a brick or block core, which is exactly the type we see near the village and up toward Holmby. The stucco can hide a cracked crown or a failing joint, so the inspection matters more, not less. We read the stack, show you what is behind the render, and price from there.
It does, and that is the exact case we see most on the Westside. A flue that sits unused still takes on damp from the ocean air, collects rust and debris, and the damper tends to seize. A quick inspection tells you whether it is safe to light and whether a cap would keep the worst of it out.
That depends on the building. In some the flue and firebox are the unit owner's, in others they sit with the HOA. We are happy to inspect what serves your unit and give you a written report you can take to the building if the work falls on their side.
Once a year is the general rule for a fireplace in regular use. If yours barely gets lit, an inspection every year or two is more the point than a sweep, since the risks here are damp and debris rather than heavy creosote.
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.
