Chimney Inspection in North Hills, CA

What happens during a chimney inspection

We start inside. Drop cloth down, damper worked open and shut, firebox lit with a strong light. The smoke shelf gets checked with a mirror or camera. Then the flue, top to bottom, on camera where access allows. Then the roof: crown, flashing, storm collar, cap. Photos the whole way, so you see the defect instead of just hearing about it.

North Hills chimneys split into two families. Pre-1980 open masonry with clay tile liners, which show separated or offset flue tiles from seismic shift and cracked, spalled mortar crowns from sun exposure and drought-heat cycling. Then 1980s-onward factory-built prefab with class-A pipe, which fails at the chase cover and storm collar. Rust-through up there sends water straight down the chase.

Flues unused most of the year become animal flues. Birds get in. Rodents and raccoons too. A missing or corroded spark arrestor cap is the way in, and in brush-fire country it is a code issue as well.

Gas log sets get a separate look: clearances and blocked flue, plus whether the damper is clamped. Plenty are not.

Smoke rollout often isn't the chimney at all. Tightened, retrofitted homes starve the fire for combustion air. Crack a window during a burn. If the smoke behaves, the house is the problem.