Find out why the fire stopped drawing before you light another

"The fire was fine last year, and now the smoke hangs under the mantel." Before anyone sweeps, patches or replaces a thing, it helps to know which part of the chimney changed. An inspection answers that. Much of what we do is measuring. We take the width and height of the fireplace opening and compare it with the inside size of the flue tile, because a flue that is too small for the opening can only carry part of the smoke, and the rest spills into the room. We check how far the damper actually swings open, since a plate that stops at forty degrees chokes the throat as badly as a blocked flue. We look at the chimney top against the roof around it, because a short stack beside a taller ridge or a second storey sits in turbulent air that pushes smoke back down. None of this needs a camera. It needs a tape, a light, a mirror and a few minutes of patience at the hearth in Pacific Palisades or wherever your house is.

A Level 1 inspection, as NFPA 211 describes it, is a visual check of the readily reachable parts of the chimney and fireplace. For us that means the firebox walls and joints, the damper and its frame, the smoke chamber as far as a light can show it, the flue from below and from the roof where we can get up safely, the crown, the cap and the clearance between the chimney and nearby wood framing. We also light a small smoke source at the opening so you can watch where the smoke goes. The visit costs $57. It is the right starting point for a fireplace you use every year without trouble, and for one that has begun to smoke or smell without an obvious reason. If the Level 1 shows something that only a camera can confirm, such as a crack that disappears into a dark flue, we explain why a Level 2 might be worth it and what it would cost. You make that call, not us.

Westside chimneys age in their own way, and an inspection here looks for the local patterns. Within a mile or two of the water, salt in the marine air rusts steel dampers, cap screens and the fasteners that hold them. A damper that has scaled over may close fine but open only partway, and the owner rarely notices until the first smoky evening. Up the canyons in Malibu and on the ridges above Pacific Palisades, wind is the issue: gusts sweep over the roof and press down on an open flue, so we note the cap style and the height of the stack against the slope. Seismic movement leaves its own marks. Hairline cracks in the crown, a gap where the chimney meets the house, or a mortar joint that has opened on one side all point to a chimney that has shifted, and each one can let water in or let smoke out. Houses that sat near the Palisades fire of January 2025 get an extra look at the cap and crown for heat damage.

What you get at the end is a written summary in plain language, with photos, sorted by what matters for safety, what matters for draft, and what can wait. A loose cap screen and a cracked flue tile do not belong in the same sentence, and we keep them apart. If the reason for your smoke is simple, such as a creosote buildup or a damper that has slipped, the summary says so and the fix is usually a sweep or a small repair. If the reason is the shape of the fireplace itself, the summary explains the mismatch between the opening and the flue and the options for correcting it. Repairs are priced in writing as a separate step, and there is no pressure to book them with us. Homeowners in Brentwood and Santa Monica often use the summary to plan work over a season or two. To set up a visit, use the phone link at the top of the page or the contact form, and mention any smell or smoke you have noticed.