Smoke spills no matter what you try, and the stack looks short

You have had it swept, you crack a window, you burn dry oak, and smoke still drifts into the room. Sometimes the cause is the chimney's own shape. A stack that ends too low against its roof, or against a neighbor's newer second storey, sits in a pocket of turbulent air where wind rolls over the roofline and presses down on the flue. Code sets a minimum height above the roof and a clearance from anything nearby, and the reason behind those numbers is draft. Fall short of them, and the fire fights the wind on every breezy night. A flue that is too small for the fireplace opening is another common cause: the opening produces more smoke than the flue can carry away, and the excess comes out the front. Neither problem responds to sweeping or a new damper. Both are fixed by changing the chimney itself, which is why a rebuild sometimes ends up as the honest answer.

Earthquakes are the other reason. Unreinforced brick chimneys are among the parts of a Southern California house most prone to seismic damage, and a chimney that has separated from the house, leans, or has a cracked flue running its full length cannot be patched into a safe one. A cracked flue lets smoke and carbon monoxide slip into framing and living space, which is a bigger concern than a stained ceiling. After the Palisades fire of January 2025, many homes in Pacific Palisades also have chimneys that stood through intense heat; the brick may look intact while the mortar and tile inside have been weakened. In Hollywood and Silver Lake, older hillside houses sometimes have chimneys that previous owners extended or altered in ways that no longer suit the original flue. We inspect first, measure, and show you the numbers behind any rebuild advice before you commit to anything.

Most rebuilds stop at the roofline. The upper section, the part that takes the most weather and the most sway in a quake, comes down brick by brick to a level where the masonry is sound, then goes back up with vertical steel and grouted cores as current code requires. That top section is where height can be added if the old stack fell short, and where the flue can be resized. Full-length rebuilds, from the foundation up, are for chimneys that have pulled away from the house or cracked through the firebox. Either way the new flue gets a liner sized to the fireplace opening, so the chimney can carry what the fire produces. Some homeowners ask about replacing a damaged masonry chimney with a lighter framed chase and a metal flue instead. That can make sense on some houses, and we will lay out both options side by side so you can compare them.

Rebuilds need permits in the cities we work in, including Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, and we file them, schedule the inspections and keep the paperwork with the job. The price is quoted in writing after an inspection, because height, access, roof type and the amount of brick that must come down vary so much between houses. Expect the quote to list each part: demolition, reinforcement, new flue or liner, crown, cap, and the flashing reset where the chimney meets the roof. When the work is finished we light a test fire and check the draft on the new stack before calling it done. If the evidence points to a smaller repair instead, you will hear that from us first. To start, send the form or use the phone link at the top of the page, and include the age of the house if you know it.