Service area
Chimney sweep in Lakewood
AAA Chimney Sweep & Fire Protection Co. has been working Lakewood chimneys since 1977, from Lakewood Village to Mayfair to Carson Park. Family owned the whole time.
What is the fireplace doing?
8am to 8pm
A whole city built in three years
Lakewood went up almost all at once in the early 1950s, so the chimneys are the same age and the same build, and they tend to fail the same way.
When you put up seventeen thousand homes in about three years, you use a few plans and repeat them. That is what makes Lakewood chimneys easy for us to read. A thin crown, a short flue, an original damper going stiff. See it on one street and you will see it on the next.
The catch is timing. Everything here is now seventy years old, so a lot of these chimneys are reaching the end of the same parts at the same time. The cap that lasted this long is done. The crown poured thin in 1951 has finally cracked through.
Most of the housing is single storey, which means short stacks. Short stacks lose draft the moment anything blocks them, so when a fireplace here smokes, the flue is usually the reason.
Where we work in town
Every part of Lakewood
- Lakewood Village
- Lakewood Park
- Mayfair
- Carson Park
- Lakewood Center
- Bolivar Park
- Del Amo
- The Mutuals
What we find on Lakewood chimneys
-
Crowns cracking on the same schedule
The crowns here were poured thin in the early 1950s with little or no overhang. Seventy winters later they are cracking through across whole tracts, and once water gets past the crown the rest of the chimney starts to go.
-
Original dampers rusted stiff
A lot of these homes still have the damper the builder installed. Seven decades of moisture and it will not budge, stuck open bleeding your heat or stuck shut so the first fire smokes.
-
Worn out first generation caps
Where there is a cap at all, it is usually the original galvanised one, gone thin and rusty by now. Plenty of Lakewood chimneys never had a proper cap, which is why we find nests and water down in the smoke chamber.
-
Short flues that draw badly
Single storey homes mean short stacks, and short stacks lose draft the moment anything blocks them. If your Lakewood fireplace has always been smoky, that is worth a look before you settle for it.
-
Flue tile from one pour
The clay liners went in at the same time to the same size. The 1994 Northridge quake cracked a share of them, and a split liner means the flue is no longer sealed. A camera is the only way to see it.
What we do here
Services available in Lakewood
Chimney sweeping
Drop cloths down, HEPA vacuum running, Level I inspection included.
Chimney inspection
Level I visual, or Level II camera the full length of the flue for escrow.
Chimney cap installation
Stainless caps that survive salt air. Galvanized ones do not last here.
Chimney leak repair
Ceiling stains and damp fireboxes traced back to the crown, cap or flashing.
Chimney repair
Crowns, mortar joints, spalling brick and damaged flue tile.
Gas fireplace repair
Pilots that will not hold, uneven burners, dead remotes, bad valves.
Reviews
What South Bay homeowners say
Straight from our Google and Yelp profiles. Nothing here is written by us.
Questions
Lakewood chimney questions
- How soon can you get to Lakewood?
- Usually within the week. We work the whole Southeast LA and Harbor stretch, so Lakewood, Long Beach and Bellflower tend to get scheduled on the same days.
- My neighbour just had chimney work. Do I probably need the same?
- Quite possibly. The homes on your street were built together to the same plan, so they wear out together. If a neighbour needed a crown or a cap, yours is worth checking while we are in the area.
- How often should a Lakewood chimney be inspected?
- Once a year. Most of these chimneys are original and seventy years old, so the annual look is really about catching a thin crown or a stiff damper before it turns into a leak.
- We barely use the fireplace. Do we still need it checked?
- Yes. Light use means little creosote, which is the good part. It also means a flue sitting open and ignored for eleven months, which is long enough for a nest or a cracked liner to go unnoticed.
- Do you do inspections for escrow?
- Yes. A Level II camera inspection comes with a written report and photos, which is what a buyer's agent or their insurer will want to see.
- Which nearby cities do you cover?
- Long Beach, Bellflower, Cerritos and Carson, along with the beach cities and the Palos Verdes peninsula.
Nearby
Other cities we cover
Book a visit
Get on this week's schedule
Tell us the cross street and what the fireplace is doing. On these tracts a cap or a stiff damper is often something we can call before we pull up.
818-348-1993Open every day, 8am to 8pm. Serving Lakewood and the surrounding cities.
Request a visit
We answer the same day during business hours.