Service area
Chimney sweep service for a Lakewood built in three years
Lakewood chimneys get swept, inspected and repaired by AAA Chimney Sweep, a family owned company since 1977, with sweeps starting at $99. Between 1950 and 1953 the Lakewood Park Company built 17,500 houses on about 3,500 acres. That is why so many chimneys here share a birth year.
What is the fireplace doing?
What a three year building rush means for your chimney
Lakewood chimneys are wearing out on one calendar, because most of the houses under them went up within a few years of each other.
The census backs that up. About 55 percent of Lakewood's housing units date from the 1950s, according to the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey. Crews worked assembly line style, finishing around 50 houses a day, every one built to Veterans Administration specifications.
Seventy years is a long run for a mortar crown or a steel damper. Parts installed in the same season tend to fail in the same stretch of years. So when the house two doors down needs its crown redone, take it as a hint.
Mayfair and Lakewood Gardens are a little older. Those sections filled in during the late 1940s, before the big build began.
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On the roof and in the flue
Four parts reaching the end together
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The crown
The poured top of the chimney, over the brick. One poured in the early 1950s has taken seven decades of sun and rain. Fine cracks let rain into the brick underneath, and that is where a small repair turns into a big one.
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The damper
A cast iron plate on a hinge, rusting a little every wet winter. Eventually the handle will not move. Left open, warm air leaves all season. Jammed shut, the first fire smokes out the room.
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The cap
Where there is one, it may be the first generation galvanized cap. Once it rusts through, rain gets into the flue. So do birds. A stainless replacement is a one visit job.
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The clay liner
Flue tile from 1951 has been heated and cooled thousands of times. Joints open and tiles crack, and none of it shows from the hearth. A Level II camera run finds it.
Where to start
The work Lakewood tracts call for most
Chimney inspection
A camera down a 1950s clay flue, with photos of every crack it finds.
Chimney repair
Crowns poured again and mortar joints repointed on seventy year old brick.
Chimney cap installation
Stainless steel in place of the original galvanized cap.
Chimney relining
A stainless liner once the first clay tile has split.
Questions
What Lakewood homeowners ask us
- Our house was built in 1952. What should we check first on the chimney?
- Start at the top. The crown and the cap take the most weather, and on a house that age they are often the originals. Then the damper. Then the flue tile, which only a camera shows you properly.
- Can a cracked crown be fixed without rebuilding the chimney?
- Usually. Hairline cracks get sealed. A crown that has split through or broken away gets poured again, and the brick below only needs work if water has been getting in for years.
- Is it worth replacing the original damper?
- If the plate has rusted through or the frame has warped, yes. A damper that is only stiff can often be freed up and adjusted. We tell you which kind you have before any work starts.
- We are buying a Lakewood house. Does the chimney need its own inspection?
- Get one before you close. Ask for a Level II, where a camera travels the whole flue and the photos land in a written report for your agent.
Nearby
Next door to Lakewood
Long Beach borders Lakewood to the west and to the south. Carson and Norwalk are a short drive from there.
Book a visit
Book a Lakewood chimney visit
Which year was the house built, and is the fireplace smoking, leaking or just due? Start there. It points us at the right parts first.
818-348-1993We take calls every day from 8am to 8pm.
Request a visit
Sent during business hours, it gets a reply the same day.