Service area
Chimney sweep in Torrance
AAA Chimney Sweep & Fire Protection Co. has been working Torrance chimneys since 1977, from Old Torrance to the Hollywood Riviera to the tracts out west. Family owned the whole time.
What is the fireplace doing?
8am to 8pm
Two build eras, one city
Torrance runs from 1920s Old Torrance masonry to mile after mile of 1950s tract housing, and the chimney usually tells you which street you are on.
Old Torrance dates to the 1912 town plan. Those downtown homes have original brick and clay tile that has never been relined. A hundred years of heat plus a few earthquakes later, cracked flue tile is the first thing our camera finds.
Then there are the tracts. Southwood, Victoria, West Torrance, all thrown up fast in the postwar years to the same handful of plans. When one chimney has a thin crown or a short flue, the house three doors down has it too. We have been up enough of them to know what is coming before the ladder does.
The Hollywood Riviera is its own case. It sits right on the water next to Redondo, so salt works into the caps and dampers the same way it does down there.
Where we work in town
Every part of Torrance
- Old Torrance
- Hollywood Riviera
- Southwood
- West Torrance
- Walteria
- Southeast Torrance
- Harbor Gateway
- North Torrance
What we find on Torrance chimneys
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Cracked flue tile in Old Torrance
The downtown homes still run their original 1920s clay liners. Heat and the 1994 Northridge quake left plenty of them split, and a cracked liner means the chimney is no longer sealed. Only a camera up the flue finds it.
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The same fault, street after street
Southwood and West Torrance went up to a few repeated plans. A thin crown or an undersized flue on one house tends to show up on the whole block. We usually know the chimney before we park.
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Salt on the Hollywood Riviera
The Riviera sits on the water, so anything metal up there is on a clock. Caps rust from the inside and dampers seize, the same pattern we see across the hill in Redondo.
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Seized dampers
Corrosion locks the plate. Stuck open, you heat the street all winter. Stuck closed, the first fire of the season backs smoke into the room.
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Short flues that draw badly
The single storey tracts have short stacks. They lose draft the moment anything partly blocks them, and people put up with a smoky fireplace for years thinking that is normal. It is not.
What we do here
Services available in Torrance
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
Torrance chimney questions
- How soon can you get to Torrance?
- Usually within the week. Torrance sits in the middle of our South Bay run, so we are through here most days we work the beach cities and the peninsula.
- My house is in Old Torrance. Is that a different job?
- Often, yes. The downtown homes have original masonry and clay tile from the 1920s, so the camera goes up the flue before we quote anything. Newer tract chimneys are more predictable, but both start with a look.
- How often should a Torrance chimney be inspected?
- Once a year. On the Hollywood Riviera the concern is what salt has done to the cap and the damper. Inland it is more about age and the condition of the original flue tile.
- 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?
- Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan Beach, plus Lomita, Carson and the Palos Verdes peninsula.
Nearby
Other cities we cover
Book a visit
Get on the next South Bay run
Tell us the cross street and what the fireplace is doing. If it is a cap or a damper, we usually know before we pull up.
818-348-1993Open every day, 8am to 8pm. Serving Torrance and the South Bay.
Request a visit
We answer the same day during business hours.