Service area
Chimney sweeping and repair for Westchester's 1940s tracts
AAA Chimney Sweep is a family owned chimney sweep and repair company working in Westchester, from Kentwood and Westport Heights over to the streets around LMU. We opened in 1977. A sweep starts at $99, and an inspection starts at $69.
What is the fireplace doing?
8am to 8pm
Houses built for the defense plants
Westchester's first tracts were built in a hurry for aircraft and defense workers, and the oldest of their chimneys are now past 80.
The tracts spread out from Manchester and Sepulveda. Silas Nowell announced Westport Heights in 1940. Frank H. Ayres & Son followed with Kentwood in 1941, the same year Bert Farrar opened Farrar Manor. Fritz Burns and Fred Marlow put up inexpensive prefabricated houses on what had been a hog farm.
Who could buy mattered. Early homes were sold only to people working in the defense industry, while Northrop, Douglas and Hughes hired as fast as they could.
Then the houses changed. In the 2010s the Los Angeles Times reported a boom in additions here, with postwar ranch houses rebuilt as larger two-story homes. That is the part that catches chimneys out.
The original tracts
Kentwood, Westport Heights and the blocks between
- Kentwood
- Westport Heights
- Farrar Manor
- Loyola Village
- Near LMU
- Manchester and Sepulveda
Where a Westchester chimney goes wrong
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A new second story beside an old chimney
Code wants the top of a chimney at least 2 feet higher than any part of the house within 10 feet. Build a second floor next to a one-story stack and it can end up too short. Wind rolls off the new wall and pushes smoke back down. The fix is extending the flue.
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An 80 year old clay liner
If the flue still has the liner it was built with, that tile has been heated and cooled since the Roosevelt years. Cracks and open joints are what we look for. You will not see them from the hearth.
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Crowns nobody has touched since the war
Eighty years is enough for a crown to be replaced once, twice, or never. The never ones crack. Water gets into the top courses of brick and loosens the mortar.
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Old fireboxes getting a gas insert
An old firebox can take a gas insert. The insert needs its own liner, sized to it, running the full height of the chimney. We inspect first, then quote the insert.
What we do here
The Westchester work that matters most
Chimney inspection
Book it before a Westchester remodel starts, so the plans account for the chimney.
Chimney rebuild
Taking a stack up to clear a second-story addition.
Chimney relining
Stainless inside a wartime clay flue once the camera finds the cracks.
Fireplace insert installation
Gas or wood inserts fitted to a Kentwood-era firebox, liner included.
Chimney sweeping
A clean flue in a Westport Heights ranch before the first cold night.
Questions
Westchester remodels, liners and inserts
- We are adding a second story. What happens to the chimney?
- It may need to go taller. Code puts the top of the chimney at least 2 feet above any part of the house within 10 feet. Call us before framing starts and we will tell you how much extension it needs.
- Our house is from the 1940s. Is the chimney still original?
- Possibly, and the paperwork may not say. Eighty years is long enough for a crown or cap to be replaced once, twice, or not at all. The camera shows whether the flue liner is the original clay.
- Can a gas insert go into an old Westchester fireplace?
- Usually, if the flue checks out. The insert needs a liner sized to it for the full height of the chimney. We inspect first, then quote.
- How far out are you booking right now?
- Call and ask. The schedule moves week to week, and we will give you the first open day on the phone.
If you want to see what other customers said first, read our reviews on Yelp.
Nearby
Close to Westchester
El Segundo is Westchester's southern neighbor, and Marina del Rey is a short drive up the coast.
Book a visit
Planning a Westchester remodel? Call before the framing
Put the chimney in the plans and nobody has to go back up on the new roof. Tell us the tract, the plans and what the fireplace does now.
818-348-1993Open every day, 8am to 8pm. Kentwood to Loyola Village.
Request a visit
We answer the same day during business hours.