Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Masonry repair
Gas fireplace serviceLevel 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
Fast, Reliable Chimney Sweep Across Inglewood
A chimney sweep in Inglewood typically runs $180 – $340 for a standard cleaning and Level 1 inspection, and most jobs are completed in under two hours. If you live in the flats of 90301, the tree-lined blocks off Century Boulevard, or up toward the 405, we know exactly what we’re walking into when we pull up: an older masonry chimney, a firebox that hasn’t seen a real wood fire in years, and masonry that’s been taking on marine-layer damp since the house was built. We serve every corner of Inglewood from 90301 through 90309, and we show you camera footage of your flue before we recommend a single repair. Call (866) 253-8489 to book a sweep or ask what we’re seeing on your block these days.
Why Brownstone Chimney Sweep Is Inglewood’s Preferred Chimney Sweep Company
Ruben Archuleta runs our crew the way a good trade shop should be run: we show up when we say we will, we explain what we found in plain English, and we never sell a repair without putting the camera in your hand first. Inglewood homeowners deal with a specific set of chimney problems, and honestly, a lot of the national sweeps and generalist handymen working the area don’t read them correctly. We do. We work on these 1920s Spanish Colonials, 1930s Craftsman bungalows, and 1950s ranches every week, so we know what the salt air does to a crown and what a ficus canopy drops down an uncapped flue. Our Chimney Sweep team handles everything from a decorative fireplace that hasn’t been opened in a decade to a gas appliance vented into a clay tile that was never sized for it.
Response time to Inglewood is usually next-day, and we can often slot same-week. If you call in the morning from 90305, there’s a good chance we’re on your block before Friday. We also bring real parts, not hardware-store substitutes. Stock on the truck means a corroded damper or a missing cap doesn’t turn into a second appointment two weeks out. That matters when you’ve already got a pigeon situation in the flue and the marine layer is doing its thing to your crown.
Styles & brands we work with
Chimney Sweep Services in Inglewood
Chimney Sweep Services in Inglewood start with a Level 1 inspection and a mechanical brushing of the flue, the smoke shelf, and the firebox. For most of the homes we work on here, especially the decorative fireplaces in the 1920s – 40s bungalows, the sweep itself is quick. What takes time is the inspection. We’re looking at the condition of the clay tile, the mortar joints, the damper, and the exterior crown, because in Inglewood the exterior is usually where the real problems are hiding. A standard sweep with Level 1 inspection runs $180 – $340 depending on flue height and accessibility.
Annual Sweep for Wood Burners
If you actually burn wood in Inglewood, even a few fires a season, an annual sweep keeps the creosote load from hardening into second-degree glaze. Most Inglewood burners use oak or pressed logs in short bursts, which produces a light, flaky creosote that brushes out easily. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the damp, salty air here makes whatever creosote does form stickier and harder to remove if you skip a few seasons.
Level 2 Camera Inspection
A Level 2 inspection adds a camera run up the full length of the flue and is recommended when you’ve just bought an older Inglewood home, when you’ve had water intrusion, or when you’re switching a decorative fireplace over to a gas insert. In the 90301 and 90302 flats, where many chimneys haven’t been inspected in decades, this is the one service that catches the cracked tile before it becomes a carbon monoxide leak. We run the camera, you watch the screen, and we talk through what we see. Nothing is recommended on trust alone.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees — you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Chimney Cleaning in Inglewood
Chimney Cleaning in Inglewood is about more than brushing out soot. On the older masonry stacks that dominate the housing stock here, cleaning is the pretext for a disciplined inspection. We remove the soot and creosote, yes, but we also pull whatever’s nesting in the smoke shelf, check the damper for rust-through, and look at the clay liner with a camera. In a 1930s Craftsman off the 90301 flats, our tech once pulled an old gas log set that had rusted solid in the firebox, then ran a camera up a flue that hadn’t been touched in thirty years. Crumbling mortar joints, a cracked tile, a squirrel nest dropped in from the ficus. We swept it, showed the homeowner the footage on-screen, and documented the crown spalling before it reached the flashing. That’s the job. A standard cleaning runs $180 – $300, and a cleaning with a full Level 2 camera inspection lands higher, typically $300 – $450.
Soot Removal and Firebox Cleanup
Even decorative fireplaces accumulate soot, dust, and old debris from disuse. We vacuum the firebox, clean the smoke shelf, and remove the rusted andirons or gas log sets that are past saving. In Inglewood’s coastal air, rusted dampers and gas sets are common. We’ll show you what needs replacing and what’s fine to leave.
Creosote Removal for Seasoned Flues
If your fireplace in Inglewood has seen decades of occasional burning with no servicing, you may have first-degree creosote that’s hardened and glazed. We remove it with mechanical brushes and rotary tools designed for the job. We do not burn it out with harsh chemical logs, and we don’t pretend a standard brush is enough when it isn’t.
Trusted Brands We Service in Inglewood
We stock and install parts from the brands professional chimney technicians actually specify: HeatShield ceramic resurfacer, Gelco chimney caps, Olympia Chimney chase caps, and Famco venting components. When a crown or a liner in an Inglewood home needs attention, we’re not ordering unknown-brand parts from a warehouse three states away. We carry the trade-respected lines on the truck, which means a resurfacing job or a cap replacement on a 1950s ranch in 90303 doesn’t stall for a week. If you’ve got a louvered top damper that’s rusted shut, we can swap it. If your crown is spalling from the salt air, we can resurface it. Same crew, same visit, and the parts are built to last.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Chimney Sweep Problems We See in Inglewood Homes
- Spalling and efflorescence on exterior crowns. The marine layer off the coast near LAX pushes damp, salty air over Inglewood year-round. Brick and mortar absorb it, then flake and crumble. That chalky white residue on your chimney isn’t cosmetic. It’s water intrusion working down into the stack.
- Bird and rodent nests from the street canopy. Mature ficus and palm trees line a lot of Inglewood’s older blocks. Pigeons and squirrels drop into uncapped flues, pack nesting material into the smoke shelf, and leave a fire hazard you won’t see from the ground.
- Cracked clay flue tiles in homes built before 1960. The Spanish Colonial and Craftsman stock in 90301 and 90302 still has original clay liners. After 70 – 90 years, tiles crack and mortar joints fail. That’s a carbon monoxide risk if anything is vented into that flue.
- Rusted dampers and old gas log sets. The coastal moisture rusts iron and steel components faster than inland LA sees. A damper that won’t close lets conditioned air escape. A rusted gas set can be a gas leak waiting for a bad day.
Pricing for Chimney Sweep in Inglewood, CA
A standard chimney sweep in Inglewood with a Level 1 inspection runs $180 – $340. A sweep that adds a Level 2 camera inspection typically lands between $300 and $450. If the flue is taller, harder to access, or hasn’t been swept in decades, the price moves toward the top of that range. What we won’t do is quote you $49 in a mailer and then find $900 of “urgent” work once we’re on the roof. Our estimates are free, and every repair recommendation comes with camera footage you can watch. Call (866) 253-8489 and we’ll walk the flue with you before you commit to anything.
We Also Serve Cities Near Inglewood
Our service area wraps around Inglewood and covers the bordering communities where the housing stock is similar: Hawthorne, Del Aire, Lennox, and Alondra Park. If you’re in one of those neighborhoods and need the same straight-no-upsell Chimney Sweep in Inglewood homeowners rely on, give us a call. The marine layer doesn’t stop at the city line, and neither do we.
Serving Inglewood, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Inglewood area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Chimney Sweep in Inglewood
Yes, and it’s the single most important inspection you can get on an older Inglewood home. A decorative fireplace that’s never been used still has a flue, a damper, a crown, and a flashing. In the 1920s – 40s bungalows that dominate the 90301 and 90302 flats, those components are 70 – 90 years old and have been absorbing salt air the entire time. A cracked clay tile or a corroded damper doesn’t care whether you’ve burned a fire. If anything, an unused fireplace is where we find the most squirrel nests and the most rusted gas sets. The camera doesn’t lie. We’ll show you what’s up there. Call (866) 253-8489 and we’ll put it on the calendar.
That’s efflorescence and spalling, and in Inglewood it’s driven by the marine layer and onshore salt air off the beach. Moisture gets into the brick and mortar, dissolves the salts, and leaves the white chalky film as it evaporates. Over decades, the same moisture freezes the surface of the brick and flakes it away. It’s not a stain you power-wash off. It’s a structural condition that worsens every year it’s ignored, and if it reaches the flashing, water gets into the house. We can resurface a spalling crown with HeatShield or replace it with proper materials, but the first step is a camera run to see how far down the damage goes.
If you’re not looking at camera footage of your own flue, you’re trusting salesmanship. That’s the entire game. In Inglewood, the aging clay flues and decorative fireplaces are the perfect setup for sweeps who quote a “necessary” reline or crown rebuild without a single image to support it. We do the opposite. We run a camera up the flue, hand you the screen, and point to what we’re seeing. If the tile is sound and the mortar is intact, we tell you so, even if that means the ticket is just a sweep. Every recommendation we make, a reline, a crown rebuild, a damper replacement, comes with footage you watch in real time. If a company won’t show you the camera, find a different company. Call (866) 253-8489 and watch us earn the recommendation.
Pigeons and squirrels, mostly. The mature ficus and palm canopies that line so many Inglewood streets drop birds and rodents right onto the roof line, and an uncapped flue is an open doorway. We’ve pulled nests the size of a carry-on bag out of smoke shelves in 90301 and 90305. Once the nest is out, we’ll show you the cap options, Gelco and Olympia make caps we stock and install, so the flue is sealed against the next squirrel that comes looking. The cap costs less than the second nest removal.
No, and any sweep in Inglewood who says otherwise is cutting corners. Third-degree creosote is a hardened, glazed tar that a standard wire brush won’t touch. It has to be removed with rotary tools and, in some cases, chemically treated first. The good news is that third-degree creosote is rare in Inglewood because most fireplaces here are decorative and most wood burning is light and seasonal. The flaky first-degree creosote we usually see brushes right out. But if you do have a glazed flue, we’ll show it to you on camera and use the right equipment to remove it, not a brush that leaves a glossy coat and calls it done. For a straight answer on your flue, call (866) 253-8489.
Written by Ruben Archuleta, Owner at Brownstone Chimney Sweep, serving Inglewood and the surrounding communities with straight talk and camera-backed chimney work.