Beverly Hills Fireplaces That Smoke, Smell or Stall
What Does Your Beverly Hills Fire Do?
A line on the smoke, the smell or the flame is plenty. We call back from San Pedro with a few questions about when it happens.
Beverly Hills ZIP Codes and Neighbors
Find yours, or one of the bordering names, and mention it when you describe what the fire is doing.
Ramsey Fixes for Beverly Hills
What we most often find behind it here: a large firebox opening that asks for more air than the flue can move or the tightened house can give. Each card below lays out that work for Beverly Hills.
Chimney Sweep in Beverly Hills
Choked flues are a common reason a fire smokes into the room, so we brush the whole run until smoke draws upward again.
How it helpsChimney Inspection in Beverly Hills
Draft trouble usually leaves clues in the flue, the damper and the crown, and a Level 1 look finds most of them.
How it helpsChimney Repair in Beverly Hills
Leaks, loose bricks and cracked crowns change how a chimney draws, so each repair starts with finding where air and water get in.
How it helpsFireplace Inspection in Beverly Hills
Smoke rolling out the top of the opening tells us where to look, and the inspection covers the firebox, damper and smoke chamber.
How it helpsFireplace Repair in Beverly Hills
Spilled smoke has a cause, from a stuck damper to an oversized opening, and each one gets its own fix.
How it helpsChimney Level 2 Inspection in Beverly Hills
Video goes down the full flue to find cracked tiles, gaps and offsets that a flashlight from the firebox will never reach.
How it helpsChimney Cap Installation in Beverly Hills
Wind coming off the water can push smoke back down an open flue, and the right cap blocks the gusts, rain and birds.
How it helpsChimney Flashing Repair in Beverly Hills
Water stains beside the chimney breast usually start where the roof meets the brick, and resealing that joint stops the drip.
How it helpsChimney Masonry Repair in Beverly Hills
Salt air eats at soft mortar, so we repoint joints, swap spalled brick and recast crowns before water works behind them.
How it helpsChimney Rebuilds in Beverly Hills
Leaning or shaken stacks get rebuilt from the roofline up, or from the footing, with the flue sized to draw properly.
How it helpsFireplace Cleaning in Beverly Hills
Soot on the glass doors, ash under the grate and a smell that lingers get cleaned out of the firebox and smoke chamber.
How it helpsGas Fireplace Cleaning in Beverly Hills
Yellow, sooty flames and a faint smell when the logs light point to dirty burners, misplaced embers or a blocked vent.
How it helpsGas Fireplace Repair in Beverly Hills
Flames that die after a minute, a pilot that will not hold, or a clicking igniter usually trace back to one small part.
How it helpsFireplace Remodel in Beverly Hills
Rebuilding the face, hearth or firebox is a chance to fix a smoky opening too, so the new look also draws properly.
How it helpsFireplace Inserts in Beverly Hills
Drafty, smoky open fireplaces can take a sealed insert that heats the room and vents through a liner sized to its own outlet.
How it helpsPellet Stove Repair in Beverly Hills
Hoppers that stop feeding or fires that die with pellets left often trace to the auger, igniter or a choked vent.
How it helpsWood Stove Repair in Beverly Hills
Leaky door gaskets, cracked baffles and weak draft explain most wood stoves that smoke, run away or die overnight.
How it helpsGas Logs in Beverly Hills
Switching to gas logs lets you light the hearth on no-burn days, with no ash, no splitting and no smoky mornings.
How it helpsReading a Beverly Hills Chimney
Big revival houses in the Flats can have tall flues and large openings, and a big opening needs a lot of air. Add tight remodels and strong kitchen hoods, and a fire can starve, so we measure the opening against the flue. Basin chimneys cracked during Northridge in 1994, this city's included, and a shifted flue can draw badly with no sign from below. Damp marine air also rusts unprotected steel caps, which leaves the screen rough, narrow and slow.
What Owners Notice
Smoke curling out along the top of a wide opening, especially once a remodel has tightened up the house.
What the Tests Turn Up
A large firebox opening that asks for more air than the flue can move or the tightened house can give.
Local Air and Wind
Mild, damp air works on steel caps and flashing for years, and a rusted screen narrows the outlet a little at a time.
Houses on These Streets
In Beverly Hills the chimneys we test belong to Spanish, Tudor and Mediterranean revival houses on the Flats, with apartment blocks below Santa Monica Boulevard.
Start With the Symptom
Is the Beverly Hills hearth acting up again?
Say when the trouble shows: lighting up, on windy nights, with the hood on, or the morning after. That account points us toward a sweep, a damper, a cap or a pressure problem before we arrive.