Smoky Fireplace Repair Costs

"Just tell me roughly what this will run"

That is the first thing most people say when their fireplace has been puffing smoke into the living room. It is a fair question, and the honest answer has two halves. Some of the work has a fixed price we can tell you over the phone. The rest depends on which fault is causing the smoke, and nobody can price that without finding the fault first.

A smoking fireplace is a symptom, the way a fever is. The cure might be opening a window. It might be a new flue liner. The spread between those two is the reason a flat "smoky fireplace fee" would be wrong for almost everyone who paid it.

Six causes, six very different invoices

Here is how the usual causes line up, from the cheapest to fix to the most involved.

• - Cold flue. Smoke only for the first few minutes. The fix is technique: warm the flue with a rolled newspaper, start small. Cost: nothing.
• Fans pulling against the chimney. Smoke only when the range hood or dryer runs. Sometimes the answer is changing habits. Sometimes it is a makeup air vent, which is quoted in writing once we know where it can go.
• Choked flue. Creosote, a nest, or debris narrowing the passage. Usually a sweep clears it.
• Damper fault. A plate stuck, warped, or rusted off its pivot. Either a damper repair or a top-sealing damper, both quoted after we see the frame.
• Wind and roofline. Downdraft on breezy afternoons. A cap built for downdraft, or extra chimney height.
• Wrong flue size or a damaged smoke chamber. The fireplace has always smoked, or the smoke chamber walls are crumbling. Options run from a smoke guard across the opening to relining or rebuilding the smoke chamber. These are the largest jobs and always quoted in writing first.

Two houses on the same Long Beach street can describe the same smoke and land at opposite ends of that list.

The prices that do not move

These are set, and you can plan around them.

• - A chimney sweep is from $210. That covers clearing the flue, the smoke shelf, and the firebox, and it is often the fix on its own when the flue was choked.
• A Level 1 chimney inspection is $52. It is a visual check of the accessible parts: firebox, damper, the flue as far as a light reaches, the crown and cap from the roof.
• A Level 2 chimney inspection with video scan is $370. The camera travels the whole flue, which is how hidden liner damage, a broken smoke chamber, or a blockage high up gets found.
• A chimney cap, supplied and installed, is $160 to $635, depending on the size and shape of the flue top and whether you need a standard cap or one shaped against downdraft.

The prices that wait for a diagnosis

Everything else that can fix a smoky fireplace is quoted in writing after the diagnosis. That includes damper repair, a top-sealing damper, a smoke guard, makeup air, smoke chamber parging or rebuilding, relining, and raising the chimney. These depend on things we can only learn on site: the size and shape of the flue, the condition of the clay or metal already in there, roof access, how the smoke chamber was built, and whether the chimney is one of the many around the city that were patched after the 1933 earthquake.

We will not guess a dollar figure for those over the phone. A guess either scares you off a cheap fix or leaves you surprised by a real one.

What actually decides your number

Three things set what you pay.

Which test fails. We work from cheap checks to expensive ones: damper position, a smoke pencil or lit newspaper at the throat, a window cracked open, a manometer reading the flue pressure with fans on and off, then a camera. The first test that fails usually tells us the fix.

Whether there is more than one cause. A slightly undersized flue might behave fine until the range hood comes on. Fixing one cause sometimes solves the whole thing. Sometimes the second one shows itself afterward. We tell you up front when we think two are stacked.

What the masonry looks like inside. A camera scan can turn a damper job into a smoke chamber job, or the reverse. That is why we push for the scan before anyone commits to a large repair.

If you want a head start, send us a short clip of the fire being lit, with a word on the age of the house and whether any fans were on, and we will tell you which test we would start with and whether the camera is likely to be needed.

Places homeowners lose money on a smoky fireplace

• - Buying a tall cap first because the internet said "downdraft." If the real problem is negative pressure, the cap changes nothing.
• Relining before anyone checked the damper. A rusted plate hanging halfway across the throat produces the same smoke as an undersized flue.
• Skipping the sweep because the fireplace "barely gets used." Light use plus damp coastal air still leaves deposits and invites nests.
• Burning through it. Smoke in the room means combustion gases in the room, including carbon monoxide. That is not a cost item. It is a reason to stop and check.

How a visit is usually laid out

A typical case: we arrive, ask what you have seen, and look at the damper and firebox first. If the cause is obvious, you get the answer and a written quote before we leave. If it is not, we suggest the Level 2 scan, confirm the price before we start, and show you the footage on a screen while we talk through it. Any repair beyond the fixed-price items arrives in writing, line by line, and nothing starts until you agree to it.

We cover Long Beach, Torrance, Redondo Beach, and the Palos Verdes hills, and the process is the same everywhere. When you are ready to put a name and a number to the smoke, use the phone button at the top of any page and ask for a smoke diagnosis. Say how long it has been happening and whether it changes with the weather.