The Rancho Palos Verdes air and your chimney masonry repair
Ocean wind hits these slopes hard and swirls over the ridgelines, so a fireplace may draw fine one evening and puff smoke back the next. Overnight fog leaves a cold, damp flue that resists a new fire. For an exposed chimney top, a draft-inducing cap is often the cure. On a typical Ramsey visit that means joints you can scratch with a key repointed, mortar mix matched to softer old brick, and spalled faces replaced brick by brick, with the order set by what the smoke test shows rather than a fixed list.
