The Rancho Palos Verdes air and your chimney 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 water entry traced with a hose test, cracked crown patched or recast, and loose top courses reset in fresh mortar, with the order set by what the smoke test shows rather than a fixed list.
