Chimney sweep near you
We sweep, inspect and rebuild chimneys all over the Alameda ridge, where houses built from 1909 on step into the slope and carry tall brick stacks, the kind most vulnerable in a quake. Camera inspections, rebuilds and sweeps are what that housing stock calls for.
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Alameda's homes are large Craftsman houses and cottages on winding ridge streets, laid out from 1909 as the Alameda Park subdivision in an area then known as Gravelly Hill Road, after a gravel pit at NE 33rd and Fremont.
Alameda's old houses got brick chimneys to vent a fireplace and the basement furnace, built before liners were routine, and the bigger ridge houses carry two or more flues in a single stack. Because the lots step down the face of the ridge, the stack on a house set into the slope has to rise past its own uphill roofline, so these chimneys stand tall and exposed.
Tall, slender, unreinforced brick chimneys are the most vulnerable kind in an earthquake, and the Alameda Ridge has plenty of them, standing above steep roofs on streets where our truck parks on a grade. About 80 percent of the homes were owner-occupied in 2020, so the bracing question usually comes from the people who will live with the answer.
Alameda's chimneys are early brick from the subdivision years, multi-flue on the big houses, tall on the downhill lots, and unreinforced unless someone has braced them since: no steel in the brick, no strap to the framing, just mortar holding the stack above the roof.
Rain does the slow damage: the mortar joints near the top open on the rain side, and crowns crack. The sudden damage is the one to plan for, because a cracked, unlined stack with open joints is weaker still when the ground moves, and the options run from repointing and bracing to taking the chimney down to the roofline and rebuilding it lighter.
The ridge decides what Alameda calls us for: tall stacks, steep roofs and the question of what happens to a brick chimney when the ground shakes.
On an Alameda house the Level 2 camera inspection covers the flue inside and the stack outside, and on the ridge the outside matters as much: we look at how far the chimney stands above the roof, whether it is strapped to anything, and whether the mortar near the top is holding. The earthquake question gets a straight answer in the report, including which of the retrofit options fits the house.
When the top of a tall ridge stack has lost its mortar and its crown, rebuilding from the roofline up is sounder than chasing cracks, and it is the moment to decide whether to rebuild in brick or to replace the upper chimney with a lighter listed metal flue inside a framed chase. Either way the new top gets a proper crown, a cap and flashing that fits.
Open joints on the top courses are where an Alameda chimney starts to fail, and repointing them while the brick is still sound is the repair that postpones everything else. We grind out the failed mortar, repoint with a mix that matches the original in hardness and color, and replace the few brick that have spalled on the rain side.
Sweeping a tall Alameda stack takes longer rods and sometimes a top-down pass from the roof, but the job is the same: brushes sized to the flue, the hearth sealed and a vacuum running, the smoke chamber and damper checked. The Level 1 look at the top is where we first notice a chimney that has started to lean or lose its crown.
A cap on a ridge-top chimney takes more wind than one on the flats, so we fit one that bolts to the flue tile or the crown rather than one that friction-fits and leaves in the first winter storm. On a multi-flue stack a single custom cap covers all the flues and keeps rain, swifts and squirrels out of the ones you no longer use.
We reach Alameda from I-84 up NE 33rd Ave, from I-5 across on NE Fremont St or NE Prescott St, and from the Irvington side up NE 24th; the winding streets of the ridge itself are the last few blocks.
Those last blocks are the ones to tell us about: a driveway that drops away from the street, a chimney on the downhill side that needs a longer ladder or a roof walk from the uphill eave, a public stairway instead of a sidewalk along one side of the lot. With that in the booking notes we load the right ladder length and plan the parking before we arrive.
The Alameda Land Company created the Alameda Park subdivision in 1909, and local historians credit John Charles Olmsted, stepson and nephew of Frederick Law Olmsted, with a commission for the company.
The Olmstead Park plat north of the ridge carries a misspelled version of his name.
The Alameda Ridge formed 13,000 to 15,000 years ago from Missoula Flood deposits and rises about 100 to 150 feet above the land around it.
Elliott Smith's song Alameda, on the album Either/Or, is named for the street.
Public stairways climb the south face of the ridge, and Alameda Elementary School, The Madeleine School and the NE Fremont St business strip are the landmarks residents use.
Yes, Alameda in both 97212 and 97211 is on our Northeast schedule, ridge top and both slopes. A tall stack on a downhill lot takes more ladder and more time than a bungalow chimney on the flats, which we tell you about when you book, and the drive itself is never a line on the bill when we do the work.
Bracing reduces the hazard but does not remove it, and the right answer depends on the chimney. A sound, repointed stack can be strapped to the roof framing; a cracked one above a steep roof is often better taken down to the roofline and rebuilt lighter, or finished with a listed metal flue in a framed chase. A Level 2 inspection tells you which case you have, and our guide on unreinforced chimneys covers the options.
Yes; most of a sweep happens from the hearth, with rods and brushes run up the flue from below and a vacuum sealing the opening. The top gets looked at from a ladder set at the eave or with a camera, and for a crown or cap job on a steep ridge roof we use roof anchors and a harness rather than skip the work. Tell us the pitch when you book if you know it.
Treat it as urgent enough to stop using the fireplace and to call for a look this week. A lean means the mortar below the roofline has failed, or the footing has moved, and a leaning column of unreinforced brick above a steep roof is a falling hazard with or without an earthquake. We start with a Level 2 and a close look at the stack; the fix is usually a rebuild from the point where the lean begins.
Yes, the county rule covers Alameda exactly as it covers the flats; elevation changes nothing. When the county posts red, fires in fireplaces, stoves and backyard pits stop at noon and stay stopped until noon the next day, with exemptions for cases such as wood-only heat and lower incomes. Yellow is the voluntary step before that. The metro wood burning rules guide on this site explains how to check and how to apply.
No: cap an empty Alameda furnace flue at the top and seal it at the thimble, or line it if a water heater still uses it. Left open, it pulls cold, damp air through the brick, condenses, and drops mortar into the basement cleanout, and it is one more open passage for smoke from the fireplace flue beside it to find. The orphaned chimney guide walks through the choice.
Look them up in the state's contractor records, which our contractor-check guide walks through. Then ask for the camera footage of your own flue and a posted price before the visit. On a steep Alameda roof, also ask how they plan to reach the top of the stack; an honest answer names ladders, anchors and a harness rather than a shrug.
Down the south face of the ridge is Irvington; along the top are Beaumont-Wilshire and, farther on, the flatter blocks of Concordia and Woodlawn.
Call with what the fireplace is doing, or text a photo of the opening and one of the chimney top, and we will name the service and its posted price before we come out.