Arbor Lodge and Overlook at a glance
The county, ZIP codes, housing eras and burning rules that shape chimney work in Arbor Lodge and Overlook.
- County
- Multnomah County, OR
- ZIP codes
- 97217, 97227
- Part of town
- North Portland
- Typical homes
- 1910 to 1930 bungalows and Craftsman houses in Arbor Lodge
- Period cottages and early houses on the Overlook bluff
- Mixed-use and apartment buildings along Interstate from the 2000s
- Watch for
- unlined pre-1940 brick chimneys
- unreinforced masonry and earthquake bracing
- orphaned furnace flues after gas conversions
- Wood burning rules
- Multnomah County can post a wood smoke restriction for Arbor Lodge and Overlook in any month, not only in winter, whenever the air forecast is poor. Yellow means consider limiting burning; red means no fireplace, wood stove, pellet stove or outdoor wood fire from noon to noon the next day, except for households the county has exempted on grounds such as sole-source wood heat or qualifying income, renewed by September 30 each year. Oregon's home-sale removal law for uncertified stoves and inserts applies here too.
Homes and chimneys in Arbor Lodge and Overlook
Most Arbor Lodge houses went up between 1910 and 1930, though the plat dates to 1889, and Overlook's period cottages on the bluff above Swan Island are the same age, so the chimney here is a bungalow-era brick stack.
The bungalow stack was built for a fireplace and for the coal or oil furnace in the basement, often without a clay liner in either flue. Tree cover in Arbor Lodge is light, about a fifth of the ground, so moss matters less than in shaded neighborhoods; the damage is plain rain on the weather side, working the mortar soft and popping the faces off the brick near the top.
Along N Interstate Ave, the MAX Yellow Line brought a run of mixed-use and apartment buildings after 2004, and those have gas fireplaces or none at all, so the call from an Interstate address is usually a dryer vent or a duct run rather than a flue. Overlook House, the 1928 community center, and the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center are the two buildings everyone on this side knows.
Chimneys and fireplaces in Arbor Lodge and Overlook
Expect a two-flue brick stack from the bungalow years on most blocks of Arbor Lodge and Overlook, built without a liner or with clay tile that is now a century old, and a gas furnace that long ago stopped using its half of it.
What we find at the top is the story of the rain: joints you can push a key into, brick faces blown off on the weather side, and a crown cracked through to the flue. Lower down, the orphaned furnace flue has often vented a lone water heater for decades, too little heat to keep it warm, and the brick or tile inside shows the wet, flaking damage that follows.
What we get called for in Arbor Lodge and Overlook
Weathered bungalow stacks and their unlined flues account for four of the calls this housing stock produces in Arbor Lodge and Overlook, and dryer vents in the Interstate apartments make the fifth.
The upper courses of a 1910 to 1930 stack in Arbor Lodge have had a century of rain on the weather side with little tree cover to slow it, so the call is usually open joints, spalled brick and a crown that has let go. We cut the joints back to sound mortar and repoint with a mix matched to the original, swap the spalled brick, and finish with a breathable water repellent so the brick can dry out instead of holding water.
from $449parts and labor
Read more → Overlook's cottages and the Arbor Lodge bungalows date from years when many brick flues went up without a liner, so an open fireplace venting into bare brick gets a stainless liner sized to the opening, and a furnace flue that now carries only a water heater gets a smaller liner sized to that single appliance. Where the old furnace flue carries nothing at all, we close it off top and bottom so it stops pulling damp outside air into the basement.
from $1999parts and labor
Read more → Houses on these blocks have burned wood through a hundred wet winters, and the yearly sweep with a Level 1 look-over is what keeps the fireplace flue clear and tells you early when a tile has cracked. We seal the opening, brush the flue top to bottom with a vacuum running, and photograph the inside before and after so you see the same thing we do.
from $249parts and labor
Read more → A Level 2 camera inspection is the first job for any Arbor Lodge or Overlook house that is changing hands, converting a fireplace to a stove or insert, or lighting up after years cold, because the camera is what shows missing tile, open joints and the state of the furnace flue next door. The unreinforced brick above the roof is also the part of a 1920 cottage that can crack loose and fall in a quake, so bracing or taking it down to the roofline comes up in the same conversation.
from $129parts and labor
Read more → The apartment and mixed-use buildings along N Interstate Ave that followed the Yellow Line have gas fireplaces or none, so the vent we clean there is the dryer's: runs to an outside hood or a roof cap that can pack with lint. A dryer that needs two cycles for a load, or a laundry room that gets hot and damp, is the sign to call.
from $149parts and labor
Read more → Getting to you in Arbor Lodge and Overlook
Arbor Lodge and Overlook sit along I-5 in North Portland, reached by way of N Rosa Parks Way, N Lombard St or N Killingsworth St, with N Interstate Ave and N Greeley Ave as the two spines running through them.
The side streets off Interstate and Ainsworth are residential blocks, and on the Overlook side the streets toward the bluff end above the Swan Island yards. If yours is one of the bluff cottages, say which side the chimney is on, because a stack on the river face means a longer ladder set from the yard rather than the street.
Arbor Lodge and Overlook, if you are new here
Arbor Lodge was platted on April 15, 1889, by Duff E. Sherman, a bank cashier, though most of its houses came two to four decades later.
Harper's Playground in Arbor Lodge Park, built in 2012, was Portland's first accessible playground.
The MAX Yellow Line opened on Interstate in 2004 and stops at North Lombard Transit Center and Rosa Parks in Arbor Lodge.
Overlook looks down on Swan Island, where Charles Lindbergh dedicated Portland's first airport in 1927 and where Daimler Trucks North America and the Vigor shipyard are based today, with the Adidas North American headquarters in Overlook itself.
Overlook House, the 1928 community center, and the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center are the landmarks people name off Interstate.
Arbor Lodge and Overlook chimney questions
Do you serve both Arbor Lodge and Overlook, across 97217 and 97227?
Yes, both neighborhoods and both ZIP codes, from the Kenton line down to the bluff above Swan Island. The industrial land on the island itself is commercial work, but every house and apartment up top is booked the same way as the rest of North Portland: a posted price for the job, and the trip is folded into that price whenever we do the work.
How soon can you look at an Arbor Lodge and Overlook chimney that is dripping water into the firebox?
In most weeks outside the October rush, the same week. Water in the firebox is a crown, cap or flashing problem, and it does not improve with waiting. Put a pan under it, keep the fireplace cold, and send a photo of the top of the stack if you can see it from the yard, because on an Arbor Lodge bungalow a missing cap or a split crown is often visible from the sidewalk and tells us what to bring.
What does a sweep include on an Arbor Lodge and Overlook bungalow with two flues in one chimney?
The fireplace flue gets the full treatment: opening sealed, vacuum running, brushes sized to the flue from the firebox to the cap. A Level 1 look-over of the damper, smoke chamber and firebox comes with it. The second flue, the one built for the old furnace, gets a light and a camera glance so you know whether it is carrying a water heater, nothing, or rain. Photos from inside come with the visit.
Our 1922 Arbor Lodge and Overlook cottage has a bare brick flue with no tile. Is it safe to light?
Keep it cold until a camera has been through it. Bare brick lets heat through any open joint into the framing, and on a bluff cottage from 1922 the joints have had a century of weather. If the camera confirms there is no liner, the fix is a stainless steel liner matched to the fireplace opening, and once it is in, the old chimney becomes a casing around a continuous flue. Then light it.
Can I use my wood stove in Arbor Lodge and Overlook on a yellow day?
Yes, a yellow day is a county request to consider limiting burning, not a ban. Red is the day the stove, the fireplace and the fire pit are all off limits from noon one day until noon the next, unless you hold a county exemption. The county can call either color in any month when poor air is forecast, including wildfire smoke in summer. The current color and the exemption form are linked from our wood burning rules guide.
We are selling an Arbor Lodge and Overlook house with an old insert in the fireplace. Who deals with it?
If the insert is uncertified, Oregon's home-sale law says it has to be removed and destroyed. The seller handles that unless the buyer agrees in writing to take it on within 30 days of closing. The label on the back of the unit tells you which kind you have, and we check it during the Level 2 camera inspection that is recommended, not mandated, at a sale. Pellet stoves and open fireplaces are exempt.
How do I vet a chimney company for an Arbor Lodge and Overlook job?
Use our contractor-check guide, which shows how to look up any Oregon contractor through the state and what each line of the result means. Do that before you book anyone, us included. Then ask for two things in writing: the posted price for the job and a copy of the camera images from your flue. A company that balks at either is telling you something.
Near Arbor Lodge and Overlook
Interstate and Lombard carry the same crew on to Kenton, St. Johns and the rest of North Portland, and over the Fremont Bridge to the Northwest District.
Services, symptoms, fireplace types and guides that connect to this page.