Chimney Inspection in San Marino, CA

What we triage on a chimney inspection call in San Marino

San Marino is the town we serve first, and its older brick chimneys are the work we know best. Many homes here were built between 1920 and 1960, often with elaborate masonry fireplaces. On a stack like that we start by reading the mortar: its color, its hardness and the shape of the joint. Repointing then follows that profile, so new work blends with the old instead of standing out. We check the crown for hairline cracks, run a camera down the clay tile flue, and look closely at the firebox and surround. You then get a written plan that says what can be kept, what needs repair now and what can wait.

Warm, dry summers bake the top of a San Marino chimney, and the crown takes most of that heat. Small cracks open, then winter rain soaks into the brick below. Hard modern mortar packed into soft old joints makes this worse, because the brick cracks before the mortar does. We rebuild crowns with an overhang and a drip edge, and we repoint with a mix softer than the brick, so the joint wears first and the brick lasts.