Masonry repair
Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Gas fireplace serviceLevel 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
Fast, Reliable Fireplace Repair Across Westwood
Fireplace repair in Westwood usually means one of three things: a firebox with cracked mortar, a damper that won’t seal, or a flue liner that’s failing. If you haven’t had a Chimney Inspection - Westwood recently, these problems often go unnoticed until they become serious repairs. Most jobs we handle run between $225 and $1,900 depending on what’s actually wrong, and we quote a written price before any work starts. If you live in Westwood Hills, Little Holmby, or along Wilshire near the 405, call Ashby Chimney Los Angeles at (213) 652-7061 and we’ll send a background-checked technician who arrives in a real arrival window.
Westwood’s housing stock is different from most of LA. A lot of the homes we work on were built between 1925 and 1955, and many have original masonry chimneys that have seen eighty-plus years of fires, rain, and the occasional earthquake. That’s not a knock on the homes. It just means repair work here takes a different kind of attention than a newer tract house in the Valley. We know these chimneys because we work on them every week.
Why Ashby Chimney Los Angeles Is Westwood’s Preferred Fireplace Repair Company
Since 2002, we’ve built our reputation on something simple: show up when we say we will, say the price before the work starts, and put the guarantee in writing. Nathan Corliss runs the crew with that standard, and it’s why Westwood homeowners who’ve been burned by no-show contractors call us the second time and the third time. Background-checked, uniformed technicians show up with the right tools and the right materials, not whatever happened to be in the van.
Westwood has specific challenges: hillside settling in Westwood Hills, shared chimney stacks in the older attached Spanish Colonials near Little Holmby, and street parking that makes ladder access tricky on Gayley and Landfair. We work around all of it. Our techs know which streets need a spotter and which driveways can’t take a full-size van. That’s not the kind of knowledge you get from a company that treats every zip code the same. Every repair gets a written price before work begins and a written guarantee when it’s done. If a covered repair fails inside the guarantee period, we come back and fix it at no charge. That’s the 365-Day Done Right Promise, and it’s been our standard since day one.
Styles & brands we work with
Fireplace Insert Installation in Westwood
Fireplace insert installation in Westwood usually means converting an old open-hearth wood burner into a sealed, efficient gas or wood insert that actually heats the room instead of sending most of the heat up the flue. In Westwood homes with 1920s and 1930s fireboxes, the opening is often larger than modern inserts, so the job involves fitting a surround, running a new liner, and sometimes repairing the smoke chamber before the insert goes in. A typical insert installation in Westwood runs $2,800 to $6,500 depending on the insert model and liner length.
The homes up in Westwood Hills and Little Holmby frequently have fireboxes that were never built for inserts, which means the install takes more time and more care. Our Fireplace Repair team handles this by measuring the actual firebox, not guessing from a spec sheet.
Liners and Venting for Inserts
Most Westwood insert jobs need a new stainless liner pulled through the existing flue. We use DuraFlex liners because they hold up to the heat cycling that comes with regular insert use. The liner is the part that carries combustion gases out of your house, so it’s not where you cut corners.
When an Insert Makes Sense
If your open fireplace sends smoke back into the room when the wind shifts, or if you’re burning wood and getting almost no heat, an insert is usually the right fix. It also tightens up the draft path, which helps when you’re dealing with a shared flue in an attached Westwood property.
Gas Fireplace Installation in Westwood
Gas fireplace installation in Westwood is the fastest way to upgrade a drafty old wood burner into something you switch on with a remote. In the attached 1930s homes near the Westwood Village area, gas fireplaces are a practical choice because they don’t need wood storage, they don’t pile up creosote the way wood burners do, and they seal the flue more predictably. A standard gas fireplace install in Westwood runs $3,200 to $7,800 depending on whether you’re doing a direct-vent insert or a full built-in unit.
The catch with Westwood’s older homes is gas line placement. Some of these houses had gas added decades ago in ways that don’t meet current code, so part of the job is running a new line that’s sized correctly for the appliance. That’s standard work for our Westwood crews.
Log Sets vs. Direct Vent
A vented gas log set is the lower-cost option, typically $1,200 to $2,200 in Westwood, but it won’t heat the room the way a direct-vent insert will. If your goal is warmth, the direct-vent is usually the better call. If you just want the look of flames without chopping wood, a log set does it.
Why Gas Still Needs a Clean Flue
Gas fireplaces still vent combustion byproducts, including carbon monoxide, so the flue needs to be clean and intact. A gas fireplace with a cracked liner is no safer than a wood burner with one. We inspect and repair the flue as part of every gas install in Westwood.
Trusted Brands We Service in Westwood
We stock and install parts from chimney-trade brands that actually hold up: Copperfield dampers, HeatShield resurfacing systems, Famco caps, and DuraFlex liners. That means we’re not waiting days for a special-order damper when your fireplace is down in December. In Westwood, where many homes have non-standard firebox sizes from the 1920s and 1930s, having the right part on the truck matters. We service gas inserts, wood-burning fireplaces, and the chimney systems that connect to them, and we match parts to the original manufacturer’s spec rather than retrofitting something close enough.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Fireplace Repair Problems We See in Westwood Homes
- Shared flue cross-contamination: In attached properties, a neighbor’s wood-burning fireplace can push smoke and carbon monoxide into your flue when the draft reverses. The shared stack design in parts of Westwood makes this a regular call for us.
- Spalling brick and cracked crowns: Hillside settling in Westwood Hills and Little Holmby puts stress on chimney crowns. Water gets into the brick, the freeze-thaw cycle splits the face, and chunks end up in your yard.
- Dampers that won’t seal: Original throat dampers from the 1930s warp or rust over decades. A damper that stays half-open pulls heated air out of your house all winter and lets drafts in all summer.
- Firebox mortar joints failing: Heat cycling plus seismic settling cracks the refractory mortar in the firebox. Once those joints open up, heat reaches the framing behind the brick, and that becomes a fire hazard.
Pricing for Fireplace Repair in Westwood, CA
Here’s what you can expect in Westwood’s market. A basic damper repair runs $225 to $475. Firebox repointing starts around $550 and goes to $1,200 depending on how much of the mortar needs cutting and replacing. Chimney crown repair runs $600 to $1,400. A full flue liner replacement, the big one, runs $1,500 to $3,800 depending on liner length and whether we’re pulling the old clay tile or resurfacing with HeatShield. Gas log set installation runs $1,200 to $2,200. Fireplace insert installation runs $2,800 to $6,500, and gas fireplace installation runs $3,200 to $7,800. Every estimate is free, and the price we write down before we start is the price you pay when we finish. Call (213) 652-7061 to schedule.
We Also Serve Cities Near Westwood
Our crews cover all of Westwood and the surrounding neighborhoods, including Brentwood, Sun Valley, Sherman Oaks, and North Hollywood. If you’re in one of those areas, read more about Fireplace Repair in Westwood and how our process works. We coordinate scheduling from our Los Angeles office and dispatch locally, so the technician who shows up knows the streets and the chimneys.
Serving Westwood, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Westwood area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Fireplace Repair in Westwood
No, and it’s a sign your shared flue is compromised. In Westwood’s attached hillside properties, two fireplaces often share one chimney stack with a dividing wall between flues. When that dividing wall cracks or a liner fails, smoke from the neighbor’s fire can drift into your flue and down into your living space. This is a repair we handle regularly in Little Holmby and Westwood Hills. Don’t ignore it, because what comes through isn’t just smoke; it’s carbon monoxide. Call (213) 652-7061 and we’ll trace the airflow across the party wall, not just in your firebox.
Yes. Gas fireplaces still vent combustion gases, including carbon monoxide, through the flue. Westwood’s older homes often have original flues that predate the gas appliance by decades, and cracks or blockages in those flues put you at risk. An inspection verifies the liner is intact, the termination cap is clear, and the venting path is sound. We recommend an inspection with any gas fireplace install, and at least every couple of years after.
Spalling is brick face popping off, and in Little Holmby and Westwood Hills it’s almost always water getting in through a cracked crown or failed mortar joint, then expanding and contracting with temperature swings. The hillside settling in this part of Westwood adds a second stressor by opening hairline cracks in the crown. Once water is inside the brick, freeze-thaw cycles do the rest. Repairing it means fixing the crown first, then cutting out and replacing damaged brick before the chimney loses structural integrity.
We plan around it. Westwood’s older streets, especially around the village and the hillside neighborhoods, don’t leave much room for a work van, let alone a ladder setup. Our technicians survey the roof access before the job, coordinate with you on driveway space or a nearby loading zone, and carry equipment sized for tight spots. If a street has no viable ladder placement, we’ll use roof brackets and a ridge hook from a safer angle. We’ve been working these streets since 2002, so the parking puzzle isn’t new to us.
An insert can help, but only if paired with a properly sized liner and sealed smoke chamber. In a shared Westwood stack, the insert’s sealed combustion system isolates your firebox from the shared flue path, which reduces the chance of your neighbor’s smoke finding its way into your home. But if the shared stack itself is cracked, no insert fixes that on its own. The shared wall inside the stack has to be repaired or the liner resurfaced. We’ll tell you which is what after a camera inspection. Call (213) 652-7061 for a free estimate.
In Westwood’s attached hillside properties, shared chimney stacks mean a neighbor’s fireplace can vent into your flue. So repair work here often begins with tracing airflow across party walls, not just your own firebox. We once pulled a cracked flue liner from a shared stack on a Little Holmby street of attached 1930s Spanish Colonials and found third-degree creosote glaze inside the neighbor’s side, bleeding smoke into the owner’s upstairs bedroom. Our crew installed a HeatShield resurfaced liner with a new damper, then sealed the smoke chamber so no cross-draft could return before the first Santa Ana wind. That’s the kind of repair you don’t see on a flatland chimney.
If you live in Westwood and your fireplace isn’t working right, or you smell smoke when your neighbor burns, call Ashby Chimney Los Angeles at (213) 652-7061. We’ll give you a written price before any work starts, a written guarantee when it’s done, and a real person on the phone 24/7.
Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner at Ashby Chimney Los Angeles, operating under the Kingswell Guarantee since 2002.