How Ashby Chimney Los Angeles Was Born in Los Angeles
We opened our doors in Los Angeles in 2002 because we kept hearing the same story from homeowners across the city. Someone would call a chimney company, get a lowball quote over the phone, and then watch the price climb once the technician was standing in the living room. Or they’d book a cleaning, wait through a four-hour arrival window, and nobody would show. When a second company finally came out, the recommendation was almost always the same: thousands of dollars in repairs, backed by nothing but a verbal warning.
That bothered us. Deeply. A chimney is one of the few systems in a home where a homeowner genuinely cannot see the problem. It’s a vertical passage behind brick. You’re being asked to trust someone’s word. In Los Angeles, where many homes still rely on fireplaces for winter heat and ambiance, that trust matters. So we set a different standard from day one: show the homeowner the flue. Put a camera up there, bring the images down, and point to exactly what we’re seeing. No scare tactics. No mystery pricing. Just a written quote before any work begins, and a guarantee that comes back with us if something fails.
That’s the promise Nathan Corliss brought to this branch when he took the lead, and it’s the promise we’ve kept ever since.
Nathan Corliss’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Nathan Corliss didn’t grow up dreaming about chimneys. Nobody does. What drew him in was something simpler: the satisfaction of fixing a problem you can actually see, in a place most people never look.
Early in his career, he was sent to a home in Sherman Oaks where the fireplace had been smoking back into the living room for months. Two previous companies had come and gone. One replaced the damper. One sold the homeowner a set of chimney balloons. Neither solved it. Nathan got up on the roof, dropped a camera down the flue, and found the real issue: a partially collapsed tile liner about twelve feet down. The homeowner stood beside him as he showed her the footage. She could see the cracked clay, the gap where smoke was escaping into the wall cavity. For the first time, the problem had a face.
That moment stuck with him. Not because the fix was complicated, but because the homeowner had spent money on solutions that never addressed what was actually wrong. She’d been guessing. That kind of uncertainty, repeated across thousands of homes, is what drives most people to put off chimney maintenance entirely.
Nathan has spent ten-plus years in this trade because the work rewards curiosity and honesty in equal measure. You have to want to know what’s inside the flue. You have to be willing to show it, explain it in plain language, and tell a homeowner when a repair can safely wait. He still enjoys the physical rhythm of the job: the weight of the rods, the scrape of the brush against the tile, the fine gray dust that settles on everything if you’re not careful with the vacuum. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. You start with a dirty flue, you finish with a clean one, and you can prove it with pictures.
If he weren’t in this trade, he’d probably be working with his hands somewhere else, restoring something old. That’s what a chimney is, after all: an old system that still works when it’s cared for properly. There’s something honest about that.
Meet Nathan Corliss – The Person Behind Every Job
Nathan Corliss is the Owner & Founder of Ashby Chimney Los Angeles. He’s spent his career learning the systems that make fireplaces and chimneys work safely, from masonry and flue liners to dampers and caps. He’s trained in camera inspection work, creosote removal, and the repair methods this trade uses every day, and he carries the licensing and insurance required for the work.
What sets him apart from a franchise technician who rotates through a territory is continuity. When you hire Ashby Chimney Los Angeles, the person who shows up knows the kind of construction common in this city. Older hillside homes with clay liners. Mid-century fireplaces in the Valley. Modern gas units where the venting is an afterthought. He’s seen what works and what fails in Los Angeles specifically.
Outside of work, Nathan is particular about details. You can hear it in the way he talks about tool maintenance, about keeping the brushes clean, about taping off the hearth so the vacuum doesn’t scuff the tile. It’s the same instinct in a workshop or a kitchen: leave things better than you found them. That’s not a company slogan to him. It’s just how a job should end.
He’ll be the one answering your questions, showing you the camera footage, and telling you plainly what needs doing now and what can wait until next season.
Our Promise to Los Angeles Homeowners
Every job we do follows the same five rules, laid out in the Kingswell Way that grounds our brand:
- Say the price before the work. You get a written quote before we start. Not an estimate whispered over the phone that changes when we arrive.
- Show up in the window we gave. We give a real arrival window and we keep it. Monday through Friday 7 AM to 7 PM, and Sundays from 7 AM to 7 PM.
- Leave the place cleaner than we found it. Sweeping creates dust. We lay drop cloths, run a HEPA vacuum, and clean the hearth before we leave.
- Put the guarantee in writing. The Kingswell Guarantee covers our work. If a repair fails inside the guarantee period, we come back and fix it at no charge.
- Come back if it fails. That’s the whole point of a guarantee. It’s not marketing language. It’s a promise tied to our name.
These aren’t aspirations. They’re the standard Nathan holds every single job to.
Our Credentials
Here’s what you should expect from any company before you let them into your home:
- Licensed. We hold the state license required for chimney work in California. It’s the baseline, and we meet it.
- Insured & bonded. We carry the coverage that protects you if something goes wrong on the job. If a company can’t show you proof, don’t let them on your roof.
- Years of local experience. We’ve been working in Los Angeles long enough to know the difference between a chimney in Brentwood and one in South Gate. Different construction eras, different wear patterns, different needs.
- A local reputation. We’re not a dispatcher in another state sending whoever’s available. We’re a Los Angeles team that’s been serving this city’s neighborhoods for years.
Why does each of these matter? A license means the technician has met the state’s minimum standard for the work. Insurance means a dropped tool or a damaged roof doesn’t become your problem. Local experience means we know what Los Angeles chimneys actually need, not what a generic playbook says they need. And reputation means you can ask around before you call us.
Rooted in Los Angeles
We work from the hills of Sherman Oaks and Brentwood down through West Hollywood, Studio City, and the South Bay communities of Gardena and Bell Gardens. We know the mid-century fireplaces in the Valley and the older masonry work near Westwood. We know what the marine layer does to caps in Santa Monica and what decades of Santa Ana winds do to crowns across North Hollywood. Los Angeles is where we live and work. It’s not a territory assigned by a corporate office. It’s home.
Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner at Ashby Chimney Los Angeles, serving Los Angeles since 2002.