Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Masonry repair
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 Chimney Inspection Across Redwood City
In Redwood City, most chimney inspections cost between $189 and $649, depending on the level and whether a camera is needed, and a standard visual check or Level 1 inspection on a single-flue masonry chimney runs about $189 to $279. A Level 2 camera inspection, which is what we recommend most often in Redwood City’s older homes, runs $349 to $649 and includes everything above plus a full video scan of the flue interior. If you live west of El Camino Real in a house built before 1980, or you bought a place with an original fireplace you’ve never really used, the smart move is a Level 2 camera inspection before your first fire of the season. We schedule Redwood City inspections every weekday, usually within a few days of your call, and you can book one now at (669) 266-5073. Our Chimney Inspection team knows Redwood City’s housing stock well enough to tell you at the door what we expect to find before we even open the flue.
Ashby Chimney San Jose has served the Bay Area since 2002, and Nathan Corliss, who leads this area’s crew, insists on one thing above all: he won’t tell you to spend a dime on a repair until you’ve seen the camera footage with your own eyes. In this city, where chimney upselling is a real problem, that’s the difference.
Why Ashby Chimney San Jose Is Redwood City’s Preferred Chimney Inspection Company
Redwood City is full of good, solid houses that were built before modern fireplace code existed. Brick chimneys from the 1950s and 60s sit alongside newer prefab gas fireplaces, and both need different inspections. This is a city where a chimney that hasn’t been used in years can still hide a cracked clay liner, and where salt-laden fog off the bay rusts steel dampers in ways a flashlight from the roof will never catch. We’ve inspected enough Roosevelt, Woodside Plaza, and Redwood Village homes to know exactly where old construction tends to fail.
Our Redwood City customers talk about two things most: we answer the phone, and we show our work. Every Ashby technician is background-checked and uniformed. Every job gets a written price before any work starts, so the number on the invoice matches the number you saw before you said yes. And every repair carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if it fails inside the guarantee period, we come back and fix it at no charge. The Kingswell Guarantee puts that promise in writing, on every single job, including inspections.
We don’t accept callbacks on a voicemail loop. A live person answers our phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When you call from Redwood City to ask about an inspection, a human being picks up. That matters more than most companies admit.
Styles & brands we work with
Chimney Fire in Redwood City
A chimney fire in Redwood City is what the right inspection is designed to prevent, and the risk is real in houses that rarely burn but were never cleared of decades of accumulated creosote or whose clay tile liners cracked quietly over time. Chimney fires happen when creosote, the tarry byproduct of wood smoke, ignites inside the flue at temperatures over 2,000 degrees. Redwood City’s older flatlands, particularly west of El Camino Real in areas like Woodside Plaza, Roosevelt, and the Palm Park neighborhood, have chimneys where salt air has eaten through dampers and seismic shifts have opened hairline cracks in the clay. A chimney fire in that kind of flue can spread into the attic or roof framing in minutes.
The short version: a chimney fire is almost never caused by heavy use. It’s caused by gentle, infrequent use in an older flue where the danger is hidden. That’s why we push camera inspections hard in Redwood City. We want to see the inside of the flue, not guess at it. If we find third-degree creosote tar glaze, we’ll tell you what we saw and show you the footage. If we find a liner crack, you’ll see that too. Then we’ll tell you what it costs to fix, in writing, before anything else happens.
What a Chimney Fire Inspection Involves
When a Redwood City homeowner has had a chimney fire, or suspects one, the first job is to check for structural damage. That means removing the chimney cap or animal guard and running a camera up the flue, looking for cracks, puffed or spalled brick, thinned mortar joints, and damage to the crown. A chimney that survived a fire can look fine from the outside and be dangerous on the inside.
When Redwood City Homes Need This Level of Concern
If you hear a loud cracking or popping sound from the fireplace while it’s burning, or you notice a strong, acrid smell during use, that’s not normal and not something to wait on. Homes along Woodside Road and in the older downtown blocks, where flues were built in the 1960s and reused through decades of previous owners, are the ones we most often recommend for a post-fire or pre-season camera inspection.
Level 2 Chimney Inspection in Redwood City
A Level 2 Chimney Inspection in Redwood City is the standard we recommend for any sale, any transfer of ownership, any change to the appliance (including a gas insert conversion), and any chimney that hasn’t been inspected in five or more years. The cost runs $349 to $649 for a single flue, and it includes the Level 1 visual check plus a video scan of the entire flue interior using a professional camera system. The camera is fed up from the firebox and down from the roof, giving us a complete picture of the clay tile or metal liner, the smoke chamber, and the cap.
Redwood City’s 1950s-1970s housing stock makes Level 2 the most useful inspection we do here. Brick and cinderblock chimneys built before the late 1970s often have original clay tile liners that were never designed to survive decades of salt air from the bay. Cool, damp marine air in the summer pushes moisture into the mortar joints, and the relatively rare freeze-thaw cycle in winter pops small cracks wider. A Level 2 inspection is the only way to see those cracks without tearing out brick.
What the Camera Sees That a Roof Look Can’t
From the roof, we see the top of the flue tile, the cap, the crown, and the flashing. That’s it. From the firebox, we see the damper and the throat. What we can’t see with a flashlight: the upper third of the flue where creosote glazes thickest, the vertical joints between clay tiles, and any spalling inside the smoke chamber. The camera sees all of it. In Redwood City’s older homes, that’s where the problems live.
When a Level 2 Is Non-Negotiable
Buying or selling a house in Redwood City? Get the Level 2. Most real estate transactions in San Mateo County require it, but even when they don’t, it protects you from buying a chimney that needs $8,000 in liner work the seller didn’t disclose. Switching a wood fireplace to gas? Level 2. You’re venting a gas insert into a flue that was built for wood smoke, and the liner needs to be evaluated before any installation happens. Moving into an older Roosevelt or Woodside Plaza home with an original fireplace? Level 2 before your first fire.
Trusted Brands We Service in Redwood City
We repair and service chimneys with components from furnace and chimney trade brands we trust, not whatever happens to be on sale at the warehouse. For Redwood City homes with failing clay liners, we regularly install HeatShield resurfacing systems, and for steel liners and dampers we work with Famco and Olympia Chimney parts. Where a flue has been damaged by years of Redwood City’s salt air, HeatShield’s Cerfractory material can restore the interior without ripping out your wall. We stock common parts locally, which means faster turnaround for Redwood City customers and no wait on a part shipped from Ohio while your fireplace sits out of commission.
Common Chimney Inspection Problems We See in Redwood City Homes
- Rusted or seized metal dampers. Decades of fog off the bay bring moist salt air through the flue, and the damper plate is usually the first thing to go. In older flatlands homes west of El Camino Real, we find dampers so rusted they won’t open or close fully, which drives smoky drafts back into the living room.
- Spalling brick and cracked crowns. Redwood City’s occasional winter freeze-thaw cycles let moisture into the brick face and crown, then the water expands and pops the mortar loose. We see this most on chimneys built before 1975, where the crown is a thin mortar wash instead of a proper concrete slab.
- Concealed clay tile liner cracks. Seismic shifts from the Hayward Fault system and the general settling of 1960s tract homes crack the vertical joints between clay tile sections. You’ll never see these from the roof or the firebox. Only a camera sees them.
- Gas inserts vented into old masonry flues. A previous owner converts the fireplace to gas and vents the new insert through a clay tile flue that was never sized or rated for gas exhaust. The condensation from gas combustion is more acidic than wood smoke, and it eats through mortar joints faster. We recommend a Level 2 before any gas insert installation or after buying a home that already has one.
See the difference
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We Also Serve Cities Near Redwood City
Along with our work across Redwood City, we regularly schedule inspections for homeowners in Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Stanford. If you’re on the border near the Menlo Park line or off Woodside Road toward Emerald Hills, you’re still in our normal service area with no extra trip charge. The same written pricing, the same camera-first rule, the same guarantee applies wherever you are on the Peninsula.
Serving Redwood City, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Redwood City 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 Chimney Inspection in Redwood City
Even if you burn only a handful of times each winter, we recommend a Level 1 visual inspection every year and a Level 2 camera inspection every three to five years, because Redwood City’s damp marine air causes problems with or without fire. Creosote builds slowly with infrequent burns, but rust, spalling, and clay tile cracks happen on their own from salt air, seismic shifts, and time. The worst condition we ever found was in a chimney that had been used three times in twenty years. Call (669) 266-5073 and we’ll schedule an inspection that fits your actual use pattern.
Yes. A Level 2 Chimney Inspection uses a professional camera fed through the flue from the roof and the firebox, so we can see every section of the original clay tile liner without opening the wall or tearing out brick. A 1968 Woodside Plaza home has a liner that’s well past its expected lifespan in this climate, and the only way to know if it’s still holding is to look at it with a camera. If we find cracks, we’ll show you the footage on a tablet at your kitchen table, and we won’t recommend a repair without that evidence.
That specific odor, on damp days in a Roosevelt home, is almost always old creosote absorbing moisture from the air and releasing that campfire smell back into the house. It’s not dangerous on its own, but it’s a sign that enough third-degree creosote has built up inside the flue to hold moisture, and that’s a fire risk if you burn. The fix starts with a camera inspection to see the buildup, then a sweep if it’s safe to clean. Call (669) 266-5073 and tell us the neighborhood, and we’ll schedule the inspection accordingly.
A Level 2 includes everything in a Level 1 (the dampers, firebox, cap, crown, and accessible portions of the flue) plus a full video scan of the flue interior using a professional camera system. The video is the difference. In Redwood City, where older clay tile liners crack from seismic settling and salt air corrosion behind the firebox, the camera is the only way to see the upper flue and the smoke chamber without demolition.
The previous owner installed a gas insert vented into the old masonry chimney. Do we need a special inspection?
Yes, and this is one of the most common situations we walk into in Redwood City. A gas insert vented through a chimney that was built for wood smoke should have a properly sized metal liner, not just the original clay tile. Gas exhaust is more acidic than wood smoke, and it eats through mortar and clay faster. We’ll run a camera to look at the current liner, tell you exactly what’s in there, and whether it’s safe to run. No guesswork, no fear-pitch, just video.
Why Redwood City’s Older Chimneys Hide Problems You Can’t See
Redwood City’s older flatlands west of El Camino Real have chimneys where decades of salt-laden fog have rusted metal dampers and spalled brick faces, making Level 2 camera inspections the only way to see liner cracks behind the firebox before they become chimney fires. The marine air that rolls in off the bay every summer pushes moisture into the masonry, and the seismic settling that comes with living on the Peninsula opens hairline cracks in clay tile liners, even in chimneys that never see a fire. A chimney that sits unused for years in a 1960s tract home is often in worse shape than one that burns every week, because the creosote isn’t the only danger. Here, the danger is structural, hidden, and completely invisible from the roof.
We saw this firsthand last winter in a 1964 Roosevelt home with an original clay tile flue. The homeowner had used the fireplace only a handful of times in decades. She called us for a routine sweep before the holidays. We ran our Level 2 camera and found a 22-inch vertical crack behind the smoke chamber, completely invisible from both the roof and the firebox. We showed her the footage on our tablet, right there in her living room. No scare tactics, no pressure, just a clear video of what her flue actually looked like. She approved a HeatShield resurfacing that same week. That’s the whole story. The crack was there whether we looked or not, and the camera made it real.
This is why Nathan Corliss runs the Kingswell Way the way he does. Say the price. Show up in the window. Leave it cleaner. Put the guarantee in writing. Come back if it fails. And above all, never recommend a liner replacement, waterproofing, or rebuild without camera evidence the homeowner can see. Redwood City has too many older chimneys and too many contractors willing to pad a quote. We’d rather show you the video and let the flue make the argument.
Written by Nathan Corliss, Owner at Ashby Chimney San Jose, serving Redwood City since founding the Bay Area operation in 2002.
If you live in Redwood City and it’s time for a chimney inspection, call (669) 266-5073. We answer the phone 24/7, give you a written price before any work starts, and back every repair with the 365-Day Done Right Promise. Ask for a camera inspection and see your flue for yourself.