Chimney Caps and Crowns in Los Angeles County
The two details at the top of the chimney that keep water, animals and embers out of it. Both are cheap to do right and expensive to ignore.
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Why Chimney Caps and Crowns Matters
An uncapped flue in Los Angeles County is an open pipe into your house, and it fills up. We pull nesting material out of chimneys here in every month of the year, because the birds and roof rats never get a winter off. The other thing an open flue takes is rain, straight down onto the damper and the smoke shelf, which is why so many dampers in this county are rusted solid. The crown matters just as much and gets thought about far less. A crown is meant to be a sloped, reinforced slab with an overhang and a drip edge that throws water clear of the brick. What most houses actually have is a flat trowelled smear of ordinary mortar, which cracks within a decade and then funnels water into the top of the stack. There is a fire dimension too: in the hillside and canyon parts of this county a spark arrestor screen is not optional, and a great many older chimneys either never had one or have one that has rusted through.
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Benefits of Chimney Caps and Crowns
Rain kept off the damper and smoke shelf
A capped flue stops the water that rusts dampers solid and soaks the smoke chamber from above.
Animals kept out for good
Mesh sized to keep birds, squirrels and roof rats out of a flue they would otherwise treat as a nesting cavity.
Spark arrestor screen fitted
Embers stopped at the top of the flue, which matters a great deal on hillside and canyon properties.
Stainless steel, not galvanised
Galvanised caps rust out within a few years in this air. Stainless is a one-time job.
Crowns recast with a real overhang
A sloped, reinforced crown with a drip edge that throws water clear of the brickwork, rather than a flat smear that cracks.
Downdraft and rain noise reduced
A correctly sized cap also steadies the draft and stops the rain from drumming down an open flue.
Signs You Need This Service
If you notice any of these, it's time to call OakStone Chimney Solutions.
- You can see straight down an open flue, with no cap fitted
- The existing cap is rusted, bent, or missing its mesh
- Water drips into the firebox, or the damper has rusted stiff
- Birds or rodents are getting into the chimney
- The mortar crown is cracked, crumbling, or sits flush with the brick with no overhang
- Debris and nesting material keep appearing on the smoke shelf
- Damp or staining appears at the top of the chimney breast inside
- The property is in a hillside or canyon area and has no spark arrestor
Don't Wait Until It's an Emergency
A flue problem does not improve by being left alone. Chimney Caps and Crowns booked across Los Angeles County, any hour of the day.
Chimney Caps and Crowns in Action
Photographs from our own chimney caps and crowns jobs around Los Angeles County.
How We Do It
Measure the flue properly
Every flue is measured on the roof. An off-the-shelf cap that nearly fits is a cap that comes off in the first Santa Ana.
Assess the crown underneath
There is no point capping a flue that sits in a crown about to fail, so both get looked at together.
Remove the old cap and failed crown
Cracked crown material cut back to sound masonry rather than skimmed over.
Recast the crown
Reinforced, sloped, with an overhang and a drip edge, and an expansion joint around the flue tile.
Fit and secure the cap
Stainless cap fitted and mechanically fixed to the tile or the crown, not sat on friction alone.
Photograph the finished top
You get pictures of the top of your own chimney, which is the one part of the house you will never see.
Chimney Caps and Crowns Questions
It is the highest-value item in this trade for the money. A cap stops the rain that rusts your damper, the animals that block your flue and the embers that leave it, and a decent stainless one outlasts the roof it sits on. Almost every expensive chimney problem we are called to starts with water coming in at the top.
The crown is the mortar or concrete slab across the top of the masonry, which sheds water off the brickwork. The cap is the metal hood and mesh over the flue opening itself. They do different jobs and you need both.
Yes, and those need it as much as masonry. A stucco chase is topped by a metal chase cover rather than a mortar crown, and the galvanised ones fitted as standard in the seventies and eighties rust through and leak. We replace them in stainless.
If you burn wood, yes, and in the hillside and high fire hazard severity zones in this county it is required rather than advisable. Most caps we fit incorporate the arrestor screen, so it is one job rather than two.
Chimney Caps and Crowns Near You
We provide chimney caps and crowns across 15 cities across Los Angeles County.
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