Chimney Relining in Carson, CA

Chimney Relining for Carson Homeowners

Carson incorporated in 1968 and most of its housing dates from the fifteen years either side of that, which puts it in an interesting middle ground for us. It is late enough that a substantial share of the fireplaces are factory-built metal units in framed chases rather than full masonry, and early enough that those units are now well past the age where refractory panels and chase covers need looking at. The city also sits close to the harbour and the refineries, so it gets the same salt-laden air that works on Long Beach, with the corrosion of galvanised caps, chase covers and dampers that comes with it. Ground conditions are the other Carson particular: parts of the city are built on filled and reclaimed land with a documented history of subsidence in the wider harbour area, so differential settlement is a live consideration on masonry stacks here rather than a theoretical one. Where we find a gap opening between chimney and wall in Carson, we want a camera down the flue before anybody quotes cosmetic repointing.

1960s-70s housing with many factory-built systems, harbour salt-air corrosion, and settlement on filled ground.

A liner is what stands between the fire and the timber framing of your house, and a large number of chimneys in this county do not have a working one. Anything built here before about 1930 — much of Old Torrance, Uptown Whittier, the Long Beach bungalow neighbourhoods — was commonly built with no liner at all, just brick against brick. Later houses got terracotta tile, which is sound until the ground moves, and the ground here moves. Cracked and displaced tiles are the single most common serious defect we find on camera. The other driver is appliance change. Every gas conversion, every wood stove and every fireplace insert changes the volume and the temperature of what the flue has to carry, and an original masonry flue is nearly always far too large for a modern appliance. An oversized flue runs cool, which condenses acidic moisture inside the chimney and destroys it from within faster than any fire would.