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 Sweep Across Commerce
A chimney sweep in Commerce typically costs between $189 and $319 for a standard cleaning and inspection, with most jobs completed in under two hours. That number climbs if the flue has decades of debris or the stack needs repair work. If you live in the 90101 zip code between Slauson Avenue and Washington Boulevard, we know these chimneys. Call (833) 467-7685 for a free estimate and a straight answer about what your chimney actually needs.
Ontario Chimney handles sweep work, repair, and venting safety as one crew, so you’re not bouncing between a cleaner and a contractor. We arrive with cameras, brushes sized for clay tile and masonry flues, and the brand-name materials we’d install in our own homes. Alan Vickers leads the team, and he’s been clear from day one: we don’t quote anything you haven’t seen with your own eyes on a camera screen.
Why Ontario Chimney Is Commerce’s Preferred Chimney Sweep Company
Commerce is a dense grid of 1940s-1960s stucco homes, many with original brick fireplaces and interior masonry flues that have never been relined. That’s our bread and butter. We know that a house off Eastern Avenue with a capped firebox has different problems than a tract row on the south side near the 710. Our Chimney Sweep team has walked hundreds of these post-war layouts, and we know where the stack tees into a wall furnace, where the clay tile spalls, and where the CO backdrafts when the basin inversion settles in.
Response time to Commerce runs same-week for most sweeps, and we batch routes along the 5 and 710 corridors so a call on a Tuesday usually gets a Thursday slot. Our Commerce customers tend to be landlords with rental units plus a growing share of first-time buyers who just inherited a bricked-over fireplace and wants to know if it’s safe. We tell them the truth, show them the footage, and let them decide.
Being local matters here because Commerce is not Thousand Oaks. The winter smog sits at rooftop level and traps combustion gases near the ground. Tightly built homes with wall furnaces and original clay tile flues mean vent tightness isn’t seasonal upkeep, it’s year-round. We test every sweep for draft and CO, because in this city that’s the thing that actually hurts people.
Styles & brands we work with
- Sweep & inspection
- Caps & crowns
- Flue relining
- Masonry repair
- Gas fireplace service
Chimney Cleaning in Commerce
Chimney cleaning in Commerce homes starts with a visual check of the firebox, the flue, the smoke chamber, the crown, and the cap. We then run brushes or rods up through the flue to pull out soot, creosote, nesting material, and whatever else has collected since the last sweep. The flat, near-sea-level floor of the LA basin means no freeze-thaw cycle, but decades of disuse leave dead air and debris that blocks draft and lets moisture sit against the clay tile. A standard cleaning runs $189 to $279 when the flue is in decent shape.
Soot and Creosote Removal
In Commerce, we see less creosote from wood burning and more soot from gas appliances that were never properly vented. When a wall furnace dumps exhaust into an old fireplace flue, soot clings to the clay tile and restricts the path. We remove it with mechanical brushes and assess whether the flue was ever sized for the appliance using it now. The cost for soot and creosote removal is included in the standard cleaning, though heavy deposits may push the job to $300 to $350.
Annual Sweep for Gas-Vented Flues
Most Commerce homeowners assume a gas appliance means they can skip the sweep. That’s backwards. The NFPA recommends annual inspection of any flue that carries combustion gases, and in a tightly built stucco home near the industrial corridor, that recommendation isn’t optional. We recommend an annual sweep for any Commerce home with a gas wall furnace or insert venting into a masonry stack. It’s the cheapest insurance against the CO problem you can’t smell.
Fireplace Cleaning in Commerce
Fireplace cleaning in Commerce often means excavating a firebox that hasn’t seen a fire in 20 years. Owners switched to wall furnaces or gas inserts decades ago and bricked over the opening, leaving a dead firebox and an uncapped flue above it. Rain gets in through the open flue, mortar joints spall, and the whole stack becomes a liability. A fireplace cleaning with inspection runs $149 to $229, though if we’re un-bricking a sealed firebox and restoring the opening, labor pushes that to $300 to $450.
Gas Insert Fireplace Maintenance
Many Commerce homes have a gas insert sitting in an old brick firebox. The glass gets hazed with combustion film, the logs collect soot, and the vent at the top of the insert may be packed with spalled mortar dust. We clean the glass, brush the burner ports, check the gas line connections, and verify the vent path is clear. This is preventive work for a unit that runs all winter during basin inversion days.
Trusted Brands We Service in Commerce
Ontario Chimney works with professional-grade materials, not hardware-store substitutes. Our relining work uses DuraFlex stainless steel liner systems built for offset flues that rigid pipe can’t handle, which matters in old Commerce stacks that jog between floors. When flue restoration is the right call, we use HeatShield ceramic resurfacing instead of a full tear-out, which saves Commerce homeowners thousands on mid-century masonry. We source components from Copperfield and Gelco distributors for caps, dampers, and termination hardware. Parts for the common 1950s and 1960s stack configurations common in the 90101 area are stocked on our trucks, so turnaround is measured in days, not weeks.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Chimney Sweep Problems We See in Commerce Homes
- Gas appliances vented into fireplaces never built for them. A 1950s fireplace flue was sized for wood smoke, not the cooler, slower exhaust of a gas wall furnace. The stack never drafts properly, so CO can backdraft into the living space. We camera the flue and show you what’s happening.
- Capped or bricked-over fireboxes left as dead, uncapped flues. Owners seal off the fireplace but never cap the flue above the roof. Rain enters, spalls the clay tile, and soaks whatever creosote and debris is left in the throat.
- Spalling clay tile and cracked mortar joints. Commerce’s clay tile flues are original to the build. After 60-plus years of thermal cycling and moisture absorption, the joints crack and tile fragments fall into the stack. A camera catches this in minutes.
- Upsell quotes for full relines without camera evidence. We hear this constantly from Commerce homeowners: another company says the flue needs a $6,000 reline, but nobody showed them a photo. We always camera the flue and let you watch the screen. If it needs relining, you’ll see why.
Pricing for Chimney Sweep in Commerce, CA
A standard sweep and inspection in Commerce runs $189 to $319. Fireplace cleaning with a gas insert runs $149 to $229, and un-bricking a sealed firebox runs $300 to $450 depending on the opening size and condition of the facing. If we find damaged liner tile or spalling, relining with HeatShield or DuraFlex starts around $1,800 to $3,500 depending on flue height and access, but we’ll only recommend it after we show you the camera footage. Estimates are free, and we give you a flat price before any work begins. Call (833) 467-7685 and we’ll schedule a time that works for your block.
We Also Serve Cities Near Commerce
Our Commerce routes also cover Maywood, Bell, Cudahy, and Bell Gardens. If you’re managing rental properties along the industrial corridor or own a home just over the city line, our same crew handles your sweep, relining, and venting work. We know these 1940s and 1950s floor plans by heart.
Serving Commerce, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We serve Commerce and nearby communities. Use the map below to see the area we cover. If you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Chimney Sweep in Commerce
Yes, and here’s why: the flue above that bricked-over firebox is still open to the sky and still connected to whatever gas appliance may now share the stack. A sweep removes the debris sitting in that dead flue, and a camera inspection shows whether rain has spalled the clay tile or whether a wall furnace is drafting poorly into it. The bricked-over firebox doesn’t retire the chimney, it just hides it. For an exact quote on a sweep plus camera inspection in the 90101 area, call (833) 467-7685.
Because when Commerce homes were built in the 1950s and 1960s, the fireplace flue was already there, and running a separate B-vent for a wall furnace cost more. Builders tee’d the furnace exhaust into the existing masonry stack. The problem: those flues were sized for wood smoke, not gas exhaust, so the draft is often weak, especially on basin inversion days when the outside air sits heavier than the flue gases. We can camera the tee and tell you exactly how your furnace is venting.
Less than in cold-weather cities, but it’s not zero. Creosote comes from wood fires, and most Commerce fireplaces haven’t seen a wood fire since the 1980s. What we do find is decades of soot from gas appliances, spalled clay tile, and damp, acidic debris sitting in the throat of the flue. That’s a draft and carbon monoxide problem, not a chimney fire risk. The sweep removes it either way. Estimates are free; call (833) 467-7685.
A Level 1 inspection is the visual check that comes with every sweep when nothing has changed since the last cleaning. A Level 2 is a camera inspection of the entire flue, which is what we recommend for any Commerce homeowner who bought the house recently, switched appliances, or had a chimney fire. A Level 3 involves opening up a section of the masonry when we suspect hidden damage and can’t see it from inside. We’ll tell you which level your situation calls for and why.
It’s both. The sweep removes debris and lets us see the damage, but a cracked crown and failed flashing are masonry repairs. In Commerce’s older homes, the crown is often just a thin sloped patch of mortar that wasn’t sealed properly when the roof was redone. Water follows the crack into the stack and spalls the tile below it. We’ll include the crown and flashing in the camera inspection and show you exactly what’s leaking before any repair quote. Call (833) 467-7685 – the estimate is free.
On a post-war tract row off Slauson, our tech pulled the cap off a bricked-over 1950s firebox and found the original clay-tile flue never had a liner. The mortar joints were spalling, and a wall furnace was tee’d into the same stack, fighting for draft with a dead fireplace. We ran a camera while the homeowner watched live, showed the cracked tile and the CO downdraft path, then relined the flue with HeatShield and sealed the abandoned firebox so the wall furnace vented correctly. Nothing was quoted until that footage was on the screen in front of them.
That’s how we work in Commerce. Not by telling you what you need, but by showing you, and then giving you the same materials a certified chimney professional would specify. If your fireplace has been dark for years, or your gas furnace vents into a stack you’ve never seen, call us. Alan Vickers and the Ontario Chimney crew will give you a straight answer.
Written by Alan Vickers, Owner at Ontario Chimney, serving Commerce and the surrounding cities since the company’s first day in the trade.
Call (833) 467-7685 for a free estimate on chimney sweeping, fireplace cleaning, or venting inspection in Commerce, CA. Camera footage included with every inspection.