Say what you have seen or heard at your Altadena house, and we will call to set a time.
Fixing the symptom and leaving the top open just means another call next spring. For fireplace inserts in Altadena, Crosby Chimney Care looks for the way in as well as the damage, on older craftsman and ranch houses, hillside cabins, and homes being rebuilt after the 2025 eaton fire alike.
City on the job
Altadena, CA
Postal codes on file
2
Also on this loop
Kinneloa Mesa and Pasadena
Roofs we see most
older Craftsman and ranch houses, hillside cabins, and homes being rebuilt after the 2025 Eaton Fire
Altadena runs right up to the San Gabriel foothills, and raccoons, squirrels, birds and bats come down looking for a dry, quiet flue. The January 2025 Eaton Fire destroyed or damaged many homes here, and chimneys on houses that stayed standing can still hold ash and fallen debris inside.
Streets near you
The list below is a sample, not a boundary. If your block is in or next to Altadena, a call settles it in a minute.
Santa Ana season sends wind down the canyons hard enough to bend a loose cap or lift it clean off. On these streets the spark arrestor mesh earns its place twice: it holds embers in and keeps animals out. So a fireplace inserts visit here tends to include screened cap over the liner so it stays clear, gas, wood and electric inserts, and firebox measured for fit, with photos of anything that lets weather or wildlife through.
Expect older craftsman and ranch houses, hillside cabins, and homes being rebuilt after the 2025 eaton fire. Older roofs here often have an open flue or a cap that rusted out long ago, and that single detail decides a lot of what we find inside.
Our route covers Altadena postal codes such as 91001 and 91003, along with Kinneloa Mesa and Pasadena. Send the form or call, and we will give you a time window, not just a day.
Many visits turn up a second problem, like a rusted cap during a sweep or a wet crown during a nest removal. These pages cover those jobs.
Brushwork, nest pulling and a close look at the cap, so a flue that gets swept also gets checked for whatever moved in.
Read this oneFlashlight, camera and ladder: a top to bottom look for cracks, rust, open joints and signs that something has been living inside.
Read this oneSplits, gaps and loose tiles that let rain and small animals in, repaired once we know where the trouble really starts.
Read this oneFirebox, damper and smoke chamber gone over from the room side, including the droppings and debris that say something visits.
Read this oneSticky dampers, crumbling firebrick and smoke rolling into the room, fixed after we know which of them is the real problem.
Read this oneCamera-on review of the whole flue, for a sale, after shaking, after a flue fire, or when debris keeps falling from somewhere unseen.
Read this oneSnug stainless caps with a mesh screen, sized to the flue tile so birds, raccoons, squirrels and leaves stay outside.
Read this oneDrips, ceiling stains and rusted metal where the chimney meets the roof, sealed with new flashing tied into brick and shingles.
Read this oneCrumbling joints and loose bricks give rats and wasps a way in; we repoint, swap bad brick and seal the stack.
Read this oneLeaning, loose or quake-cracked stacks taken down to sound brick and built back with a sealed crown and a screened cap.
Read this oneAsh, soot, old nest bits and glass haze cleared from firebox, doors and hearth, on wood, gas and electric fireplaces.
Read this oneCobwebs, dust and lint pulled from burners, pilot hoods and vents, with glass and logs cleaned so the flame looks right again.
Read this oneClicking with no flame, a pilot that will not hold, or a remote that does nothing: each part is tested before one is replaced.
Read this oneRefaced surrounds, new mantels and gas conversions, planned after we have checked the firebox and flue behind them.
Read this oneJammed feed, no glow, a rattling fan: pellet stove faults found one part at a time, with the exhaust vent cleared of fine ash.
Read this oneLeaky door seals, warped baffles and cracked firebrick replaced so the stove burns clean and the pipe above stays clear.
Read this oneLifelike log sets for a fireplace you rarely light, with the gas line, valve and burner sized to the firebox and the room.
Read this onePrices do not change from one town to the next. What changes is the trees, the roofs and the animals, and each page says how.
the oak-shaded streets between the Arroyo Seco and Chapman Woods
Hastings Ranch, our home base, sits in the northeast corner of Pasadena, and this page covers it along with the older blocks toward the Arroyo Seco. Oaks and sycamores shed onto crowns all autumn, and an older bungalow flue left open without a cap is an easy door for a squirrel, a bird or a raccoon. A Pasadena call often starts with scratching behind the mantel or twigs on the grate.
Open town pagethe large-lot residential streets just south of Pasadena
A San Marino house may carry two or three chimneys, and the flue over the room nobody uses is the one birds and squirrels pick. Big trees on wide lots drop leaves onto every crown and into the gap behind each stack.
Open town pagethe tree-lined grid of older houses below San Marino
Alhambra keeps many older bungalows with short brick chimneys close to the roof, so roof rats and pigeons reach the top with little effort. A chimney that has gone several winters without a fire is the kind animals move into.
Open town pagethe wooded hillsides between the Arroyo Seco and the Angeles Crest Highway
La Canada Flintridge sits against the Angeles National Forest, with oaks overhead and brush on the slopes. Raccoons, squirrels and birds pass through the yards, and an open flue on a quiet house makes a ready den.
Open town pagethe Crescenta Valley streets around Honolulu Avenue
Montrose lies in the Crescenta Valley below the San Gabriels, with the Verdugos across the way, so wildlife drifts in from two directions. Squirrels and birds take over uncapped flues, and street trees stuff crowns with leaves each fall.
Open town pageIt will. Altadena is a regular stop for Crosby Chimney Care, and the same trip often takes in Kinneloa Mesa and Pasadena. Tell us the street when you book and we will give you a window.
Expect screened cap over the liner so it stays clear, gas, wood and electric inserts, firebox measured for fit. The final price depends on what we find at the top of the chimney and inside it, and anything beyond the visit is quoted on paper first.
Usually not. Small openings get bigger: a loose cap, a cracked crown or an empty nest left over winter tends to mean water damage or new tenants by spring. We see both across 91001, 91003.
