Say what you have seen or heard at your Montrose 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 remodel in Montrose, Crosby Chimney Care looks for the way in as well as the damage, on 1920s and 1930s spanish revival houses, mid-century ranch homes, and hillside houses toward the foothills alike.
Visit location
Montrose, CA
Postal codes
91020, 91021
Same-day neighbors
Glendale, Tujunga, and La Crescenta
Typical houses
1920s and 1930s Spanish Revival houses, mid-century ranch homes, and hillside houses toward the foothills
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.
Streets near you
The list below is a sample, not a boundary. If your block is in or next to Montrose, a call settles it in a minute.
Expect flue and firebox checked before any finish work, stone and tile surrounds, and mantels built and installed. Afterward you receive photos and a short note on what we found, what we did and what can wait, whether the job stayed simple or turned up a repair.
Autumn canyon wind and the odd heavy winter storm both pry at caps and flashing. Spark arrestor mesh does the fire job and the animal job with the same piece of wire. Late summer, before the first fire, is the busiest window. Late spring, once nesting season ends, is the best time to get a cap on before next year's birds arrive.
Our crews cover Montrose plus Glendale, Tujunga, and La Crescenta. Postal codes on the route: 91020 and 91021. On a border street? Ask when you call and we will check the map with you.
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 oneSteel boxes that slide into an old firebox and vent through a new liner, turning a drafty opening into a real heater.
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 foothill streets below Eaton Canyon and Echo Mountain
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.
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 pageIt will. Montrose is a regular stop for Crosby Chimney Care, and the same trip often takes in Glendale and Tujunga. Tell us the street when you book and we will give you a window.
Expect flue and firebox checked before any finish work, stone and tile surrounds, mantels built and installed. 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 91020, 91021.
