Removing tons of beehive behind fireplace walls. If you don’t have a chimney cap on your chimney, one of the possible results is that you can end up with a beehive in your chimney. You will then need to get an exterminator to kill the hive (or a specialist to remove it) and then have it cleaned. The price of these services is several times the cost of a cap/spark arrestor. The post Removing beehive from a chimney appeared first on Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep ..read more

1957 Costa Mesa home with voids between chimney tiles in the flue. This was found by doing a chimney inspection. Learn more about our chimney inspection service. The post Chimney Inspection | Costa Mesa, CA appeared first on Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep ..read more

We are finding a significant percentage of chimneys from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, including this one from 1985 have cracks and voids in the chimney flue which can cause a house fire. Recently, Rachel Ray’s home burnt down for this reason, even though she was getting her chimneys swept. If you have not had a video inspection of your chimney in the last few years, it might be worth checking on it. Learn more at Chimney Inspections. The post 1985 Chimney with significant gaps, voids and cracks appeared first on Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep ..read more

We have found a lot of homes from 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s have cracked flues which are a fire hazard.   The post Cracked flue which is a fire hazard | Placentia, CA appeared first on Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep ..read more

On February 8, 2024 I spoke to a new customer who had a harrowing experience.  She lives in an upscale neighborhood in Southern Orange County.  She saw an ad on her neighborhood social media page that advertised 30% of chimney sweeps and the company name was Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep.  We are the only licensed contractor with that name. She responded to the ad and when the chimney sweeper arrived, she saw he was driving a Prius.  The price she was quoted was $175 (with the 30% discount), but this man (said his name was Ray) said the price was $300 and wanted cash.  He ..read more

We get calls frequently for bees in chimney. All to often home owners have them exterminated, rather than finding a real beekeeper. Once you have bees relocated, we have solutions to help keep bees from returning, specifically, if you have a masonry chimney. It’s called a top mounted chimney damper. Works great. The post Bees in Chimney appeared first on Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep ..read more

This is repair we did 4 years ago. We didn’t rebuild the chimney, but patched it. If you look closely, we colored the patch in bricks to make repair nearly unnoticeable. This is a relatively inexpensive repair, much less than rebuild. With regular maintenance this chimney could last quite a while, but without maintenance, water could continue to get in, moisten the rebar which rusts, expands and breaks bricks and mortar joints. The post Chimney repair vs rebuild appeared first on Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep ..read more

*Consumer Warning* We have had a large number of customers tell us about companies advertising very low prices for chimney sweeps who then come out and tell the customer the price is really $500-$700 for a chimney sweep (way beyond the usual range).  Customers who agreed to the bait and switch then had these companies do a bad job and ended up with lots of soot in their homes.  When they wrote bad reviews, they were then threatened by these companies.  On checking with the California Contractors License Bureau, none of these companies have contractor’s licenses, so it is illegal ..read more

This is a video of a home in San Juan Capistrano that is approximately 40 years old.  All 3 chimneys had severe cracks and gaps in the chimney flue.  This is a severe fire hazard if the fireplaces are used to burn wood or gas fires.  If you are purchasing a home that was built over 20 years ago, don’t take a chance that the chimney will not have gaps. Approximately 40% of the homes that were built in the 1980s and earlier have cracks and gaps within the chimney flues.  Regular home inspectors do not inspect the chimneys with a video camera and as a result most of the cracks ..read more

Every time you use your fireplace, soot (creosote) is created and deposited on the inside of your chimney as the smoke travels up the flue. As that substance cools it solidifies and results in a caked on layer that will build up use after use. Creosote is made up of particles from the wood and is incredibly flammable. After enough creosote builds up, it can ignite and launch a fast-spreading, dangerous chimney fire. We will remote this creosote and leave your chimney and fireplace clean and ready for use. At the same time, we will inspect the fireplace and chimney and make sure there are no ad ..read more