A Flint company - serving Long Beach, CA

Before & After Gallery - Flint Chimney Co Long Beach

Every visit starts with

Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed

Worth knowing

Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.

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Chimney Cleaning Before & After in Long Beach, CA

A photo shows what a written promise cannot. We document every chimney cleaning and repair job in Long Beach with before and after images so you can see exactly what we found, what we did, and why it mattered. No filters, no staging. Just the inside of a flue and the condition it was in when we arrived. Hank Delano has been doing this work since 2002, and he still believes the camera is the most honest tool on the truck.

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Styles & brands we work with

Recent Transformations

Stage 3 Creosote Removal, Naples Island

Before: glazed creosote coating the flue wall. After: original clay tile surface restored.

Before: glazed creosote coating the flue wall. After: original clay tile surface restored.

This flue had not been swept in at least five years. The creosote was no longer flaky; it had hardened into a tar-like glaze that a standard brush cannot remove. We documented the condition with our inspection camera, showed the homeowner the footage on the spot, and then used mechanical rotary cleaning heads to break the glaze down layer by layer. The after image shows the clay tile underneath, intact and sound. A chimney fire here was one hot fire away.

Bird Nest and Debris Blockage, Bixby Knolls

The homeowner called because smoke was backing into the living room every time they lit a fire. The camera found the cause immediately: a bird had built a nest roughly eight feet down from the top of the flue, packed tight enough to block most of the draft. We removed the nest and debris, swept the full length of the flue, and recommended a proper chimney cap with mesh sides. The result is a clear flue and a fireplace that pulls smoke up and out like it should.

Heavy Soot and Smoke Chamber Cleaning, Los Altos

Most sweeps focus on the flue. This job showed why we insist on cleaning the smoke chamber too. The passage above the damper was coated in fine soot that had accumulated over years of occasional fires. We brushed the chamber thoroughly and vacuumed every surface with a HEPA-filtered unit. The after image shows clean masonry and a clear transition from firebox to flue. It is the part of the chimney most homeowners never see and the part that commonly gets skipped.

Water-Damaged Flue Liner Assessment, Belmont Heights

Professional chimney sweep cleaning a rooftop chimney with a wire brush. — Before: spalled clay liner face with visible moisture staining. After: documented, measured, and ready for relining.

A routine sweep turned into something more when our inspection camera found the clay liner flaking apart. Moisture had been getting in through a cracked crown, and over several winters in Long Beach’s coastal air, the liner surface had begun to spall. We photographed the damage, marked the affected sections, and sat down with the homeowner to review every frame. The recommendation was a DuraFlex stainless relining system, installed to match the flue’s exact dimensions. The after image here documents the pre-relining condition so the homeowner could compare the new liner against an honest baseline.

Odor Source Removal and Full Sweep, El Dorado Park

Professional chimney sweep cleaning a fireplace with a brush — Before: creosote-saturated debris and animal fur inside the smoke shelf. After: smoke shelf clean and odor eliminated.

This household reported a sour smell every time the air conditioning kicked on. The fireplace had not been used in months, so they did not connect the odor to the chimney. Our inspection camera found the smoke shelf packed with creosote, old nesting material, and a surprising amount of pet hair that had drifted up over the years. We removed everything by hand, then swept and vacuumed the full system. The smell was gone within a day. The after image shows a smoke shelf we would eat off of, though Hank would not recommend that.

Dryer-Style Buildup on Chimney Walls, Downtown Long Beach

Professional chimney sweep cleaning a brick chimney flue with a brush — Before: fibrous stage 2 creosote across the flue. After: flue walls clean with no residual buildup.

Stage 2 creosote looks like compressed lint. It builds when fires burn a little too cool, and it clings to the flue wall in a way that normal brushing misses. This downtown-adjacent fireplace had exactly that, concentrated on the upper third of the flue where the exhaust slowed and cooled. Our rotary equipment cut through it completely. The after image shows the flue tile looking close to new, and a draft measurement improved enough that the homeowner immediately felt the difference on the next fire.

Want Results Like These?

Every chimney we clean in Long Beach gets documented the same way: before, during, and after. The camera does not lie, and neither do we. If you want an honest look at your chimney and a written price before any work starts, call us at (562) 317-7262. Hank Delano or one of our technicians will be glad to walk you through what we find.

Written by Hank Delano, Owner at Flint Chimney Co Long Beach, serving Long Beach since 2002.

Before & after

See the difference