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 runs $149 – $229 for a standard fireplace, and most homes in the 90101 ZIP can be booked within a few days. We know the tight post-war stucco tracts here, the converted garages behind the main house, and the shared chimney chases that make Commerce different from anywhere else in the basin. If your fireplace has been smoking back into the room, or you can’t remember the last time anyone looked at the flue, call (855) 341-3461 and we’ll get you on the schedule. Walnut Chimney serves the whole Commerce area, from the residential streets off Telegraph Road down to the housing clusters near Bandini Boulevard, and we bring everything we need with us.

Why Walnut Chimney Is Commerce’s Preferred Chimney Sweep Company
Commerce is not a big city. It’s about six and a half square miles, with a lot of that taken up by rail yards, warehouses, and the 5 and 710 freeways. But the homes that are here are dense, attached or nearly attached, and full of chimneys that have not been touched in decades. We’ve swept and inspected enough of them to know what we’re walking into before we arrive. When a homeowner on a side street off Eastern Avenue books a Chimney Sweep with us, they’re dealing with one company that can clean the flue, scope it, and repair what we find, right there, without handing the job off to someone else.
Russ Dempsey leads our team, and his approach is simple: show the customer what we see. Every inspection includes camera documentation. If we tell a Commerce homeowner they need a new liner or a cap, we hand them photos — the same documentation we provide for every Gelco service in Commerce. That matters more here than in most places because so many Commerce lots have rear garage conversions and additions that alter the venting in ways a quick sweep won’t catch.
We work with professional-grade materials from Copperfield, DuraFlex, and HeatShield, which means a repair recommendation is paired with the right product for that specific chimney, not whatever is on the truck. For tight-lot Commerce homes, that matters. There’s no room for guesswork when the flue is capped at the property line.
If you’re in Commerce and you want one company to handle the sweep, the inspection, and any repair that follows, call (855) 341-3461. We’re based in Garden Grove and run calls into Commerce every week.
Styles & brands we work with





Gas Fireplace Cleaning in Commerce
Gas Fireplace Cleaning in Commerce usually means removing accumulated dust, pet hair, and soot from the burner, glass, and vents, then verifying the pilot and gas connection are operating within normal range, and it typically runs $179 – $249 depending on how many turns of glass and panel removal are involved. The need is not always about heavy use. In Commerce, many gas fireplaces were retrofitted into original 1950s wood-burning boxes, often as part of a garage or rear addition, and the vent runs are not always straight. That means a cleaning here also has to check the vent path for debris and nesting.
The dry, dusty air in the basin settles into burner ports quickly, even when you barely use the fireplace. Add the fact that many Commerce lots sit close to the freeways, and the fine particulate load inside a gas fireplace can be higher than you’d expect. A burner that has never been cleaned can ignite unevenly, produce soot on the glass, and trip the safety sensor.
We clean the full firebox and media bed, vacuum the pilot assembly, and run a full visual check of the glass gasket and log placement. If the vent is part of a shared chase, we flag it. That’s where Commerce homes differ from newer builds.
Annual Gas Insert Service in the 90101
If your gas insert was installed more than five years ago and has not been serviced since, we recommend an annual clean and safety check, especially in attached Commerce units. A dirty thermocouple or partially blocked vent in a shared wall is not something you want to discover in January. The service includes removing the glass, cleaning the interior, checking the log set, and confirming the flame sensor responds correctly. We also check the termination cap at the roof line. In Commerce conversions, those caps are often missing entirely.
Shared Chase Gas Fireplaces
One of the most common calls we get from Commerce homeowners is a gas fireplace that lights but then shuts off. In several cases, the vent line runs into a chimney chase shared with a neighbor’s appliance or the home’s own water heater. The draft interference causes the flame sensor to trip. We can clean and test your fireplace, then trace the vent to identify where the conflict is happening. In a dense city like Commerce, this kind of cross-vent is not rare. It’s expected on certain streets.
Chimney Maintenance in Commerce
Chimney Maintenance in Commerce is about staying ahead of creosote accumulation, missing caps, and the slow damage that dry summers and sudden wet winters cause to old masonry. A maintenance sweep and inspection on a standard single-flue fireplace in the 90101 runs $149 – $199. If we need to drop a camera for a Level 2 inspection because of a shared chase or a converted garage, that adds $99 – $149. Those are the two most common scenarios we face here.
In Commerce, the housing stock is mostly compact post-war stucco with original brick fireplaces that were built for occasional winter use. That should mean light creosote loads. But the reality is different. Long dry spells let leaf litter and bird nests accumulate in uncovered flues, then a winter rain saturates the debris and glazes whatever creosote exists into something harder and more dangerous. The chimney that seemed fine in October can be a different animal by February.

We approach maintenance as a full-system check, from the firebox to the cap. That includes the smoke chamber, the flue tiles, the chase cover if there is one, and the visible masonry around the crown. If we find gaps or cracking, we can usually repair them on the same visit with HeatShield or a Copperfield cap, depending on what the damage actually is.
Creosote Removal on Light-Burn Fireplaces
Most Commerce fireplaces see only a few fires a year, so homeowners assume creosote is not an issue. The problem is time. Creosote does not break down when it sits. It dries, hardens, and then absorbs moisture during the first heavy rain. We remove first-degree creosote before it glazes into the third-degree buildup that requires more aggressive mechanical cleaning and often a re-lining. A clean flue after we leave is a measurable thing, and we show you the before and after photos to prove it.
Cap and Chase Cover Checks on Rear Rooflines
Commerce lots are tight, and many rear additions have chimneys or chase structures that are hard to see from the street. Those are the ones that lose their caps first. We inspect every flue we can access, including the one on the converted garage behind the main house, even if there is no fireplace inside. A missing cap on an unused flue is still an entry point for rain, birds, and squirrels. We stock replacement caps and chase covers for common sizes, so when we find a problem, we usually fix it the same day.
Trusted Brands We Service in Commerce
We repair what we find using professional-grade materials from HeatShield, DuraFlex, and Copperfield. For Commerce customers, that means a flue re-lining job gets a DuraFlex liner sized to the exact dimensions of your existing chimney, not a generic kit. A damper or cap issue gets a Copperfield cast replacement that will actually fit the old box. And when the flue tile inside a 1950s Commerce chimney is cracked but the structure is sound, HeatShield ceramic resurfacing gives us a code-compliant repair without tearing out the masonry. We stock common parts for the older fireboxes found throughout Commerce, so repairs move faster than most homeowners expect.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Chimney Sweep Problems We See in Commerce Homes
- Shared flues between the main house and a converted garage. In Commerce’s post-war stucco tracts, many rear-yard garage conversions and additions share a chimney chase with the main house, so a neighbor’s gas appliance or fireplace can vent into the same flue. A standard sweep of one firebox won’t catch it. We inspect the entire stack, not just the visible fireplace.
- Missing chase covers on rear rooflines. The rear additions and converted garages that are so common behind Commerce homes often have chimney chases that were never capped properly. Rain gets in, animals nest, and the flue is blocked before the homeowner ever burns a log. We flag these on every sweep, even when the chimney is part of an unused structure.
- First-degree creosote that gets ignored until it glazes. Decorative fireplaces in Commerce get lit a handful of times each year, so the creosote sits for extended periods. Dry air hardens it, then winter rain turns it into a tar-like glaze. That’s when we see third-degree buildup on a chimney that never gets heavy use. The problem is not how much you burn. It’s how long the residue sits.
- Venting interference in attached and semi-detached units. On streets with attached homes or tightly spaced duplexes, two appliances venting into one stack create backdraft and smoke stains under the fireplace. The pressure balance is off, and a normal cleaning alone won’t fix it. We can identify the source with a camera inspection and recommend a proper separation with the right cap or liner from our truck stock.
On a tight lot off Telegraph Drive, we traced a smoky backdraft to a shared flue between the main house and a converted garage. The garage’s unpermitted gas insert was venting into the same stack, and the missing chase cover had let leaf litter and a bird nest block the flue above the smoke chamber. We pulled the nest, removed first-degree creosote, and installed a proper chimney cap on the garage side to separate the vents.
Pricing for Chimney Sweep in Commerce, CA
A standard sweep and inspection in Commerce runs $149 – $229 for most single-flue fireplaces built in the 1950s and 60s. If you have a shared flue, a converted garage addition, or multiple fireplaces, expect $199 – $299 for the extra access and the additional inspection time involved. Gas fireplace cleaning typically lands between $179 and $249. Level 2 camera inspections are $99 – $149 when added to a sweep. A missing cap can add $75 – $175 depending on the flue size, and a Copperfield damper replacement starts around $225. We’ll give you a firm number before any work begins, and the estimate is free. Call (855) 341-3461 to book a sweep in Commerce.
We Also Serve Cities Near Commerce
We run calls from Commerce into the surrounding Southeast LA cities every week. That includes Maywood, Bell, Cudahy, and Bell Gardens, all of which share the same post-war housing stock and tight-lot venting issues we see in the 90101. If you’re in one of those areas or anywhere else near Chimney Sweep in Commerce territory, call (855) 341-3461 and we’ll get you scheduled.
Serving Commerce, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Commerce area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Chimney Sweep in Commerce
Yes. We can inspect both flues in a single visit, and we recommend doing exactly that when the structure is attached. Shared chimneys are common in Commerce’s older duplexes and semi-detached homes, and a problem on one side usually affects the other. We’ll run a camera through each flue and map where they converge, so you know exactly what you’re dealing with. Call (855) 341-3461 to schedule a dual-flue inspection.
Once a year, even if you only burn a handful of fires each season. The issue in Commerce is not heavy use, it’s the long dry spells that dry out creosote and the winter rain that follows. Leaf litter and animal nests build up whether you burn or not, and that first fire of the season pushes against whatever is already in the flue. An annual sweep catches it before the backdraft does. Book yours at (855) 341-3461.
First-degree creosote is a dry, flaky soot that brushes off easily. Third-degree creosote is a hard, tar-like glaze that forms when the first-degree layer sits through heat cycles and moisture and bakes onto the flue wall. In Commerce, the long dry summer ages the creosote, then the first winter rain creates the exact conditions for glazing. Third-degree creosote requires aggressive mechanical removal and sometimes a re-lining. Do not let it get there. A sweep now is cheaper than a liner later. Call (855) 341-3461 for a free estimate.
Absolutely. In fact, that’s one of the most important inspections we do in Commerce. An uncapped flue on a converted garage or rear addition is an open door for rain, birds, and squirrels, and the damage happens out of sight. We can put a camera down the chase, clean out whatever has collected, and install a proper cap so the flue stays clear. This is a common issue on Commerce lots, and we handle it regularly. Call (855) 341-3461 to get it looked at.
We do. Walnut Chimney works with DuraFlex for flexible liner systems, HeatShield for ceramic flue resurfacing, and Copperfield for caps and dampers. When a shared flue in a Commerce duplex or converted garage addition needs re-lining, we’ll spec the right product for that exact chimney, not a one-size solution. We can handle the full repair after the inspection, which means you’re not calling one company to sweep and another to fix. Call (855) 341-3461 for an estimate.
Written by Russ Dempsey, Owner at Walnut Chimney, serving Commerce and the surrounding Southeast LA area.