Berkeley · CA
Chimney sweep and repair in Berkeley
Early-1900s Brown Shingle and Craftsman masonry on the Hayward Fault’s own trace.
No obligation. Call and we’ll confirm when we can come by.
The short answer
Berkeley’s older neighborhoods — Elmwood, North Berkeley, the areas around the UC campus — carry one of the densest concentrations of early-1900s Brown Shingle and Craftsman houses anywhere in the Bay Area, a style movement that effectively started in Berkeley and still defines whole blocks of it. Those chimneys are original brick in a huge share of cases, built decades before the Hayward Fault’s own trace — which the U.S. Geological Survey has mapped running close to, and in places directly beneath, parts of the city — was a factor in any building code. Nationwide Chimney Sweep & Repair San Francisco pairs the sweep-and-inspect visit every Berkeley chimney needs with a structural look at how that older masonry is actually tied to the house.
Local specifics
What is true about Berkeley
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The Berkeley hills fire of September 1923 destroyed roughly 640 structures, and the rebuilding that followed, combined with continued growth through the 1920s, is why so much of Berkeley’s Brown Shingle and Craftsman housing dates to that specific decade.
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The Hayward Fault’s mapped trace runs directly beneath UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium — visibly enough that the stadium has a deliberate expansion joint built into it — and continues along the base of the Berkeley and Oakland hills through several of the city’s older residential neighborhoods.
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Berkeley’s ‘First Bay Tradition’ architectural movement, associated with architects like Bernard Maybeck, produced the wood-shingled, exposed-timber houses that still concentrate in the Elmwood and North Berkeley neighborhoods, most built with a masonry firebox and chimney as the home’s structural and visual anchor.
Housing stock
What the housing stock means for the chimney work
Berkeley’s defining chimney stock is early-1900s Brown Shingle and Craftsman masonry, concentrated in Elmwood, North Berkeley and Claremont, much of it rebuilt or newly built in the years following the 1923 hills fire. That brick predates any seismic building code, and its proximity to the Hayward Fault’s own trace — mapped running beneath parts of the city itself — makes a structural check of the chimney’s ties to the house framing a genuinely local concern rather than a generic upsell. Newer construction and postwar infill elsewhere in the city increasingly runs factory-built systems that fail at the cap and flashing instead of the masonry.
Neighbourhoods: Elmwood · North Berkeley · Downtown Berkeley · Claremont
Approximate coverage — call to confirm a specific address.
Services here
What we do in Berkeley
Reviews
What the last 17 customers actually said
5.0
17 Google reviewscounted 2026-08-26
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Jennifer Garcia
Heavy Stage 3 creosote had built up within an inadequately sized flue pipe, but a vigilant technician cleaned it away, preventing catastrophic fire dangers.
Miguel Reynolds
Last winter we got a weird burning smell every time we used the fireplace. They cleaned a thick coating of soft creosote from the higher tiles and the stench is completely gone now.
Leonardo Madden
Most sweepers only glance up with a flashlight. This team established a thorough monitor and pointed out minor gaps in the mortar parging, and brushed the smoke chamber till it appeared brand new.
Rhiannon Wimer
Punctual, polite, and thoroughly professional. They treat your home with total respect and deliver world-class service every single time.
Questions
What people ask about Berkeley
Does the Hayward Fault run through my Berkeley neighborhood?
Its mapped trace runs along the base of the Berkeley hills and, famously, directly beneath UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium — several older residential neighborhoods sit close enough that it is worth checking an old masonry chimney’s structural ties specifically.
Is a Brown Shingle or Craftsman chimney different to inspect than a newer one?
The masonry itself is inspected the same way, but a chimney of that era predates modern seismic bracing requirements, so we look closely at how it is tied to the framing in a way that matters less on a newer factory-built system.
How old is most of Berkeley’s older housing stock?
A large share dates to the years right around the 1923 Berkeley hills fire and the decade following it, concentrated in Elmwood, North Berkeley and Claremont — old enough that a full inspection is worth doing even without an obvious symptom.
Do you serve all of Berkeley, including downtown?
Yes — Elmwood, North Berkeley, downtown Berkeley, Claremont and every other Berkeley neighborhood sits inside our twenty-mile radius from central San Francisco.
Book a visit in Berkeley
Tell us what you have noticed — we will confirm the right service.
Or call (628) 245-1261 — we’ll confirm when we can help.