Chimney Repair in San Rafael, CA

Around Gerstle Park, Dominican and the older streets near downtown, most chimneys are original to houses built between 1900 and the 1930s. The mortar is soft, many of the flues were never lined, and a century of San Andreas movement has left plenty of them cracked at the roofline. All of that is fixable. Leaving a leaning masonry chimney standing over a bedroom through another winter is not something we would advise anyone to do.

Terra Linda is a different job. The Eichler homes there went up in the late 1950s and 1960s with flat roofs, open plans and fireplaces that are part of the architecture rather than an afterthought. They need repairing in a way that respects that. A heavy-handed repair or the wrong fireplace refacing can spoil a room somebody designed carefully, and those houses hold their value better when the original character survives.

Most of our work these days is in Sonoma County, but San Rafael and Novato are the two Marin towns we have kept. The reason is simple enough: we know the housing. Four decades in one place teaches you what to expect behind a wall before you open it.

For anything structural, ask about structural fireplace repairs specifically. It is a different scope of work from a straightforward repair, and you want it quoted honestly rather than discovered halfway through.