Level 2 Chimney Inspection in Thousand Oaks

A flashlight from the firebox lets you see a few feet up the flue. From the roof you can see a few feet down. Everything in between is guesswork without a camera. A Level 2 inspection, as NFPA 211 defines it, adds a video scan of the flue's interior along with access to attics, crawl spaces and other accessible areas the chimney passes through. For a water investigation that middle stretch matters. Water running down a flue rarely stays on the surface. It finds the joints between clay tiles, where the mortar has eroded or was never fully packed, and soaks into the brick around the liner. The camera shows those open joints, the tide lines below them and the tile cracks that let water and flue gases reach the masonry. It also shows where creosote has turned glossy and tar-like from being wetted and dried, which is a reliable sign that rain is reaching the flue.

We record the scan and pull stills of each finding for the report, marked with the approximate depth from the top so a repair crew knows where to work. That record is useful later. If you reline the chimney or repair a section of tile, a second scan can be compared with the first. If you sell, the buyer's side can see exactly what was found and what was done. The Level 2 inspection is quoted after we know the chimney, since a single straight flue on a one-story house is a different job from a two-flue stack running through an attic and a second floor. For what a basic check covers, see chimney inspection.

NFPA 211 names the occasions when a Level 2 inspection is the right level. A sale or transfer of the property. A change to the appliance, such as fitting a gas insert into a wood-burning fireplace. A chimney fire, or a building fire that may have affected the chimney. And an event likely to have damaged the chimney, which in our part of California most often means an earthquake. Many chimneys in the Conejo Valley and around Simi Valley took damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and cracked tiles from that kind of shaking can sit hidden for years, letting a little water in with every storm until the brick around them starts to show it on the outside.

For a water problem we add one more case: a leak that a Level 1 inspection cannot explain. If the crown, cap and flashing all look sound but water still appears in the firebox, the next place to look is inside the flue, and the camera is the tool for it. It is also the right step before relining, since the scan shows whether the existing tile can stay. If the inspection finds damage, the report sorts each finding by urgency and every repair is quoted in writing before work is booked. Learn about the repairs that often follow on our chimney masonry repair page, or contact us to set a time.