Chimney sweep near you
Yes, Lake Oswego is a core part of our area, from the country club era houses on the lake to the hillside customs and Mountain Park. Big masonry chimneys on steep, shaded roofs set the work: camera inspections, moss and water, and bracing.
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Lake Oswego is masonry country: the country club era houses and the 1940s and 1950s boom were often built with brick or stone fireplaces, and many lakeside and hillside customs carry large chimneys, some with two or three flues, on steep roofs under trees.
The trees are not incidental. The city's tree code requires a permit, with notice to the neighborhood association, to remove a tree or half its crown, so the canopy over the older roofs stays, and under it the shaded, rain-facing side of a chimney grows moss and algae and holds water against the brick through the wet months.
The town grew from 3,316 people in 1950 to 22,527 in 1980, and the chimneys from those decades are at the age where crowns split, flashing lifts and the brick on the weather side spalls. Mountain Park's 1970s condos and townhomes are the exception, with flues that are often factory-built or shared and an association that handles the exterior.
Many older Lake Oswego chimneys are brick and stone built big: multi-flue stacks serving a living room fireplace, a den or bedroom fireplace and sometimes a furnace, rising from roofs pitched steeply enough that nothing is reached from a stepladder.
Water gets in through split crowns, lifted flashing and moss-soaked brick, and shows as efflorescence, spalling and a stain by the chimney breast. Inserts added later to those big fireboxes were sometimes set into the open flue without a liner, which only a camera shows. The tall unreinforced stacks on the older houses are what a Cascadia quake takes first, so bracing or shortening comes up at every inspection.
These are the Lake Oswego jobs, and every one of them starts with getting safely onto a steep roof under a wet canopy.
A Level 2 camera inspection on a Lake Oswego multi-flue chimney checks each flue separately, because a den fireplace that has not burned in a decade can hide a cracked tile or a later insert that was never lined, and a sale is when buyers want to know. On the older houses we photograph the stack above the roofline and talk through bracing or shortening the unreinforced brick.
Moss and algae on the shaded side of a Lake Oswego chimney hold water against the brick all winter, and when that water freezes the faces spall and the white efflorescence shows where it has been moving through. We clean the growth off, let the brick dry, repoint what is open and apply a breathable water repellent that lets the brick dry out instead of sealing water in.
Weather-side joints on the 1940s and 1950s houses have had seventy winters of rain blown against them, and once they open the water moves down the wall and the brick faces start to go. We repoint them, replace the spalled brick to match, and rebuild the top courses where the crown has let water into the stack itself.
The January 2024 ice storm put trees onto houses across the metro, Lake Oswego included, and a limb across a chimney tears flashing, cracks a crown or knocks the cap off, which turns into a leak the next time it rains. We reseal or replace the step and counter flashing, add a cricket on the uphill side of a wide chimney, and check the crown while we are there.
The wood inserts set into the big lakeside fireboxes burn hard through the wet months, and an insert sweep means pulling the unit forward or reaching its liner from the top, brushing the liner, and cleaning the baffle and the connector. If the camera shows the insert venting into the open chimney with no liner of its own, that gets fixed before the next fire.
State Street, OR 43, is the way into Lake Oswego from downtown Portland along the river, Boones Ferry Road and Country Club Road bring us across from I-5, and Stafford Road connects to I-205 from the south.
The lake and hillside streets are narrow and steep, with driveways that drop below the road or climb above it, and roof pitches that call for roof anchors and a longer ladder than a flat street. Tell us when you book which side of the house the chimney is on, where a truck can park without blocking the lane, and whether the roof is wood shake, tile or composition.
Albert Alonzo Durham founded the town in 1847 and named it for Oswego, New York. The city incorporated as Oswego in 1910 and took the name Lake Oswego in 1960.
The 405-acre lake is lowered every three years so owners can repair docks and boathouses, and public access to it was fought up to an Oregon Supreme Court ruling in August 2019.
Lake Oswego's restored 1866 Oregon Iron Company furnace recalls the iron industry that built the early town. The Lake Oswego Recreation and Aquatics Center opened in 2025.
Yes, 97034 and 97035 are both inside our area, from the lakefront to Mountain Park and the streets along Boones Ferry Road. The price is the posted one for the job, with no trip fee when we do the work, and a steep roof is part of the job here. Mountain Park owners should check what their association covers before booking exterior work.
Within the week in most cases, once the roof is dry enough to walk safely. Keep the fireplace cold, put a bucket under any drip and photograph the chimney from the ground if you can see it. A limb strike on a Lake Oswego roof can crack a crown or shift flue tile that looks fine from below, so the visit includes a camera run before anything is lit.
Each flue that serves a fireplace is swept on its own, with brushes sized to it and the vacuum running at the firebox. Each gets the Level 1 look-over and its own before and after photos. A furnace or water heater flue in the same stack is looked at, not brushed, unless it needs it. A three-flue Lake Oswego chimney is a longer visit than a one-flue house, and the price board shows how.
Yes, enough to have it inspected and to decide on bracing, shortening or replacement above the roof with your eyes open. Unreinforced brick above the roofline is the part of an older house that fails first in a quake, and FEMA's own retrofit details say bracing improves performance but may not prevent damage or collapse. Our guide on unreinforced masonry chimneys lays out the options, and a Level 2 inspection tells you which fit your stack.
No. Our research found no wood burning curtailment ordinance for the city or for Clackamas County, so Oregon DEQ air quality advisories are what apply to a wood fire indoors. The city does ban open burning year-round and limits recreational fires to small pits well away from structures. Our wood burning rules guide explains how DEQ advisories work and which counties do have red days.
An uncertified insert has to come out and be destroyed at the sale under Oregon's removal law; a unit with a DEQ or EPA label can stay. The seller is responsible unless the buyer agrees in writing to take it on, and then the buyer has 30 days after closing. The chimney trade also recommends a Level 2 camera inspection when a house is sold, and on a Lake Oswego multi-flue chimney that is the one to order.
Start with our guide to checking an Oregon contractor, which shows the state lookup and what to read in the result. Then ask about the roof itself: how will you tie off on a steep pitch, will I get photos of the flue and the crown, and is the price posted before you come. A company that answers all three plainly is the one to let onto a Lake Oswego roof.
The crew that works Lake Oswego continues to West Linn and Wilsonville, across to Tigard and Tualatin, over the river to Oak Grove and up the hill to Multnomah Village.
Call with what the fireplace is doing, or text a photo of the opening and one of the chimney top, and we will name the service and its posted price before we come out.