Level 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.
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AfterFast, Reliable Chimney Cap & Crown Across Selma
A chimney cap and crown repair in Selma typically costs between $275 and $1,900 depending on whether we’re patching a spalled crown or replacing a rusted cap with a stainless unit. Most jobs take one visit, and we give every Selma homeowner a written price before any work starts. That’s the only way we do business. If your cap is rusted through or your crown is shedding concrete, call us at (980) 580-8641 and we’ll put it in writing.
Our Chimney Cap & Crown team works throughout Selma, from the neighborhoods off Floral Avenue to the older ranchers near Mountain View Avenue and the homes clustered around Selma High School. We know this town’s chimneys. Most were built between 1950 and 1975 with clay-tile flues and poured concrete crowns that have spent fifty-plus years soaking in Tule fog and baking under 105°F valley heat. That’s a hard life for masonry.
Why Emberly Chimney Cleaners Is Selma’s Preferred Chimney Cap & Crown Company
We’ve built our reputation in Selma on camera evidence. Every chimney cap and crown inspection we do includes a documented photo record you can see with your own eyes. When our technician tells you a crown is spalled or a cap screen has failed, you’ll see the photo on the spot. That’s Clause 4 of the Haven Standard, and it’s been our default on every job since 2009, when we made camera-scan documentation standard long before anyone required it.
Selma homeowners ask a fair question: how do I know the repair is actually needed? That’s why our written price always comes with a written scope and a written warranty before anyone touches your chimney. The price on the page is what we stand behind. Bring us a competitor’s written quote and we’ll give you a free second opinion on it. Corrine Halstead leads our crews, and she’s built the business around one rule: if it’s not done right, we make it right. That’s our 365-Day Done Right Promise, stamped on every Selma job.
We answer the phone. No voicemail tree, no web form that sits for three days. A live person picks up 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When a Selma homeowner calls about a crown that’s shedding chunks after a fog spell, they get a named technician and a scheduled visit, not a callback request.
Our Chimney Cap & Crown Services in Selma
Crown Repair
Crown repair is the most common call we get from Selma homes built before 1980. The original poured concrete crowns on these chimneys were never designed for the cycle this valley puts them through. Tule fog sits on the masonry for days at a time in winter, soaking every micro-crack. Then July arrives and 105°F heat bakes that trapped moisture into steam pressure. The crown cracks wider, spalls into chunks, and lets water straight down into the flue. We grind out the failed material and rebuild the crown with CrownCoat, a flexible cementitious coating with a formed drip edge that directs water away from the chimney body. For a typical Selma rancher, crown repair runs $450 to $850.
Cap Replacement
If you’re lighting fires on SJVAPCD-permitted nights, your chimney cap is doing real work. A rusted-through galvanized cap doesn’t keep rain out, doesn’t stop embers from escaping, and doesn’t keep birds from nesting in your flue. We replace failed caps with stainless units from Famco and Copperfield that won’t corrode from valley moisture the way galvanized steel does. Expect $275 to $650 for cap replacement in Selma, depending on flue size and whether the cap is a single-flue or multi-flue unit.
Crown Coating
Crown coating is the preventive move that saves Selma homeowners from a full crown rebuild later. We apply CrownCoat directly over a structurally sound crown that’s showing hairline cracking but hasn’t yet spalled. It seals the surface against fog saturation and gives the crown a proper overhang so water drips past the brick face instead of running down it. For Selma chimneys under ten years old that haven’t been coated, this is often the difference between a $600 coating and a $1,900 rebuild in a few seasons. Coating typically runs $600 to $950.
Custom and Multi-Flue Caps
Some Selma homes, especially the larger mid-century properties near the downtown corridor, have multi-flue chimneys that need custom-fabricated caps. We measure, build, and install caps from stainless stock, sized to cover both flues with proper screening and spark arrestor mesh. Multi-flue cap work usually starts around $800 and goes up with chimney width. If you’ve got a chiminea-style outdoor fireplace or a custom masonry fire pit, we handle those too.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
BeforeAfterTrusted Brands We Service in Selma
We stock and install caps, crowns, and flue components from Famco, Copperfield, and Olympia Chimney in Selma. We carry these specific brands because they’ve held up well against the particular abuse this valley dishes out: agricultural dust from the raisin-grape fields west of town, fog that sits for days, and summer heat that tests every metal fitting. When we install a Famco stainless cap on a Selma chimney, the homeowner gets a brand-backed product with a warranty we stand behind in writing. No waiting on special orders for standard sizes, and custom caps usually arrive within five business days.
Common Chimney Cap & Crown Problems We See in Selma Homes
- Spalled crowns on 1950s and 1960s ranchers. The original concrete was mixed on-site, often too sandy, and poured without a drip edge. Fifty years of fog-and-heat cycling leaves crowns shedding finger-sized chunks. We see this on nearly every pre-1975 Selma fireplace we inspect.
- Rusted galvanized caps at the screen mesh. Agricultural dust from the surrounding stone-fruit and raisin-grape fields settles on cap screens during dry windy spells. The first permitted burn bakes that dust and soot into an acidic paste that eats through galvanized metal. Cheap caps fail first at the mesh, then the whole unit goes.
- Creosote caking under the crown overhang. The SJVAPCD curtailment program compresses all residential burning into a narrow window. That means every permitted fire happens after long cold stretches, so creosote builds faster per burn than it would with steady seasonal use. The acidic soot condenses on the underside of the crown and pits the metal cap above the flue.
- Cracked clay tile flue liners exposed by failed crowns. Once a crown spalls and water gets in, it runs down the flue and sits on the clay tiles. Repeated wetting and drying fractures the tiles. By the time we see it on camera, the crown has usually been gone for two or three seasons. That’s why we recommend annual crown inspection, not just annual sweeping.
Pricing for Chimney Cap & Crown in Selma, CA
A typical crown repair in Selma runs $450 to $850. Cap replacement runs $275 to $650 for standard single-flue units. Crown coating lands between $600 and $950. Multi-flue or custom cap jobs start around $800 and go up from there, and a full crown rebuild with grinding and repouring usually falls between $1,200 and $1,900. What moves the price is flue size, chimney height and access, and whether the crown needs partial or full removal. We’ll give you a written price before we start, and that price doesn’t change unless we find something we can show you on camera and you approve it in writing first. Estimates are free. Call (980) 580-8641 to schedule a Selma chimney cap and crown inspection.
We Also Serve Cities Near Selma
Our Chimney Cap & Crown in Selma technicians also cover Reedley, Sanger, Clovis, and Fresno. If you live in one of those surrounding communities and need a crown inspected before burning season, the same written-price, camera-documented process applies. Selma is our service hub for this stretch of the San Joaquin Valley, so dispatch times stay short and we know the local chimney stock in every one of these towns.
Serving Selma, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Selma 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 - Chimney Cap & Crown in Selma
Because Selma’s agricultural dust and fog cycle corrode galvanized metal faster than most homeowners expect. Dry winds off the surrounding raisin-grape and stone-fruit fields coat your cap screen with fine particulate dust. Tule fog wets it down, and that dust-and-moisture slurry sits on the metal for days. Then you get a permitted burn night, bake the mixture into a corrosive paste at 400°F-plus, and the galvanized coating fails. Stainless caps from Famco or Copperfield resist this cycle far better. If your cap is rusted through, we’ll show you the photo and give you a written replacement price. Call (980) 580-8641 for an exact quote.
Yes, and the curtailment program actually makes annual crown inspection more important, not less. When your chimney sits cold through long no-burn stretches, fog moisture penetrates any tiny crack in the crown. Then the first legal burn heats the masonry and trapped water expands as steam, widening the fracture. A crown that was hairline-cracked in November can be spalled by February. Annual inspection catches the small cracks before they become $1,900 rebuilds. We inspect every Selma crown with a camera and you see the photos before you decide anything.
It’s the valley’s specific thermal-and-moisture cycle. Coastal California chimneys get wet, but they rarely see the sustained 105°F-plus summer heat that follows a fog-soaked winter here. Selma crowns absorb valley fog for days, then get baked dry and cracked by extreme heat. Repeat that cycle forty or fifty times over the life of a 1960s rancher and the concrete literally crumbles. Coastal crowns fail slowly from salt and wind; Selma crowns fail in sheets because the temperature swing is wider and the fog sits longer. One thing the coast and Selma share: salt air and agricultural particulate both eat galvanized metal, which is why we push stainless caps for every Selma installation.
Yes. When a crown cracks and lets water into the flue, that water mixes with creosote and soot that’s been accumulating during the long curtailment stretch. The result on a permitted burn night is a fire that smolders, produces more visible smoke, and sends more particulate up the chimney. In Selma, where the whole point of the SJVAPCD program is reducing PM2.5 on those specific nights, a wet flue and cracked crown work against you. Fixing the crown first means the permitted burn nights you do get are cleaner, hotter, and more efficient. We’ll show you the crown condition on camera before you commit to a repair.
Plan on replacing a galvanized cap every five to seven years in Selma. Plan on a stainless cap lasting fifteen to twenty or more. The material matters more here than it does in most California cities because of the agricultural dust-and-fog corrosion cycle. Stainless from Famco or Copperfield costs more upfront, typically $275 to $650 installed versus $150 to $250 for galvanized, but you’ll replace the galvanized three times before the stainless fails. We stock both, but we recommend stainless for every Selma chimney that sees regular permitted-burn use. Bring us a written quote from another company and we’ll give you a free second opinion on it.
Get Your Chimney Cap and Crown Inspected Before Burning Season
The first permitted burn night after a long SJVAPCD curtailment stretch is the worst time to discover your crown is spalled or your cap screen has rusted through. Get the inspection now, get the written price now, and know exactly what your chimney needs before the valley fog settles in. We serve all of Selma, including the neighborhoods off Floral Avenue, Mountain View Avenue, and the older homes near the downtown district. Call (980) 580-8641 for a free estimate, or schedule a camera-scan inspection with our Chimney Cap & Crown team. You’ll get a written price, a written scope, and a documented photo record on every job, no exceptions.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Emberly Chimney Cleaners, serving Selma under the Haven Standard since our founding in 2009.