Sweep & inspection
Caps & crowns
Flue relining
Masonry repair
Gas fireplace serviceLevel 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.
Fast, Reliable Dryer Vent Cleaning Across North Hills
Dryer vent cleaning in North Hills typically costs $129 – $219 for a standard single-story home, and most jobs are completed in under 90 minutes. We work up and down Sepulveda, Roscoe, and the ranch tracts off Woodley, so we know exactly what’s inside the walls here. If your dryer takes two cycles to dry a load, call (866) 253-3809 and we’ll get a camera into the vent before recommending anything.
North Hills isn’t like the foothill cities. The homes here were built fast, in the 1950s and 60s, and the venting decisions made then still live inside your walls today. Noel Carrasco started Imperial Chimney to deal with exactly this kind of house: older, well-built, and full of venting paths that nobody documented properly. We approach every dryer vent cleaning in North Hills as an inspection first and a cleaning second.
Why Imperial Chimney Is North Hills’s Preferred Dryer Vent Cleaning Company
We’re known in North Hills for showing up with a camera, not a clipboard. Homeowners off Roscoe and Sepulveda call us because the previous company couldn’t explain why the dryer still ran hot after being “cleaned.” The answer is usually in the flue, not the duct. North Hills homes have a specific problem: original clay-tile chimney flues that were later repurposed as dryer exhaust paths. That’s not something a generalist handyman spots. It’s something we look for on every visit to 91343 and 91393.
Our Dryer Vent Cleaning team works with the same professional-grade materials restoration contractors use: Famco hoods, Gelco caps, and Olympia Chimney supply components. That matters in North Hills because the fix often involves more than brushing lint. When we reroute a dryer vent off a shared flue, the termination needs to survive San Fernando Valley heat and Santa Ana wind-driven debris. Cheap plastic hoods fail here. We don’t install them.
Single-company accountability is the other reason North Hills homeowners stick with us. Noel doesn’t subcontract. The person who inspects your vent is the person who cleans it, and if a reroute is needed, the same crew does the work. No handoffs to an unknown third party. When we tell you what we found, we show you the footage. You can see the blockage on screen before we touch it.
Styles & brands we work with
Our Dryer Vent Cleaning Services in North Hills
Dryer Vent Cleaning
We clean the full run from the dryer connection to the exterior termination, using rotary brushes sized to your duct. In North Hills, many of these runs pass through attics and along exterior walls that get hot in summer, which bakes lint into a hard shell that a basic vacuum won’t remove. Our process handles that. Price range: $129 – $219 for a standard single-story home; two-story and longer runs run $189 – $289.
Dryer Vent Inspection
Every cleaning includes a camera inspection. But if you’ve bought a North Hills home and want to know what you’re inheriting, we do standalone inspections too. We trace the vent path, identify the termination, and flag any connection to a chimney flue. A dedicated inspection runs $89 – $149, and if we find a problem, we can usually clean the same day.
Dryer Vent Rerouting
This is the service North Hills homes need most often and the one most companies won’t do. When a dryer vent ties into an original clay flue that also serves a fireplace, the correct fix is a dedicated exterior termination, not endless brushing. We stock Famco hoods and the proper ducting for the job. Rerouting typically runs $350 – $650 depending on run length and wall access, and includes a new exterior hood and a final camera verification.
Dryer Vent Repair
Disconnected joints, crushed flex pipe, and missing terminations are common in 1950s and 60s North Hills homes where dryer vents were afterthoughts. We replace damaged sections, seal joints with proper foil tape, and install louvered terminations that keep Valley critters and wind-driven dust out. Repairs start around $95 for simple joint resealing and run up to $300 for termination replacement.
What happens when you call
- 1
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.
Trusted Brands We Service in North Hills
We install and stock parts from Famco, Gelco, and Olympia Chimney because these are the brands restoration contractors and fire-safety inspectors actually spec. When we reroute a dryer vent in North Hills, we’re not grabbing whatever hood is on the shelf at the big-box store. We’re installing a Famco louvered termination that will hold up to Santa Ana wind loads and the Valley’s summer heat. We keep common termination parts on the truck so a reroute or repair doesn’t require a second visit to 91343.
Common Dryer Vent Cleaning Problems We See in North Hills Homes
- Dryer vent tied into a chimney flue that also serves a fireplace. This is the big one. North Hills ranch homes often have only one masonry chase, and at some point someone ran the dryer exhaust into the same clay flue. Lint meets creosote. That’s a hidden fuel load inside your chimney, not visible from the outside, and it needs camera verification before anyone tells you the vent is clean.
- Lint compaction mistaken for “slow dryer.” Long horizontal runs through mid-century ranch attics collect lint at every sag and joint. By the time drying times jump, the blockage is usually severe and the dryer is overheating itself trying to push air through. We see this pattern constantly on streets off Sepulveda and Woodley.
- Lint lodged in cracked flue joints. Aging mortar and spalling clay tiles create gaps where lint catches and builds up behind the surface a brush can reach. This is why we camera every job before calling it done. If the camera shows joint damage, a brush alone isn’t the answer.
- Missing or damaged exterior terminations. Valley heat degrades plastic hoods quickly. We regularly find cracked, missing, or gaping terminations that let dust, debris, and birds into the line. The fix is a proper louvered hood, installed correctly against the stucco or siding.
See the difference
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After
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After
Before
AfterPricing for Dryer Vent Cleaning in North Hills, CA
A standard dryer vent cleaning in North Hills runs $129 – $219. That covers a single-story home with an accessible vent run of 20 feet or less. Two-story homes or runs longer than 20 feet range from $189 – $289. Standalone camera inspections run $89 – $149, discounted if you book a cleaning on the same visit. Rerouting a dryer vent off a shared chimney flue is the most common larger job in North Hills and runs $350 – $650 depending on wall access and run length.
What affects the price: run length, number of elbows, whether the vent ties into a flue, and whether we need to access the termination from a roof or ladder. We give a flat price before the work starts, not after. When Noel quotes you a number, that’s the number. Call (866) 253-3809 for an exact quote for your home. Estimates are free.
We Also Serve Cities Near North Hills
Imperial Chimney serves North Hills and the surrounding Valley communities, including Van Nuys, Valley Glen, Encino, and Sherman Oaks. If your home is on the edge of North Hills, or if you manage rentals across the Valley, call us and we’ll tell you straight whether we cover your street.
Serving North Hills, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the North Hills 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 – Dryer Vent Cleaning in North Hills
If your dryer is installed against an interior wall in a 1950s or 60s ranch home in North Hills, and you can’t see an exterior vent hood on the wall directly behind it, the exhaust likely routes into the masonry chimney. The way to confirm is a camera inspection. We run a small camera through the vent and show you exactly where it goes. That’s the only way to know for sure, and it’s included with every cleaning we do in 91343 and 91393. Call (866) 253-3809 to book one.
In most North Hills homes we clean, the answer is a long, sagging vent run through a hot attic that’s packed with lint. Mid-century ranch houses here often have dryers installed on interior walls far from an exterior wall, meaning the vent travels 15 to 25 feet horizontally through attic space. Every elbow and sag collects lint. In summer, attic heat bakes that lint hard. The fix is usually a thorough cleaning, and in severe cases, a reroute to a shorter path with a dedicated exterior termination. We’ll show you the blockage on camera before we clean it.
No, not safely, if lint has been mixing with creosote in the same flue. The combination is a fuel load that a standard brush cleaning can disturb without removing. In North Hills, where this shared-flue setup is common, the correct sequence is camera inspection first, to see what’s actually in the flue. If lint and creosote are combined, the flue needs a thorough cleaning, and the dryer vent should be rerouted to a dedicated exterior termination. We won’t brush a mixed-fuel flue blindly. We’ll show you the footage and explain the right fix. Call (866) 253-3809 to have yours checked.
Once a year is right for most North Hills homes, especially if you have a long vent run or dry laundry daily. The Valley’s dry heat doesn’t reduce lint production, it just bakes it onto the duct walls faster. Homes with shared flue setups should be inspected at least once, immediately, to establish whether that configuration exists. After that, annual cleaning plus a camera check keeps you ahead of the problem. Mark it for early fall, before you start running the dryer and the fireplace at the same time again.
Clothes taking two or more cycles to dry, a hot dryer exterior, a burning smell while the dryer runs, or visible lint accumulating around the exterior vent hood are all immediate flags. In North Hills specifically, we also watch for downdraft soot stains on walls near the fireplace after Santa Ana events, which can signal that the chimney venting system is not moving air the way it should. If you notice any of these, stop running the dryer and call (866) 253-3809. We’ll get a camera in the vent and tell you what’s actually going on.
One Company, Start to Finish
On a ranch home off Roscoe Boulevard, our tech pulled a dryer vent that had been tied into the original clay flue and found the flue liner coated with lint fused to first-degree creosote from a nearby fireplace connection. We ran a camera, showed the homeowner the blockage on-screen, then cleared the flue and rerouted the dryer vent to a dedicated exterior termination with a new Famco hood. The dryer’s airflow returned to spec and the homeowner avoided the unnecessary chimney relining another company had quoted.
That’s how we work in North Hills. We tell you what we found, and we show you. Nothing gets recommended without camera evidence you’ve seen with your own eyes. And when we say a fix can wait, we mean it. Clean flue, safe home. One company, start to finish. Call (866) 253-3809 for a free estimate from Noel Carrasco and the Imperial Chimney team.
Written by Noel Carrasco, Owner at Imperial Chimney, serving North Hills and the San Fernando Valley.