Chimney Flashing Repair in Pasadena: Written Report, Licensed Technicians

A homeowner in Bradbury called us last February after noticing a water stain spreading across the ceiling near their fireplace. The home was a 1970s ranch-style build with a brick chimney that had survived decades of Santa Ana winds and occasional hard rain. They assumed the roof was the problem and had already paid a roofer to re-seal the area around the chimney. The leak came back within two storms. What worried them most was a visible crack running down the chimney crown and step flashing that had pulled away from the masonry on the uphill side. They weren't sure if the fix was a roof repair, a chimney repair, or both.

We hear this exact story from homeowners across the foothills, from Bradbury down through Azusa and into Irwindale. The pattern is almost always the same: a deteriorating crown lets water into the chimney structure, freeze-thaw pressure (yes, even in Pasadena, overnight temperatures dip enough to cause micro-expansion) widens the cracks, and the flashing loses its bond with the masonry. A roofer treats the flashing. But the crown keeps feeding water behind it. The leak returns. What these homeowners actually need is a combined crown rebuild and flashing replacement, done in the right order, with materials that match SoCal's rain season timing. That's the call this Bradbury homeowner made to Forge Path Services.

Our CSIA-certified technician ran a Level 2 inspection using a camera scan of the flue interior and a hands-on assessment of the crown, cap, and flashing. The camera confirmed that mortar joints in the upper chimney had softened from years of water intrusion. The crown had three fracture lines. On the roof, the original step flashing was aluminum, and it had corroded where it contacted the lime-rich mortar. Counter flashing had been surface-sealed with caulk rather than properly embedded in reglet cuts. Per NFPA 211 standards, the chimney needed structural masonry repair before any flashing work could hold. We scheduled the crown rebuild first, using a reinforced concrete crown with a drip edge overhang, then installed new lead step flashing and counter flashing with proper reglet channels ground into the brick.

Timing matters in Pasadena. We completed this Azusa-adjacent job in early October, right before the rain season. Lead flashing outperforms aluminum in the inland foothill zone because it resists the thermal cycling that pulls aluminum fasteners loose over dry-season heat and wet-season cold. We also installed a cricket on the uphill side of the chimney to divert water runoff, a detail that most general roofers skip on chimneys wider than 30 inches. The homeowner's leak has not returned through two full rain seasons. If your chimney has both crown cracks and flashing separation, one repair without the other is a temporary fix. Forge Path Services handles both, in the correct sequence, so the work lasts.