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.
Gelco Chimney Cleaning in Fontana, CA | Glendale Chimney Sweep
We provide independent Gelco chimney cap service, replacement, and cleaning across Fontana’s 92335, 92336, 92337, and 92331 ZIP codes, and the work here is shaped by one local reality: thousands of 1950s – 1980s tract homes have original clay-tile flues that were capped decades ago with Gelco-style units now rusted through, stripped, or sized wrong for the tile they sit on. If your Fontana chimney is drafting poorly, leaking, or spitting embers, the cap is usually where it starts. Call us at (833) 467-6493 and we’ll inspect it from the roof, not from a brochure.
Our Gelco sales & service work covers single-flue stainless caps, multi-port caps for back-to-back clay tiles, and custom-fabricated footprints for oversize or spalled crowns. We’re an independent Gelco service provider, not a manufacturer affiliate, and we serve the entire Fontana service area with one goal: a cap that actually matches the flue geometry we measure on your roof.
Why Fontana Residents Choose Us for Gelco Service
Most chimney companies in Fontana stock one or two universal caps and make them fit. That’s not how Gelco caps were designed to work. We measure the tile count, flue geometry, and vent collar before we spec anything, because a cap sized for an 8×8 tile doesn’t belong on an out-of-square multi-flue crown, and a bolt-on unit with stripped mounts isn’t going to survive another Santa Ana season. We keep genuine Gelco caps and screen assemblies in stock where the model is still supported, and when a custom footprint is the only honest answer, we fabricate in stainless. Never galvanized. Galvanized doesn’t last in Fontana’s dry heat and cool winter swings.
Noel Tarkanian, our owner, grew up in a 1950s craftsman in Montrose with a fireplace that needed attention every winter, and he’s been diagnosing chimney problems in Southern California ever since. He’ll tell you plainly—whether on a job in Fontana or Gelco in Glen Avon—when a cap can be re-screened and when it needs to go. We’d rather lose a small repair job than patch something rusted and call it fixed. Professional-grade materials, we name the brands we use because we stand behind them.
Styles & brands we work with
Common Gelco Chimney Cleaning Problems We Solve in Fontana
- Rusted or blown-out spark screens. Fontana’s dry summers bake the stainless mesh on older Gelco caps, and by the third or fourth winter, the screen is rusted through and embers are getting into the clay liner. We clean the flue, then replace the screen assembly or the whole cap, depending on what we find.
- Seized and stripped bolt-on mounts. The clay tiles in 1960s – 80s Fontana tract flues expand and contract through decades of hot-cold cycles, and bolt-on Gelco-style caps seize or strip their mounting bolts into the tile. A cap that lifts in wind creates a downdraft path, and Santa Ana gusts make it worse. We re-bed the cap on a fresh crown and use the right mounting method for what’s actually left of the tile.
- Undersized caps on out-of-square multi-flue crowns. Back-to-back clay tiles on Fontana tract chimneys are rarely perfectly square after forty years. A square cap forced onto them leaves gaps that admit rain into unlined flues, and if a furnace or water heater vents into the same chase, that’s a carbon monoxide concern, not just a water stain.
- Heavy glazed creosote from winter wood burning. Fontana’s cool 30s and 40s nights bring the fires out, and the dry heat that follows bakes creosote into a hard glaze that a standard brush won’t touch. We use rotary sweeping for those flues before we touch the cap work, because a clean flue under a new cap is the only thing that makes sense.
- Caps mounted on cracked or spalled crowns. A Gelco cap is only as good as the crown it sits on. In Fontana’s hot-dry and cool-night cycle, mortar crowns crack and spall, and the cap loses its seal, letting water track down the flue and accelerate clay-tile spalling. We re-bed the crown and remount the cap, or tell you when the crown itself needs real repair.
Gelco Service in Fontana: What Local Conditions Mean for Your Equipment
The older Fontana tracts off Sierra and Citrus are full of “sleeping” chimneys, fireplaces sealed off or stuccoed over during remodels decades ago. These flues look dead from the street, but a lot of them still vent a furnace or water heater, and that changes what Gelco cap work means here. We see unlined, capped flues where the cap was sized for a fireplace that no longer exists, and the vent clearance was never right in the first place. On a sleeping chimney, correct cap sizing and vent clearance is a carbon monoxide safety decision, not a cosmetic one. If you don’t know whether your sealed chimney still vents anything, we’ll check it from the roof and tell you what’s actually there.
Gelco Models & Products We Service in Fontana
We service the Gelco cap lines that show up on Fontana roofs: single-flue stainless caps in round and rectangular footprints, both bolt-on and slip-on, multi-flue and multi-port stainless caps for back-to-back clay tiles, and top-mount caps with integral spark arrestor screens. We also handle universal-fit and custom-fabricated stainless caps for oversize or spalled crowns where an off-the-shelf Gelco footprint won’t seat properly. Our parts approach is simple: genuine Gelco when the model is still supported, properly spec’d stainless aftermarket when a custom footprint or an out-of-square crown demands it. We stock common screen assemblies and mounting hardware locally for faster Fontana turnaround, and we’ll tell you upfront which side of the repair-or-replace line your cap is on. A sound cap is worth repairing. A rusted, stripped, or gap-warped cap should be replaced rather than patched, and we won’t pretend otherwise.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterGelco Service Pricing in Fontana
- Standard single-flue Gelco cap replacement: $240 – $450 installed, depending on flue size, mounting method, and crown condition.
- Multi-flue or custom-footprint stainless cap: $450 – $900 installed on typical Fontana tract crowns, more if the crown itself needs re-bedding or repair.
- Spark screen replacement only: $75 – $190 when the cap body is still sound and the screen is the only failure.
- Chimney sweep with Gelco cap inspection: $160 – $280, rotary-sweep pricing included when glazed creosote is the issue.
What drives the cost is what we find on the roof: tile condition, crown condition, and whether the existing cap was ever sized right in the first place. Our free estimate includes a roof-level inspection and a straight answer on repair versus replacement. Call (833) 467-6493 for an exact quote on your Fontana chimney, and we’ll tell you what’s really going on up there.
Serving Fontana, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Fontana area and also handle Gelco repair in Bloomington, so we know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs – Gelco Chimney Cleaning in Fontana
You can re-screen it only if the cap body, mounting brackets, and crown seal are still sound. On most 1960s – 80s Fontana tract flues, by the time the screen is rusted through, the mounting bolts are seized or stripped into the tile and the cap isn’t seating flat anymore. We’ll inspect it on the roof and tell you honestly which side of the line your cap is on. If it’s just a screen, we’ll re-screen it. If it’s rusted or shifting, a new cap is the only fix that lasts. Call (833) 467-6493 for a free estimate.
Yes, if both flues are active and the crown is still square enough to seal. A proper multi-port Gelco-style cap covers both tiles with one footprint and keeps rain and embers out of each flue independently. Where it becomes a problem is when the crown is spalled or the tiles are out of square, because a forced fit leaves gaps. We measure before we quote, and we’ll tell you if a multi-port cap will actually work on your crown or if a custom stainless fabrication is the honest answer.
It matters more than you’d think. A lot of those sealed Fontana chimneys still vent a furnace or water heater into the same chase, and the old cap on top was sized for a fireplace that no longer exists. If the cap or the unlined flue is compromised, you can get carbon monoxide back into the house without ever lighting a fire. We check the whole path from the roof down, and if your sleeping chimney still vents anything, we size the cap accordingly, just as we do for Gelco in Pedley. Call (833) 467-6493 and we’ll take a look.
Plan on inspecting the cap every winter you burn, and replacing the screen assembly every three to five years. The full cap body usually lasts longer, but Fontana’s dry-heat and cool-night swing, plus the Santa Ana gusts, puts real strain on mounting hardware and screens. If the cap shifts or lifts in wind, don’t wait. A lifted cap is a downdraft path and an ember escape route. Call (833) 467-6493 when the season starts and we’ll check it before the first fire.
Usually, but not always. A rusted, lifted, or undersized cap is a common cause of downdraft in Fontana, especially during Santa Ana events when wind direction shifts. If the cap is the problem, sizing and mounting it correctly fixes the smoke. But if the flue itself is oversized, cracked, or blocked, a new cap alone won’t solve it. We diagnosed a smoky downdraft off Citrus in one of the older Fontana tracts where an aging Gelco-style bolt-on cap had stripped mounts and a rusted screen, and the cap was lifting in gusts—similar to Gelco in Rialto where we see the same Santa Ana wind damage. We pulled it, checked the liner, and set a properly sized stainless multi-port cap on a re-bedded crown. The downdraft stopped and the flue drafted clean. We’ll tell you if your cap is the culprit or if the problem runs deeper.
Service Areas Near Fontana
We serve Fontana and the surrounding Inland Empire foothills, including Rancho Cucamonga, Rialto, Bloomington, and the older unincorporated tracts between Sierra and Citrus. We also run Gelco service in Lake Forest for Orange County clients, and Gelco service in Laguna Woods for the retirement communities there.
Book Your Gelco Service in Fontana Today
If your Fontana chimney has a Gelco cap that’s rusted, lifting, or never fit right in the first place, let’s get it checked before burning season. Call (833) 467-6493 for a free roof-level estimate. A clean chimney isn’t a luxury, it’s just basic fire safety.
Written by Noel Tarkanian, Owner at Glendale Chimney Sweep, serving Fontana and the Inland Empire.