How Hadley Chimney Woodland Hills Was Born in Woodland Hills
Woodland Hills runs hot in summer and, when the Santa Anas blow, the air gets dry enough to make a chimney fire a real possibility in any home with an unmaintained flue. We saw that risk firsthand in the neighborhoods around Ventura Boulevard, Topanga Canyon, and the hills above Pierce College. Chimney cleaning existed here, but the experience felt stuck in a different decade. You’d call, leave a message, wait days, get a four-hour window, and then hear a number that changed once the technician was on site. Nobody sent photos. Nobody put anything in writing first. Homeowners in Tarzana and Calabasas told us the same story over and over: they wanted to do the right thing for their home, but they had no way to verify what was actually done.
Bringing Hadley Chimney Sweep to this area meant planting a standard that the San Fernando Valley’s west side had been asking for without always knowing how to name it. The brand came from the Relay Home Co. family, and it carried a specific promise we believed this market deserved: a clean sweep, with photos to prove it. We opened the Woodland Hills branch to give local homeowners a chimney cleaning experience built around evidence and honesty. Every job starts with a written price before any work begins, and every sweep is covered by The Relay Visibility Guarantee. That guarantee means a live arrival time you can track, photo updates before and after the work, and zero surprises on the invoice.
The moment that confirmed we were building the right thing happened on a routine job in West Hills. A homeowner showed us a quote from another company for a full liner replacement. We inspected, ran a camera up the flue, and showed them the photos. The liner had years of safe life left. They needed a sweep, not a five-figure rebuild. We cleaned it, documented it, and left them with a report they could see with their own eyes. That is what this business is for.
Cory Mitchell’s Personal Connection to the Chimney Cleaning Trade
Cory Mitchell did not grow up dreaming about chimneys. Nobody does. But he did grow up around homes, around tradespeople, around the understanding that a house is the biggest investment most people will ever make and the place where their family sleeps. When he started working in home services, what struck him was how much of the industry ran on trust the customer had no way to verify. The trades that affected safety were often the least transparent. Chimneys, in particular, lived out of sight and out of mind until something went wrong.
He remembers the first time he swept a flue that had probably not been touched in a decade. The creosote came down in sheets, black and flaky, the kind of buildup that turns a fireplace from a comfort into a hazard the second the fire gets hot enough. It smelled sharp, almost chemical, and it clung to his gloves. The homeowner stood nearby, watching quietly, and when Cory showed him the before-and-after photos, the look on his face said everything. Not just relief. Understanding. He could finally see what he’d been paying for and why it mattered.
What draws Cory to this work, years into it, is that every home tells a different story. Chimneys in Bel Air behave differently than chimneys in Topanga. Coastal air near the Palisades, wildfire smoke, older masonry, newer prefab systems, homeowner habits around what gets burned, how often, and whether the damper ever gets left open. None of it is cinematic. All of it is real. The satisfaction comes from the craft: knowing what to look for, documenting it clearly, and leaving a home safer than he found it. If he were not sweeping chimneys, he’d still be doing something with his hands, something where the result can be seen and measured. That is the common thread. He is at peace when the work is visible and the customer understands exactly what they got.
The dust, the ladder, the soot-streaked elbows, the occasional squirrel nest that needs an opinion, it all becomes familiar. What never gets old is the homeowner who says, “I’ve never had anyone show me photos before.” That moment is the point.
Meet Cory Mitchell – The Person Behind Every Job
Cory Mitchell is the Owner & Founder of Hadley Chimney Woodland Hills, leading local operations for homes across Woodland Hills, Van Nuys, Tarzana, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, West Hills, Pacific Palisades, Encino, Chatsworth, Bel Air, Oak Park, and Topanga. His background is in hands-on home services, and he has spent his career focused on the parts of a house most people never look at until something fails. He has worked inside flues, on rooftops, with masonry and liners, and with homeowners who were anxious about what they could not see. That experience is what drives the standards here: photo documentation, written pricing, and no recommendation the customer cannot verify with their own eyes.
Away from roofs and chimney caps, Cory is the kind of person who likes fixing things before they break. He is methodical, a planner, someone who would rather take an extra five minutes to get a measurement right than rush and make an assumption. He cares about the neighborhoods this team serves and about what it means to be the person a family lets onto their roof and into their home. The commitment is simple: if it has his name on it, it gets done the way he would want it done at his own house.
Our Promise to Woodland Hills Homeowners
The Relay Standard is the values code behind every job we do in the San Fernando Valley and the surrounding hills. It is not a slogan. Each of the five points fixes a specific frustration homeowners have told us about, and each one is written into how we operate:
- Book in a tap, no phone tag. You can schedule from your phone without a back-and-forth.
- A live arrival time, not a four-hour window. You see when we will be there and you can track it.
- Photos of the work, before and after. You see what we saw and what we did.
- The price in writing before we start. No surprise numbers at the door.
- A digital invoice you can pay from the link. No paper, no hassle, no confusion.
Every job is covered by The Relay Visibility Guarantee. That is the promise in its plainest form: total visibility, from the first tap to the final invoice. You always know who is coming, when they will be there, and what it will cost.
Our Credentials
Our team operates to the standards set by Hadley Chimney Sweep across every branch. That means the credentials homeowners should expect are part of the requirement, not a perk.
- State-licensed. Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires for chimney and home services work.
- Insured & bonded. Protection is in place as a standard part of the work we do in customer homes.
- Established brand heritage. Hadley Chimney Sweep has been part of the Relay Home Co. family since 2003, and this branch operates under the same guarantee and values code.
- Local accountability. Each location, including Woodland Hills, is independently owned and operated, which means the person accountable for your job is part of this community.
Why these matter: when someone is on your roof or working inside your chimney, you should not have to worry about whether they are allowed to be there or what happens if something goes sideways. The paperwork should be boring. The photos should be interesting. That is the order of things we want every homeowner to feel.
Rooted in Woodland Hills
Woodland Hills has its own rhythm. The marine layer that burns off by mid-morning along the 101, the heat that settles over the Valley floor, the ridgelines that stay green a little longer in Topanga. We work these neighborhoods every week, and we know what local chimneys deal with: creosote buildup in older masonry fireplaces, spider webs blocking prefab caps, dry brush season making clearance and spark arrestors a real safety question. This is where our calls come from, where our customers live, and where our reputation gets earned one documented sweep at a time.
Written by Cory Mitchell, Owner & Founder at Hadley Chimney Woodland Hills, serving the San Fernando Valley and surrounding westside communities.