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 Mentone
A clogged dryer vent in a Mentone home is a fire hazard that builds slowly, then becomes urgent without obvious warning. Most houses here, from the ranch homes off Highway 38 to the acreage lots up toward Greenspot Road, have dryers that haven’t been cleaned in years, some never. We handle dryer vent cleaning as a standalone service because we know that in this part of the Inland Empire, the combination of heat, dust, and older vent runs means lint accumulates faster than most homeowners realize. Our team serves the 92359 zip code and the surrounding foothill communities, and we book predictably, not in a scramble. Call (866) 563-3051 for a free estimate, and we’ll tell you honestly whether your vent needs work now or can wait.
Why Oakridge Chimney Sweep Is Mentone’s Preferred Dryer Vent Cleaning Company
Oakridge Chimney Sweep is a chimney and venting specialist, and we’re known in Mentone for being direct about what a vent actually needs. Homeowners here tend to have older homes with quirks: a laundry closet built into a hallway, a dryer vent that takes a long, flat run through a crawl space, a roof cap rusted through from years of mountain wind. We see those conditions constantly, which means we know what to look for before we start. Our crew works with the trade supply brands professionals stock, including Gelco and Copperfield, so the caps, ducts, and connectors we use aren’t coming from a big-box shelf.
Walt Drennan and the team at Oakridge have built a local reputation on honesty, especially in Mentone, where word travels fast among neighbors who’ve lived on the same road for thirty years. When we say a vent needs cleaning, we show you the camera footage. When we say it doesn’t, we don’t invent a reason to charge you. That’s the whole approach: your vent, inspected honestly. It sounds simple, but in this trade, it’s rarer than it should be.
Styles & brands we work with
Our Dryer Vent Cleaning Services in Mentone
Every home in Mentone gets the same thorough process: we inspect the full vent run, clean it mechanically, and document what we found with a camera before and after. But the details of what we do vary by house, because the housing stock here varies so much. Below are the four services we perform most often for Mentone homeowners.
Full Dryer Vent Cleaning
We clean the entire run, from the dryer connection point to the exterior termination, using rotary brushes sized to your duct. In Mentone’s mid-century ranch homes, that run is often longer and flatter than code would allow today, which means it collects lint in the middle that never makes it to the exterior screen. We remove that packed material, not just the surface dust. For a typical four-inch metal duct run of ten to twenty feet, expect about $145 to $215 in Mentone.
Camera Inspection and Photo Report
Every dryer vent cleaning includes a camera inspection, because what you can’t see is the point. We’ve pulled apart vents in Mentone homes where the interior looked clean but the middle was packed solid, or where a separated joint inside a wall cavity was dumping moist lint into the framing. You’ll see the footage, not just hear a summary. If you’ve been told by another company that you need a new vent or a re-route, we can verify that with video evidence before you spend money on it.
Dryer Vent Re-Routing and Dedicated Duct Installation
Some of the older homes in Mentone, particularly the ranch-style builds from the 1950s and 60s off Mentone Boulevard and Crafton Avenue, have dryer vents tied into chimney flues, a shortcut that was never safe or code-compliant. We remove those connections and run dedicated metal duct with a proper exterior cap. This is real repair work, not a cleaning add-on, and it’s why we’re able to help Mentone homeowners who other vent-cleaning companies turn away. Cost typically ranges from $380 to $720 depending on run length and access.
Exterior Cap and Termination Replacement
The dry, windy conditions along the San Bernardino foothills are hard on exterior vent caps. We see rusted flappers, stuck louver doors, and caps where the screen has been pushed inward or torn open by rodents. On canyon-edge homes near Mill Creek, ember intrusion through a broken cap is a genuine fire risk during Santa Ana events. We replace caps with durable metal models that seal tightly but allow proper airflow, typically $65 to $130 installed as part of a cleaning.
What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees — you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
- 3
A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
- 4
You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Trusted Brands We Service in Mentone
We stock and install dryer vent components from the same supply lines chimney professionals rely on: Gelco, Olympia Chimney, and Copperfield. These aren’t hardware-store substitutions. Gelco’s termination caps and connectors hold up to the wind and heat cycles we see in Mentone, and Copperfield duct components are built to trade specifications. Because we carry these brands locally, we can usually complete a cap replacement or small re-route the same day we clean, rather than ordering parts and scheduling a second visit. That matters for Mentone homeowners who don’t want a vent left disconnected or temporarily sealed while waiting on a delivery.
Common Dryer Vent Cleaning Problems We See in Mentone Homes
Mentone’s specific mix of older housing, canyon weather, and wood-burning homes produces vent problems you don’t find in newer suburban tracts. These are the ones we encounter most:
- Dryer vents tied into chimney flues. This is the big one in Mentone’s older ranch homes. A lint-choked flue shared with a wood stove or fireplace is both a fire risk and a draft problem, and a standard vent cleaning won’t catch it. We camera-inspect the full run and the flue connection when this setup exists.
- Crushed or kinked flexible transition duct. Many mid-century Mentone laundry closets are tight, with the dryer pushed against a wall. The foil or plastic accordion duct behind the machine gets crushed, and lint packs at the bend until airflow drops to almost nothing. We replace those transition sections with smooth, rigid metal.
- Rusted or missing exterior vent caps. Mountain wind and dry heat age exterior caps faster here than in coastal cities. A missing louver or a torn screen lets embers, rodents, and debris enter the vent. On foothill lots with red-flag fire conditions, a missing cap is a hazard that should be fixed the same week it’s noticed.
- Long, flat vent runs through crawl spaces. On acreage homes along Greenspot Road and Wabash Avenue, dryers are often located far from an exterior wall. The vent run stretches through a crawl space, across twenty or thirty feet, with little slope. Lint settles in those flat sections and restricts airflow over time, even if the dryer appears to work. We address the whole run, not just the first few feet behind the appliance.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterPricing for Dryer Vent Cleaning in Mentone, CA
A standard dryer vent cleaning in Mentone runs $145 to $215, depending on run length, roof versus wall termination, and how packed the existing lint load is. Most homes in the 92359 zip code fall in the $160 to $190 range. A camera inspection is included, and photo documentation is part of every job. If we find a cap that needs replacing, expect $65 to $130 more. A full re-route off a chimney flue, which we do more often in Mentone than in any neighboring city because of the older housing stock, typically runs $380 to $720. Call (866) 563-3051 for a fixed quote before we arrive, not after. Estimates are free, and we’ll tell you if your vent can wait another year.
We Also Serve Cities Near Mentone
Our Dryer Vent Cleaning team works throughout the San Bernardino foothills and the Inland Empire. In addition to our services in Mentone, we regularly handle dryer vent cleaning in Redlands, Yucaipa, Calimesa, and Loma Linda. If you’re on the edge of Mentone or just over the city line, give us a call and we’ll confirm coverage for your address. To learn more about our full service area and what our Dryer Vent Cleaning process includes, see our service hub page.
Serving Mentone, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Mentone 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 Mentone
No, it is not safe. Dryer vents that exhaust into a chimney flue, especially an unlined or clay-tile flue shared with a wood stove or fireplace, create a serious fire risk. Lint, which is highly flammable, accumulates inside the flue where you can’t see it, and the moisture from the dryer accelerates mortar deterioration. This setup was never code-compliant, but we see it regularly in Mentone’s 1950s and 60s ranch homes. The fix is a dedicated metal duct run with its own exterior termination. Call (866) 563-3051 for an estimate on a re-route.
Every 12 to 18 months for most Mentone homes, and more often if you run the dryer daily or if your vent run is long and flat. Foothill homes with acreage and families doing frequent loads of dusty work clothes tend to accumulate lint faster than suburban households. Homes with vent runs over 15 feet or with multiple bends should be checked annually. If you’re unsure when your vent was last cleaned, a camera inspection will tell you exactly what you’re working with.
If the dryer is using a dedicated metal duct that passes through a masonry chimney chase, yes, we can clean that. What we cannot safely clean is a dryer vent that exhausts directly into an open clay-tile or unlined flue, because the lint is embedded in a structure that we cannot properly access with standard vent-cleaning equipment, and continuing to use that setup is dangerous. In those cases, we recommend re-routing the dryer to a dedicated exterior vent, and we handle that work ourselves. We’ll show you the camera footage so you understand exactly what you have.
Clothes taking longer than 45 to 50 minutes to dry, a dryer exterior that feels hotter than normal, a musty or burning smell while the dryer runs, and visible lint around the exterior termination are the main signs. In Mentone’s older homes, you might also notice that the laundry room gets unusually humid during a cycle, or that the exterior cap isn’t opening when the dryer is running. If you see any of these, stop using the dryer until the vent is inspected. Lint fires can start slowly inside the wall and smolder for hours before you notice. Call (866) 563-3051 and we’ll schedule a cleaning.
Yes, every time. We do not recommend a re-route, a cap replacement, or any additional work without showing you camera footage of the actual problem. On a call off Crafton Avenue, our tech found a 1960s ranch home where the dryer vent had been tied into the original clay-tile chimney flue alongside a wood stove. The flue was unlined, the mortar joint at the smoke chamber was spalling, and lint had accumulated behind the damper. Using a camera, we showed the homeowner the third-degree creosote glaze and the lint blockage, then re-routed the dryer vent to a dedicated metal duct with a proper exterior cap and scheduled a rotary cleaning of the flue. That’s the standard. If a contractor recommends expensive work and won’t show you video, get a second opinion. Call us and we’ll bring the camera.
Contact Oakridge Chimney Sweep in Mentone
If your Mentone home has a dryer vent that hasn’t been cleaned in years, or if you suspect it’s tied into a chimney flue the way so many older ranch homes are here, call us. We’ll schedule a cleaning, inspect the full run with a camera, and show you exactly what we find. No upselling, no invented problems, just a straight answer about whether your vent is safe. Oakridge Chimney Sweep serves the entire 92359 zip code and the surrounding foothill communities. Call (866) 563-3051 for a free estimate today.
Written by Walt Drennan, Owner at Oakridge Chimney Sweep, serving Mentone and the Inland Empire.