Chimney service in High Point, Seattle

Nothing of the 1942 project stands within the rebuilt area. Wikipedia describes the redevelopment as clearing all the old housing, streets and utilities and laying out new streets, underground services and about 1,600 homes. A chimney or vent inside those blocks therefore dates from 2003 or later and was installed as one system by its builder.

The surroundings tell a different story. Across the Census ZIP code area around High Point, which reaches from the Junction's east side toward the Delridge valley, 2020-2024 estimates put 20.2 percent of housing units before 1940 and 27.9 percent in 1940-1959, with the 1940s alone at 15.7 percent; the median year built is 1965. A house from those decades may have an open fireplace over a clay-tile flue, perhaps fitted with an insert since. In such a home we look for the problems of an older flue: cracked tiles, an insert without a matched liner, a damper rusted open.

The rebuild was designed around green space. The Seattle Housing Authority says it kept more than 100 mature trees, planted 2,600 new ones and built a natural drainage system of over four miles of grassy and planted swales. The rest of the peninsula is leafy as well; Wikipedia credits West Seattle with one-third of the city's urban forest and green space.

That canopy is good for the neighborhood and hard on rooftop equipment. Leaves and seeds collect on the uphill side of chimney chases and against cap screens and gas vent terminations. Shade then invites moss, which Oregon State University Extension treats as a given in this damp region: it traps soil and litter and slows the drying of a roof. On a visit we clear what has gathered at the chimney and vent, and if a termination is regularly choked by litter, we tell you which branches are responsible.

Washington sets emission limits for wood-burning equipment, and selling an uncertified stove in the state is illegal, the Department of Ecology says. A factory-built fireplace may emit at most 7.5 grams of particles an hour; a wood or pellet stove 2.0 grams an hour in the crib-wood test, 2.5 in the cord-wood one. Seattle's residential code carries the Washington amendment that bars installing any factory-built fireplace not certified and labeled to the ASTM E2558 emission test.

Certification does not exempt anyone from a ban. The bans are declared by the regional Clean Air Agency, chiefly between fall and spring, on cold days when a lid of still air keeps smoke at street level. Stage 1 still lets a certified stove or insert burn, while open wood fireplaces and older uncertified units wait it out. Stage 2 stops the certified units as well, pellets included. The one exemption goes to households the agency has approved beforehand because they lack any other adequate heat. If your home in High Point has a wood-burning fireplace or stove, check the agency's status page before lighting it between fall and spring.