Admiral, King County
A chimney cap installed in Admiral costs $235 to $850. The low figure buys a stock stainless cap for a lone flue of ordinary size. Covers spanning several flues, odd shapes and made-to-measure pieces reach the high one. Small as it is, the part does three things at once. Rain stays outside. So do squirrels, birds and leaf litter. And embers meet a screen before they meet the roof.
Typical investment
$235–$850
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Book your $99 inspection
$99 plus tax, deducted when you approve the repair
Not sure where to start
Pick what you're seeing at your Admiral home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Admiral homes.
Level 1 examination of everything reachable, with a Level 2 camera pass when the reachable parts leave a question open
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Full-height brushing of the flue with a head sized to its shape and material
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Assessment of the stack from roofline to crown, with a photo of each defect
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Camera survey and measurement of the existing flue before anything is ordered
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Burner, pilot assembly and firebox cleaned; logs or media put back in the layout the manual shows
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Joints cut back to firm mortar and repointed (tuckpointing) to match the existing profile
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Schmitz Preserve Park, off SW Admiral Way, was given to the city between 1908 and 1912 to protect a remnant of old-growth forest, and Seattle Parks notes that stumps there still carry the notches loggers cut for their springboards. Trees are part of this neighborhood, and few parts of Seattle are as heavily forested as this peninsula, according to the windstorm chapter of the municipal hazard analysis. Under tall firs and maples, an open flue collects needles, twigs and whatever nests in them.
HistoryLink gives the earthquake of April 13, 1949 a magnitude of 7.1 and roughly half a minute of shaking, and says about 10,000 chimneys across western Washington needed repair afterward. Its history of Admiral's Lafayette School describes how that brick building failed: the gables at the top crumbled and their bricks landed on the sidewalk.
Masonry fails from the top because the top is the least restrained part, and the cap sits on exactly that part. While fitting one we look at the top courses and the crown for cracks and loose units, since anchoring new metal into masonry that is already coming apart helps nobody. If the crown cannot hold an anchor, you hear it before we drill.
Every chimney cap installation we do in Admiral includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowAn uncapped flue takes in every shower of the wet season. Rainwater trickles down the flue walls, pools behind the damper and eats at the plate until the hinge seizes. Birds and squirrels treat the opening as shelter. A cap with torn mesh or a lid lifted by wind is barely better than none, and from the street it looks intact. We check fastening and mesh by hand, on the roof.
We note the tile dimensions, its projection past the crown and whether one flue or several come through. The cap is chosen from those three readings.
Single-flue clamp-on, or a larger cover anchored to the crown when several flues share one stack.
Nesting material and debris are pulled out first; a cap must never seal a blockage in.
Screws or anchors are set and tested with a firm pull. Friction alone does not hold through a January gale.
You get pictures of the cap, its fastening and the crown around it.
Seattle's hazard analysis for windstorms states that structural damage can begin at wind speeds as low as 32 mph, and that the city's building code requires new structures to withstand 85 mph for three seconds, adjusted for location. The same document contrasts buildings designed to that standard with the nearly 90,000 Seattle houses dating from before 1939. The residential code now in force is the 2021 edition, per the construction department.
A cap is too light a part to appear in those engineering figures, but the lesson carries: on the ridge, hardware that relies on a snug fit will eventually leave the roof. We therefore fasten caps mechanically and choose the heavier gauge where a chimney stands clear of nearby trees and roofs. Where the building is a designated landmark, the look of the cap is the board's decision, not ours.
What this work is quoted at for Admiral homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Admiral | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Cap Installation | $235–$850 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
| Chimney Sweep | $189–$449 | Full flue swept, Level 1 inspection included |
| Chimney Inspection | $99 plus tax | Level 1 visual; Level 2 adds a full camera scan |
| Chimney Relining | From $1,900 | Full-length stainless liner, sized to the appliance |
| Chimney Repair | From $425 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped after diagnosis |
Ranges are what these jobs are quoted at in Admiral. The exact figure is set on site after a $99 inspection (credited toward the job if you go ahead), and you approve it before any work starts.
Admiral is the oldest neighborhood in West Seattle, first platted in 1885 at the north end of the peninsula, with homes of many decades, close to a quarter of those in its ZIP code area built before 1940. We work every part of it — North Admiral included.
AdmiralKing County, WA · 47.581, -122.386
Before and after
Illustrations of what each repair changes on a typical chimney — not photos of a specific job.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Four steps, each one on paper — so you always know what happens next.
Choose a genuine opening on the crew's calendar. Confirmation is immediate.
Liner, crown, cap, flashing and masonry examined in order — each finding photographed.
One document, plain numbers, covering only the work your chimney genuinely needs.
The repair is completed, then handed over with before-and-after photos of every item.
$235 to $850 fitted. A single standard flue sits low in that range; a wide multi-flue cover or a custom shape sits high.
A correctly sized one does not. Trouble comes from mesh clogged with soot, which is one more reason to look at it yearly.
We recommend it when the flue has been open for years. The $99 plus tax visit shows what the rain did, and you get the $99 back as a deduction on approved work.
Stainless, every time. A galvanized lid is the cheaper purchase and, after a few rainy seasons, the one that needs buying again.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
