The Junction, King County
A stainless chimney cap in the Junction costs from $235 to $850 installed. A standard cap over one round or square flue is the low end. A cover that spans several flues, fits an odd crown or has to be fabricated to measure is the high end. The cap keeps rain from pouring straight down the flue, its mesh stops birds, squirrels and wind-blown leaves, and it catches embers before they land on a roof. We measure the flue tile on the first visit so the cap fits the first time.
Typical investment
$235–$850
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$99 plus tax, deducted when you approve the repair
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Pick what you're seeing at your The Junction home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for The Junction 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.
Much of the Junction took shape in one decade. HistoryLink calls the 1920s the district's boom years: Ernst Hardware arrived in 1926, J.C. Penney in 1927 and Woolworth in 1929, and 1928 stands out as a year of heavy construction led by the developers L.B. Russell and Walter A. Sutherland. Chimneys put up in that era had a century of weather since, and many of their original caps, if they ever had one, are long gone.
On April 13, 1949 a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook western Washington for about half a minute. HistoryLink counts roughly 10,000 chimneys across the region that needed repair afterward. Above the roofline a masonry stack has nothing to brace against, and that exposed top is where quake damage tends to show first.
FEMA's advisory on rebuilding chimneys after earthquakes uses the word capping in a different sense: cutting a damaged stack down to the roof and closing it off. FEMA grades that as merely good, behind a metal-flue rebuild over the old firebox (better) and full replacement (best). A rain cap is not that. But on any chimney we cap in the Junction, we check that the top courses under it are sound, since a new cap on loose brick does little.
Every chimney cap installation we do in The Junction includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowWind is the cap's main enemy. By WeatherSpark's reckoning for Seattle, gusty months run from the middle of October to the last week of April; December averages the most wind, and outside midsummer it blows mainly out of the south. The city's hazard analysis on wind singles out West Seattle as unusually exposed, since it is one of Seattle's most wooded areas and falling trees cause most storm damage. A cap held by a single loose screw ends up in the gutter after the first big storm, so ours are fastened to the tile or the crown, not just set on top.
On the roof we measure each tile's outside dimensions and note how high it stands above the crown.
Single-flue caps clamp to the tile; a crown-mount cover goes over several flues at once.
Before fitting, we pull out any nest or debris from the top of the flue and look at the crown underneath.
Clamps, screws or anchors hold the cap so a gust cannot lift it, and the mesh is checked for gaps.
You get a photo of the cap in place, along with any crown cracks we noticed while we were up there.
How high a chimney must end is spelled out in R1003.9, inside the chimneys-and-fireplaces chapter of Seattle's 2021 residential rules. Measured from the upper side of its roof opening, the top needs 3 feet of clearance or more; it must also beat by 2 feet anything belonging to that building lying inside a 10-foot radius. Those numbers exist so that wind blowing over a roof does not push smoke back down the flue.
Adding a lid leaves that measurement exactly where it was. Where a stack in the Junction falls short of it, often after an old top was taken down and never rebuilt, a cap alone will not cure the draft, and we tell you so before you buy one. SDCI describes this code as the 2021 international residential model, amended by Washington and by Seattle.
What this work is quoted at for The Junction homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in The Junction | 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 The Junction. 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.
The Junction is the commercial heart of West Seattle, named in 1907 when two streetcar lines met at California Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, with brick and terra cotta storefronts from the 1910s and 1920s on California Avenue and residential blocks on every side. We work every part of it — the Alaska Junction included.
The JunctionKing County, WA · 47.561, -122.387
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 installed. One small flue with a stock cap lands near the bottom; a made-to-measure lid spanning several flues lands near the top.
If the flue is open, rain falls straight down it and animals can move in. A cap is a small part that prevents a lot of later repair.
A properly sized cap should not. We match its opening to the flue, and we keep the mesh at a size that does not choke the smoke.
No, but the inspection, $99 plus tax, tells you whether one is missing or failing, and the $99 comes off any cap quote you approve.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
