Seaview, King County
Of everything on a chimney, the lid up top costs least and gets battered hardest. It keeps rain from falling straight down the flue, keeps birds and squirrels out, and stops sparks from leaving. For Seaview we install stainless caps for $235 to $850. One round flue taking an off-the-shelf lid lands near $235; a crown carrying three or four flues under one hood, or a lid we have fabricated to its dimensions, lands near $850.
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 Seaview home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Seaview 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.
Many Seaview lots back onto steep, wooded ground. Seattle Parks describes most of Me-Kwa-Mooks Park, the old Schmitz homestead on Beach Drive, as a largely undeveloped hillside under trees, and the city's own storm planners rank the peninsula high for tree cover. Trees bring needles, twigs and the occasional nest to a chimney top. A cap with the right mesh keeps that material out of the flue, where it would otherwise build up on the smoke shelf.
Sheltered as Puget Sound is, the city's windstorm analysis records that it can still see sustained winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour, with gusts near 90; in mid-December 1995 a vessel just past the mouth of Elliott Bay reported exactly that. The same report says wind gains speed over hills and ridges, and that falling trees cause most of West Seattle's storm damage.
On Seaview's west-facing slope, with a park full of trees climbing above Beach Drive, both effects reach the roof. A cap that sits loose will eventually leave. A branch that lands on a crown can bend a cheap cap into the flue. We use stainless caps, fix them with screws or clamps to something solid, and look at the trees overhead before choosing the mesh.
Every chimney cap installation we do in Seaview includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowWind is the other job. A cap that is simply pressed onto a flue tile can be lifted off in a hard blow, and then it is in the gutter or on the neighbor's deck. We fasten caps mechanically to the flue or the crown and check that the lid sits high enough above the opening to let smoke out without a bottleneck. Where a liner has been added, the cap must fit the liner's top plate rather than the old tile.
Every flue is measured, along with the crown, so the cap fits the opening that is actually there.
Under trees we choose a mesh that stops nests and debris without clogging fast; the choice is explained before we order.
The cap is screwed or clamped in place, never just pushed on, so a storm cannot lift it.
We look at the clearance between lid and opening and, if you have a fire going, watch the smoke leave cleanly.
In April 2001 the University of Washington geologist Derek Booth suggested that the fault running under Seattle was concentrating the shaking and making it stronger, leaving a zone of chronically heavier damage in deep earthquakes; in his words the region's chimneys acted like a seismic instrument spread across the city. The USGS later published a simulation of seismic focusing under West Seattle that cites 2001 recordings in which one station measured nearly three times the peak ground acceleration of another.
A chimney top is where that shaking does its work first, because the stack whips above the roofline with nothing to hold it. Before we fit a new cap, we check that the top courses are tight and the crown is sound. A new lid on loose brick is money spent in the wrong order.
What this work is quoted at for Seaview homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Seaview | 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 Seaview. 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.
Seaview is a west-facing neighborhood south of Alki and Genesee that runs down to Beach Drive SW, on Puget Sound, with homes of mixed ages, pre-1940 houses making up between 23% and 30% of the two ZIP code areas it straddles.
SeaviewKing County, WA · 47.556, -122.390
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.
Between $235 and $850, fitted and fastened. Price climbs with the number of flues under the lid and with any made-to-order work.
Not if it is the right size. A cap that sits too low or has mesh that clogs can choke a fire, which is why we size it and keep the mesh clean during sweeps.
Until it is replaced, rain goes straight down the flue and animals can get in. It is worth doing before the next storm; meanwhile, avoid using the fireplace if debris may have fallen in.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
