Seaview, King County
Flashing is bent sheet metal, layered so that water running down a roof skips past the opening a chimney cuts through it. It has the hardest job on the roof: the chimney and the house move separately, rain runs down both, and the seam between them is where water looks for a way in. In Seaview we repair or replace chimney flashing for $375 to $1,500. Resealing and refastening sound metal is the low end; tearing out the old step and counter flashing and installing new is the high end.
Typical investment
$375–$1,500
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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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Measurement of each flue tile, or of the whole crown for a multi-flue cap
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Burner, pilot assembly and firebox cleaned; logs or media put back in the layout the manual shows
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Seaview's roofs often face the water and the prevailing winter wind at the same time. On a sloped lot, the chimney may sit on the downhill side of the ridge, where rain sheets off a long run of roof before it reaches the stack. A small cricket, the little peaked ridge behind a wide chimney, can make the difference between water that flows around the stack and water that pools against it. We look for one and recommend it where the width calls for it.
Seattle remembers the turn of 1997 as the holiday storm: roughly 12 inches of snow on the ground, then rain on top of it. The city's landslide study puts the water that soaked in over those five days at 8.35 inches, and notes that this peninsula produced a disproportionate number of that winter's slides, the Beach Drive slopes among them. The Western Regional Climate Center describes lowland winters in general the same way: snow that comes in modest amounts and melts fast, with south to southwest winds through the wet season.
For a roof, that combination means water arriving from an angle and in volume, sometimes on top of melting snow piled against the uphill face of the chimney. Flashing that has lifted at one corner can take in a surprising amount in a storm like that. We check the uphill and windward sides first, because that is where melt and wind-driven rain gather, and we make sure the counter flashing is let into the mortar, not just stuck to the brick face.
Every chimney flashing repair we do in Seaview includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowA ceiling stain near the chimney does not always mean flashing. Water can enter through a cracked crown, through porous brick, or through the roof itself and travel along a rafter before it shows. That is why we start by tracing the path, sometimes with a hose test on a dry day, rather than resealing the flashing and hoping. Paying to fix the wrong part is the most common waste we see in chimney leaks.
We look in the attic, at the crown and at the roof, and run water in sections if needed, until we know exactly where it enters.
Old caulk and loose metal come off so we can see the condition of the roofing and the brick underneath.
Sound metal is refastened and sealed properly; worn-out pieces give way to new steps laced course by course through the roofing, capped by counter pieces cut into a mortar joint.
A hose runs over the new metal while someone watches the attic side; photos of both go into your file.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network counts about 400 injuries from the Nisqually earthquake. Of the roughly 30,000 homes FEMA inspectors visited after it, a third had chimney damage, a ratio the USGS printed in a 2003 open-file report on the quake's losses. Those are regional figures, not counts for Seaview.
A chimney that rocked in an earthquake does not always crack where you can see it. Sometimes the only trace is at the roofline: flashing pulled away from the brick, counter flashing bent out of its joint, a gap that was not there before. When we find a flashing problem on an older stack, we look at whether the chimney itself has shifted. Resealing the metal around a chimney that has moved will not hold.
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 Flashing Repair | $375–$1,500 | Reseal at the low end, full flashing replacement at the high |
| 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.
$375 to $1,500. A reseal of sound metal sits at the low end; complete replacement, especially on a wide chimney or a steep roof, is at the top.
Caulk alone usually buys a season. Smear fresh sealant over metal that has worked loose or rusted through and it gives way at the same spot. We remove the old sealant before deciding.
Seattle's residential code exempts like-for-like roof replacement without sheathing or structural changes. Past routine flashing, SDCI hears from us about your particular lot before work starts.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
