Seaview, King County
An inspection is the visit where we stop guessing about your chimney. In Seaview it costs $99 plus tax per chimney. A camera goes up the flue, someone looks at the crown, the flashing and the line of the stack against the roof, and you receive a written report with the pictures. Say yes to the quote we write afterward and we subtract those $99 from it. Turn the quote down and you have simply paid for a report you keep.
What we charge
$99 plus tax
Book an inspection
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.
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
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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.
Seaview is one of the neighborhoods where the ground is part of the story. Its western edge is the shoreline road, and above it the land climbs steeply to the east. The houses on that climb sit on slopes that the city has studied for decades, and the study is specific about this neighborhood. Brick and mortar do not bend the way framing does, so where a house has a brick stack and one corner of the lot settles, the stack tends to tell on it early, by leaning or by cracking along the roof line.
The Seattle Landslide Study maps one area along this shoreline in detail: a steep upper slope, a bench about 300 feet wide that carries Atlas Place SW, and a lower slope dropping to Beach Drive SW. It lists 25 landslides there from 1927 onward, six of them deep-seated, and four that came in the storm winter of 1996-97. Wikipedia places that stretch of Puget Sound frontage at Seaview's western edge.
Our inspection does not judge a slope; that is a geotechnical question. What we can measure is the chimney. We note any lean, any separation at the roof or at the side wall, and any step crack running through the mortar, and we compare them with what the camera finds inside. When those signs agree, the report says so and suggests you have the ground looked at before anything is rebuilt.
Every chimney inspection we do in Seaview includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowAge is the other half. The Census reports that in the ZIP code area holding south Seaview, Gatewood and Fauntleroy, half of all housing units were built before 1960, and the median unit dates from that year. A flue of that age has seen several earthquakes and decades of rain. Mortar softens, flue tiles crack, and a crown can split without anything showing from the street. That is what the camera is for.
Before any ladder goes up we stand back and sight the chimney against the roof and nearby walls; a lean shows best from a distance.
From the firebox or the top, the camera records every tile joint and any gap, crack or deposit along the way.
If the roof can take our weight safely, crown, cap and flashing get checked by hand. If it cannot, a camera on a pole does the looking from the eave.
You get the photos and a plain list of findings, sorted by urgency, with a written quote for anything we recommend.
Three researchers, Booth, Wells and Givler, went street by street after the 2001 earthquake through some 60,000 chimneys in and around Seattle. Damage you could see from outside turned up on 1,556 of them, and it was anything but even: in what they published in 2004, West Seattle stands out, the same part of the city where chimney damage had been plotted after 1965.
EERI's reconnaissance team reached a matching conclusion from the other direction: wood-frame houses mostly rode out the shaking, and the damage they did take was largely confined to their chimneys. Neither study names Seaview streets, and we do not claim it was inside or outside the worst zone. The inspection is how you find out about your own stack.
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 Inspection | $99 plus tax | Level 1 visual; Level 2 adds a full camera scan |
| Chimney Sweep | $189–$449 | Full flue swept, Level 1 inspection included |
| 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 |
| Chimney Cap Installation | $235–$850 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
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.
Each chimney is $99 plus tax. That sum is credited against any quote of ours you sign; otherwise it pays for the visit and the report.
CSIA cites the NFPA 211 standard, which asks for an inspection of chimneys, fireplaces and vents at least once a year, whether or not they are used much.
If it was strong enough to feel, yes. Damage in a flue is usually invisible from the room, and a crack that lets heat reach framing is the kind of thing you want found before the next fire.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
