Admiral, King County
Relining a chimney in Admiral starts at $1,900. The work swaps the inner surface of the flue for one unbroken length of stainless steel, chosen for whatever burns underneath. Length, diameter, insulation and the bends in the old flue all move the price, which is why it is fixed on paper only once a camera has measured the run.
Typical investment
From $1,900
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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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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.
The Census ZIP code area covering Admiral, plus Alki, Genesee and north Seaview, dates about 23.1% of its housing units to 1939 or earlier, and 16.2% more to the two decades after that. Fuel oil still heats roughly 4.7% of occupied homes there, against 2.9% citywide. Those numbers describe a district wider than Admiral, yet they point at the two cases where relining comes up most: a clay flue that has aged out, and a furnace flue left oversized when the fuel changed.
A FEMA recovery advisory on masonry chimneys hurt by earthquakes ranks what an owner can do. Capping the chimney at the roof is the option it labels good. A metal flue built above the firebox, while the fireplace stays or receives an insert, is better. Replacing firebox and chimney together is best. The stakes on this peninsula were measured in 1965: HistoryLink reports that 34 percent of the 5,005 chimneys counted across 188 West Seattle blocks came out of that earthquake damaged.
Steel tubing inside a chimney holds nothing up, and nobody here will pretend otherwise. Its job is narrower: to hand the fire a sealed metal path that no longer relies on old tile joints staying lined up. For an Admiral chimney whose brick is sound but whose tiles cracked in some past shaking, that is often the practical middle step. When the damage asks for more than a liner, the quote says so in its first line.
Every chimney relining we do in Admiral includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowLiners fail where nobody looks. A tile cracks, mortar between two sections washes out, and exhaust starts reaching the brick. Trade an oil furnace for a gas appliance and the old passage is generally far too wide for the cooler exhaust, which condenses on the walls. Either way the masonry shell can usually stay. The passage inside it is what gets replaced.
Film and a tape establish height, cross-section, offsets, and exactly which damage the new metal has to bridge.
Diameter and alloy are read from the installation manual of the unit, never from habit.
After a sweep, any tile that would snag the steel on its way down is broken out.
Fed from the chimney top, the liner descends without a single joint hidden inside the brick, and is insulated as specified.
Both ends are sealed, then the camera goes back down so the new metal is on record from collar to cap.
The 2021 Seattle Mechanical Code is specific about inserts. UL 1482 is the listing a fireplace insert must show on its label, and the manufacturer's directions govern how the unit goes in. For a pellet appliance the required listing is ASTM E1509. A liner serving an insert belongs to that installation, so we size and insulate it from the maker's instructions and keep the label data in your file.
On permits the sources are thinner. Seattle's residential exemption list (R105.2) mentions swapping one component of a mechanical system, provided the swap leaves the system's original approval intact, and warns that other mechanical permits can still apply. Nothing the city publishes, as far as we could read, says outright which side of that line a new liner falls on. So the permit desk hears about your address and your appliance before any steel is ordered.
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 Relining | From $1,900 | Full-length stainless liner, sized to the appliance |
| 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 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 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.
From $1,900. A tall stack, a wide flue or an insulated system costs more, and each of those shows as its own line on the quote.
No city page we could open answers that in plain words, so we will not state a rule. Ahead of your job we ask SDCI whether a permit applies, and the quote carries the answer.
The camera says. The footage comes from our inspection, $99 plus tax, and if you sign the relining quote those $99 are deducted from it.
Occasionally, when the damage is confined to a short stretch. Cracks running through several tiles call for a full liner, and the film shows which case is yours.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
