Gatewood, King County
A new liner in a Gatewood chimney starts at $1,900 with us. That buys stainless tubing dropped through an ordinary flue from cap to connector, sized for whatever appliance it will serve, joined at the bottom and capped off above the crown. Long runs, oval or oversized flues, insulation wraps and tight offsets add to it, and each addition is a line on the quote, so a job that ends up near $5,900 explains itself. Relining is the fix when the original tile is cracked, missing, or the wrong size for what now burns below it.
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 Gatewood home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Gatewood 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 housing around Gatewood is older than Seattle's as a whole. Census estimates put the median build year at 1960 for the ZIP code area taking in Gatewood and Fauntleroy, while the citywide median is 1976. Sixty-odd years is long enough for a house to have changed its heating more than once. An oil furnace, a converted gas furnace and a wood fireplace each want something different from a flue. When one of them is swapped for another, the chimney it vented is often left as it was, and that is the moment a liner question comes up.
Fuel oil has not disappeared from this hill. The Census count for the surrounding ZIP code area has it as main heat in 4.7 percent of occupied homes, well above the 2.9 percent citywide, and the same table shows gas at 41.9 percent. A house from the prewar or postwar decades may have changed fuel more than once since it was built, and every change can leave the chimney serving an appliance it was never sized for.
When the change is a fireplace insert, the 2021 Seattle Mechanical Code is explicit: it names UL 1482 as the listing an insert has to carry and makes the maker's instructions govern the install. Those instructions usually want an unbroken connection running from the collar up past the crown. We read the label on your unit before we size anything.
Every chimney relining we do in Gatewood includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe usual reasons we reline here are not exotic. A camera shows clay tiles with open joints or a broken section. A new insert was set in an old opening with nothing running up from its collar. A gas appliance was connected to a flue sized for wood, so it drafts poorly and its moist exhaust condenses on cold masonry. Or a furnace was removed, leaving a water heater alone in a flue far too large for it. Each one has a different liner size and a different connection, which is why we do not quote from the street.
The city's study of landslides traces a seam where sand rests on clay along the peninsula's slopes, and reports that water seeps out wherever that seam meets daylight, which on this peninsula is along the sides of each of its hills. Gatewood's edges show the relief: at Orchard Street Ravine, Seattle Parks describes a stairway trail descending from the 38th Avenue SW street end to Orchard Street below.
Slow settling on that kind of ground is one more reason clay tiles crack at their joints over the decades. A tile liner is rigid; a stainless liner is a continuous tube that tolerates small movement without opening a gap. We do not claim your house is moving. We do note, when we find broken tiles on a sloping lot, that a rigid replacement could crack the same way.
We start with a camera run so the quote is based on the flue you have, its height, its shape and any offsets.
The diameter comes from the appliance's listing, not from the size of the old tile. We tell you which appliance the liner is being sized for.
The Seattle pages we have read are silent on liners specifically, so ahead of the install day we phone SDCI and ask how they treat a liner at your address.
From the roof the tube is fed down the flue; below, it is joined to the appliance, and a top plate and cap close it off above the crown.
A final camera pass shows the liner seated and connected. You keep the footage.
What this work is quoted at for Gatewood homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Gatewood | 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 Gatewood. 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.
Gatewood is a hilltop neighborhood named for Carlisle Gatewood, the developer who financed its streetcar line in 1907, with older homes, about three in ten of those in its ZIP code area built before 1940 and half before 1960.
GatewoodKing County, WA · 47.545, -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 for a standard stainless run. Height, an oval flue, insulation and offsets raise it, each priced separately on the quote.
Seattle's 2021 mechanical code wants a UL 1482 label on any insert and makes its maker's manual the rulebook for installing it; manuals generally call for a connection running up the flue. Working is not the same as venting correctly.
Generally no. Each appliance gets its own properly sized path; we will say so on the quote if your chimney has room for two.
Yes, the camera survey is how we size the job. That visit costs $99 plus tax, subtracted from the relining invoice once you approve our quote.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
