Delridge, King County
Repairs to a Delridge chimney begin at $425; at that level we are resetting a few loose bricks or mending one cracked corner of a crown. Larger jobs, where a stack has to be partly taken down and relaid or where the damage reaches into the firebox, are quoted after we have seen them, because two chimneys with the same symptom can need very different amounts of work. Every quote names the cause we believe produced the damage, since a patch that ignores the cause tends to crack again along the same line.
Typical investment
From $425
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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 Delridge home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Delridge 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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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.
Causes in this valley are a little different from those on the flat top of the ridges. The west-facing slope that climbs from Delridge Way SW toward 21st Avenue SW has a long record of ground movement, and the creek bottom gathers the water draining off both sides. Lumber walls bend a little when soil shifts beneath a footing; a column of brick and mortar cannot, so the damage concentrates in mortar joints, at the roofline and where the stack is tied to the framing.
Engineers from Shannon & Wilson, writing the city's landslide study, described the Delridge slope as silt and clay colluvium up to 25 feet thick resting on stiff to hard clay, with groundwater typically high. They tied the slides that happened there before 1960 to street grading, and later ones to filling or cutting on private lots. Across the city they estimated that 84 percent of reported slides involved some human influence, and that water had a hand in nearly all of them.
The Southwest Seattle Historical Society tells the same story from the other end: periodic flooding, ravines and landslide potential are the reasons it gives for the valley's slow development.
For a chimney, wet clay is a moving foundation. We therefore treat any crack on a Delridge stack as a question about the ground until the pattern proves it is about the weather, and we say so in the quote.
Every chimney repair we do in Delridge includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe second family of causes is ordinary weather acting over decades: rain soaking into a crown that was never sloped or sealed properly, mortar washing out of the joints on the side that takes the wind, and water working down between the flue and the brick. Those leave slower, more even damage than ground movement does. A leaning stack, a crack that widens toward the top, or a chimney pulling away from the siding points first to the ground; spalled faces and powdery joints point first to water.
We check plumb, follow each crack to its end and look at the footing where it can be seen, so water damage is not mistaken for settlement or the reverse.
The written quote lists the work, the price and the cause it addresses. If the cause sits outside our trade, such as a drainage or slope issue, we say so.
Damaged brick and mortar are removed back to firm material and relaid with a compatible mortar; crowns are cast to shed water away from the flue.
Stage-by-stage photos are attached to the invoice, a file worth handing to a future buyer, inspector or insurer.
Early Youngstown, as the Cettolin House nomination and the historical society both tell it, housed its steelworkers in rooming houses, in homes the company provided, and in homes the workers put up themselves. The nomination's own subject is an example: Fausto Cettolin built the house at 4022 32nd Avenue SW between 1926 and 1939, in reinforced brick on a concrete foundation, on a lot that drops about 29 feet from one corner to the opposite one.
Owner-built houses on steep lots are a reason for care, not alarm. Their chimneys can be well made, but they rarely come with drawings, and their dimensions and ties may not follow any standard. Before we price a rebuild of an older Delridge stack we open what we need to see, measure what is there, and describe it in the quote instead of assuming a textbook chimney.
What this work is quoted at for Delridge homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Delridge | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Repair | From $425 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped after diagnosis |
| 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 Cap Installation | $235–$850 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
Ranges are what these jobs are quoted at in Delridge. 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.
Delridge is a valley neighborhood between the two ridges of West Seattle, on Longfellow Creek, with homes of mixed ages, about a fifth of those in its ZIP code area from the 1940s and 1950s and nearly a third built since 2000. We work every part of it — Pigeon Point, Youngstown, Cottage Grove, Puget Ridge, Riverview included.
DelridgeKing County, WA · 47.547, -122.362
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.
Seattle's residential code lets repointing go ahead without a building permit. For anything heavier the answer turns on scope, and SDCI hears the details of your job from us ahead of the start date.
Do not light a fire until it has been looked at. A lean can mean the flue inside has separated as well, and that needs a camera, which is our $99 plus tax inspection, credited to the repair if you approve it.
We try to source a close match in color and size and show you a sample before the work, but an exact match on older brick is not always possible.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
