Admiral, King County
A sweep in Admiral runs $189 to $449. Three things place your job inside that bracket: the slope we have to stand on, the length of flue to brush and the sort of deposit lining it. Rods and brushes travel the entire flue, then the smoke chamber, damper and firebox are emptied by hand, and whatever the brush turns up gets written down. A single flue under a roof we can walk costs the least; a steep roof with awkward ladder footing costs the most.
Typical investment
$189–$449
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 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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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.
West Seattle was first platted here in 1885, and Wikipedia calls North Admiral the oldest neighborhood on the peninsula. A hearth laid in those early decades could have a hundred winters of fires behind it. The Census cannot tell us how many are still lit: its heating table lists only the main fuel of each home, and for the ZIP code area around Admiral, Alki and Genesee the estimate for wood in that role is zero, give or take a couple dozen households. Fires in this neighborhood are therefore mostly occasional, and occasional fires are the ones whose soot gets forgotten.
When the ground stopped moving on April 29, 1965, a block-by-block count was made on this peninsula: 188 blocks, 5,005 chimneys. HistoryLink puts the damaged ones at 1,712, a shade over a third (34 percent). A later USGS paper places that event in a series: unreinforced brick stacks around Seattle were hit in 1949, in 1965 and once more in 2001, and this peninsula showed concentrated damage on all three occasions.
For a sweep, that history is practical. A brush sliding over a cracked tile or a stepped joint feels different in the hands, and broken pieces ride down with the soot. Whenever tile fragments or mortar turn up in what we pull from an Admiral flue, you are shown them on the spot. Brushing a damaged flue leaves it clean and still damaged.
Every chimney sweep we do in Admiral includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowLight use fools people. Ten evenings of damp wood can coat a flue more heavily than a winter of daily burning with dry splits. CSIA, quoting NFPA 211, wants chimneys and vents looked at every twelve months at minimum, and it names 1/8 inch of soot as the point where a masonry fireplace should be brushed. We put a gauge on the deposit instead of guessing from the calendar.
Canvas covers the route in, the fireplace mouth is taped off, and the vacuum hums before a single rod is assembled.
At the damper we read thickness and texture: powder, flake or glaze. Each one wants a different tool.
Depending on access we work down from the roof or up from the firebox, adding rod sections until the brush clears the far end.
Most loosened soot settles behind the damper. That pocket and the firebox floor are cleared last, by hand.
Photos, a short written note, and a flag on anything that deserves the camera. We do not diagnose from a brush alone.
Houses, duplexes and townhouses up to three stories in Admiral come under the 2021 Seattle Residential Code. The city's construction department presents it as the international model code of 2021, amended first by Washington and then by Seattle. Section R1006.2, one of the Washington additions, wants a solid-fuel fireplace closed by doors that fit tightly, in metal or in ceramic glass, and an outside air supply for combustion, carried in a pipe of 4 inches or more in diameter and 20 feet or less in length, or else an alternative that has passed testing.
A hearth from Admiral's first decades predates that wording by generations, and sweeping does not alter what a fireplace is. The rule earns a mention here because doors and an outside air supply change how a fire drafts and how quickly soot forms. Where your fireplace has them, they are cleaned and checked along with everything else. Where you are weighing whether to add them, we can say what the firebox would accept.
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 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 |
| 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.
Somewhere from $189 to $449. Height, access and deposit type set the figure, and it is given to you in writing ahead of the work.
Maybe not this season. Thickness of soot is the test, never the number of fires, so we gauge it and say plainly when brushing can wait.
No. Sweeping comes with a look at what a person can reach. The camera examination is its own visit at $99 plus tax, and repair work you later approve is invoiced with that $99 already subtracted.
It should not. Suction runs from the first rod to the last, behind a taped sheet over the fireplace opening.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
