Alki, King County
A chimney sweep in Alki costs $189 to $449 with us. $189 buys one open-fireplace flue on a roof that can be walked. Roof pitch, stack height and an insert needing removal are what push the bill toward $449. The brushing comes with a basic look at the firebox, the damper and the flue, and the liner is photographed once the soot is gone.
Typical investment
$189–$449
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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 Alki home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Alki 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.
The 2022 landmark nomination for Alki Elementary notes that most houses and duplexes near the school date from the 1920s and the 1950s, with newer houses, townhouses and apartments mixed in. A wood-burning fireplace from either of those decades has decades of fires behind it. CSIA, quoting NFPA 211, wants chimneys, fireplaces and vents inspected every year, and advises sweeping a masonry fireplace once the sooty layer is one-eighth of an inch thick. We measure that layer before we brush, so you know whether the visit was due.
Why is Seattle's center not at Alki? Wikipedia's West Seattle article gives the reason: high winds and tides on the peninsula's exposed west side, which sent most of the 1851 party to the far side of Elliott Bay. WeatherSpark's Seattle profile dates the windy months, October 15 through April 24, names December as the breeziest and has the wind coming mostly out of the south.
That season is also fireplace season. Gusts across a chimney top can push smoke back down a flue that draws well on a calm night, and soot narrows the passage that has to carry it. During a sweep in Alki we watch how the flue pulls once it is clean and check that the cap is still seated, because a clean flue is the first thing to rule out when a fireplace smokes on windy evenings.
Every chimney sweep we do in Alki includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowAlki residents already know a fuel rule from the beach: Seattle Parks allows only clean, bare, dry cordwood in the fire pits. Indoors the standard is close to it. For a fireplace, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency accepts seasoned wood, burned dry, and manufactured logs, nothing else, and it caps how dense the plume above your roof may be, measured as the share of light it blocks. Damp or painted wood is what loads a flue fastest, and the deposits we remove usually tell us what has been burned.
Canvas runners cover the floor between entry and hearth, and the vacuum is switched on before a brush moves.
We note the soot depth, pick rods and a brush head sized to your flue, and work the full height.
Loosened debris settles behind the damper, so that ledge is emptied by hand and by vacuum.
Photos of the brushed flue reach you with a short note naming anything that deserves a closer look.
When West Seattle's chimneys were counted after the April 1965 earthquake, Alki Beach lay outside the counting area. HistoryLink's essay on that quake gives the reason it is remembered anyway: reports had almost all of Alki's chimneys on the ground. In 2001 it was counted properly: after the Nisqually earthquake three researchers (Booth, Wells, Givler) checked some 60,000 Seattle-area chimneys one block at a time, logged 1,556 with visible damage and found them bunched together, most of all in West Seattle.
Soot hides cracks. Once the flue is brushed, a light run up from the firebox shows whether the clay tiles still line up or whether a joint has opened. If we see an offset or a gap, we tell you and show the photo; brushing does not fix it, and a cracked flue should be assessed before the next fire.
What this work is quoted at for Alki homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Alki | 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 Alki. 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.
Alki is the beach neighborhood at the northwest tip of West Seattle, where the Denny party landed in 1851, on Puget Sound and Elliott Bay, with houses and duplexes that date mostly from the 1920s and the 1950s around the school, mixed with newer townhouses and apartments. We work every part of it — Alki Point, the Alki Avenue beachfront included.
AlkiKing County, WA · 47.576, -122.409
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.
Count fires, not months. The national standard asks for a yearly check; sweeping is due when soot reaches about an eighth of an inch. A fireplace lit a few evenings a winter can go longer than one burned every weekend.
The sweep includes a visual check from the hearth and the top. A full camera inspection is billed apart at $99 plus tax per chimney, an amount we subtract from the repair bill if our quote is the one you sign.
The vacuum pulls air into the firebox the whole time we brush, so dust travels toward the machine and not toward your furniture.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
