Arbor Heights, King County
A sweep in Arbor Heights costs between $189 and $449. Where a given job lands depends on three things we can see from the driveway and the hearth: how tall the flue runs, how steep the roof is, and whether an open fireplace or a stove sits at the bottom. Brushing removes the soot and the flaky deposits a fire leaves on the flue walls. Once those walls are bare, we check firebox, damper and crown-level tile, and any flaw goes into a photo for you.
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 Arbor Heights home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Arbor Heights 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.
Arbor Heights is the last stretch of West Seattle before the city line, south of SW Roxbury Street, and Wikipedia describes it as almost entirely residential. It started life under another name, Green Acres, and its residents were asking for a school as early as March 1938. Most of the houses we sweep here stand on streets that filled in after the war, so the chimney is often the oldest working part of the house that nobody has looked inside for years.
Census survey data for 2020-2024 cover a ZIP code area that takes in Arbor Heights and runs past the city limit. Of its occupied homes, 53.0 percent heat mainly with electricity and 37.4 percent with utility gas, while 8.0 percent still rely on fuel oil. No other ZIP area on the peninsula burns that much oil, and Seattle as a whole sits at 2.9 percent. Wood, as the main source of warmth, shows up in very few households.
For a sweep that profile matters in two ways. A wood fire here is usually a treat, not a heating plan, which means cool, occasional fires and the soot that comes with them. And an oil furnace sends its exhaust up a flue too, one that collects deposits of its own and gets forgotten because nobody sits in front of it.
Every chimney sweep we do in Arbor Heights includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe fire that leaves the most mess is rarely the big winter blaze. It is the short evening fire, lit with damp kindling and smothered early, that runs cool and coats the flue. By CSIA's yardstick a masonry fireplace is due when the soot layer gets to 1/8 inch; a glossy, glazed coating moves the date forward. Rain season here also brings ash-damp odors that people mistake for a dirty flue; the sweep tells the two apart.
Floor and nearby furniture are covered, and the vacuum runs before the first brush goes in, which keeps loose soot headed for its bag instead of your rug.
Pitch and stack height decide whether we climb or stay inside; either way the brush travels the whole run of the flue.
Loosened soot lands on the smoke shelf behind the damper; we scoop and vacuum it out rather than leave it for the next fire.
Clean walls show what soot hid: open joints, a warped damper plate, debris at the top. Anything worth noting is photographed for you.
HistoryLink's history of Arbor Heights School reads like a building permit log for the whole hill. The first four classrooms opened in April 1949 as an annex of Fauntleroy School. Additions followed in 1950, in 1953 with an auditorium, lunchroom and gym, and in 1958 with twelve more classrooms. In the surrounding ZIP code area the median home dates from 1965, and roughly half of all units were built between 1940 and 1969.
A flue from those years has had six or seven decades of fires, and possibly a change of appliance or two. When we sweep one, we pay particular attention to the joints between flue tiles and to the damper, the two parts that age fastest, and we tell you plainly whether either has reached the point of repair.
What this work is quoted at for Arbor Heights homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Arbor Heights | 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 Arbor Heights. 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.
Arbor Heights is the southernmost part of West Seattle, south of SW Roxbury Street, annexed to Seattle in 1954, with mostly detached houses, about half of those in its ZIP code area built between 1940 and 1969. We work every part of it — Arroyo Heights, Seola Beach included.
Arbor HeightsKing County, WA · 47.509, -122.378
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.
Use decides it. CSIA points to NFPA 211 and its annual check, which covers the vent and fireplace as well as the chimney. Whether the brush comes out depends on what that yearly look finds.
We tell you on the spot and show you the photo. If it calls for a camera, that visit runs $99 plus tax, we subtract that $99 from any repair you then approve with us.
Yes. A furnace flue collects its own kind of soot and scale, and we brush it the same way, with the furnace shut down for the visit.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
