The Junction, King County
Sweeping a chimney in the Junction costs between $189 and $449. A one-story house with a walkable roof and a single flue sits near the bottom of that bracket. Twin flues, a roof too steep to stand on, extra height or a hard, crusty deposit move it up. That number is settled with you ahead of time and holds once the rods come out. The job itself is simple to describe: the full flue length is brushed, the smoke chamber and damper are scraped by hand, and nothing leaves your living room except in a sealed bag.
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 The Junction home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for The Junction 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 neighborhood owes its name to a crossing. In April 1907 two streetcar lines were joined at California Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, which was then called 9th Street, and HistoryLink says the ground there had been boggy woods until shortly before. Houses filled the blocks around that corner over the next few decades, so a fireplace a few streets off California Avenue may have burned through a great many winters, under several owners, with no record of who last cleaned it.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network logs the Nisqually shock of late February 2001 as a 6.8 that started about 52 kilometers down, just before eleven in the morning. Seven weeks later University of Washington geologist Derek Booth argued that the region's chimneys, spread over thousands of blocks, behaved like one enormous array of instruments, and that the Seattle fault seemed to concentrate shaking in a zone that keeps getting hit harder in deep quakes.
His team later walked block after block; of roughly 60,000 stacks they logged, 1,556 had visible damage, and the paper, indexed by the USGS, says those were bunched rather than scattered, West Seattle most of all. After a tremor, the sweep may well be the first visitor to see the inside of your flue. That is why we keep an eye on what the brush brings down: soot alone means a dirty flue, while soot mixed with clay shards means a flue that needs the camera.
Every chimney sweep we do in The Junction includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowMost hearths near the Junction are lit for comfort rather than heat. Census figures for the ZIP area spanning High Point and the eastern edge of the Junction list only a couple dozen households heating mainly with wood. Occasional fires burn cooler, and cool smoke leaves more residue per log. CSIA points to NFPA 211 for a yearly look at every chimney, and treats a soot layer of one-eighth inch inside a masonry fireplace as brushing time. We measure it at the damper rather than go by how long it has been.
Cloth goes down along the route to the fireplace, and the opening is sealed off with plastic before any tool touches the flue.
A light and a mirror at the damper tell us whether the deposit is dry dust, flakes or a glossy crust, which decides the brush.
We add rod sections from the hearth or from the roof, whichever is safer on your house, until the head comes out the other end.
Loose soot gathers on the smoke shelf. We scoop it out by hand, then vacuum the firebox and the damper seat.
If chips of tile or grains of mortar come down with the soot, you see them, and the report says so in plain words.
One- and two-family homes and townhouses of three stories or fewer are governed in Seattle by the 2021 Seattle Residential Code. SDCI, the city's construction and inspections department, describes it as the 2021 international residential model with layers of Washington and Seattle changes on top. The department also says the 2024 codes will not be fully adopted before May 2027, so the 2021 text is the one that applies to work in the Junction today.
A sweep is maintenance and changes nothing a code regulates. The point matters when the brush reveals something that does need work: if a damaged flue leads to a rebuild or a new liner, it is the 2021 rules that the repair is measured against, and we check with SDCI before that job whether a permit applies to your address.
What this work is quoted at for The Junction homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in The Junction | 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 The Junction. 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.
The Junction is the commercial heart of West Seattle, named in 1907 when two streetcar lines met at California Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, with brick and terra cotta storefronts from the 1910s and 1920s on California Avenue and residential blocks on every side. We work every part of it — the Alaska Junction included.
The JunctionKing County, WA · 47.561, -122.387
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.
$189 to $449. Roof access, the number of flues and how heavy the deposit is decide where your house lands, and the number is written down before any work.
Possibly not every year. We gauge the soot first, and if it is thin we say so and leave the brush in the van.
No. A sweep includes a visual look at what can be reached. Filming the flue is its own appointment, billed $99 plus tax, and those $99 are credited toward any repair you later approve.
Often, yes. Many flues can be brushed upward from the firebox. We decide on site, and access is part of the price you agree to.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
