Alki, King County
Waterproofing a chimney in Alki costs $320 to $795. Size sets most of the price: a short stack with good access is a $320 job, a tall or wide one that needs staging approaches $795. What we apply soaks in and breathes; it forms no film. Brick treated with it stops drinking rain yet still lets vapor out, which is the whole point on masonry that is damp for half the year.
Typical investment
$320–$795
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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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Full-height brushing of the flue with a head sized to its shape and material
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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
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Cold matters less here than wet, but the two meet. Seattle's cool season, on WeatherSpark's calendar, opens November 12 and closes March 1. December days average 47 degrees and December nights 38; a reading under 28 is rare. Brick that enters such a night saturated is the brick that sheds its face a few winters on. Treated brick goes into the same night nearly dry.
Two climate summaries explain the wet face of an Alki chimney. In the Western Regional Climate Center's account of Washington, the lowland winds of the wet months around Puget Sound blow mainly from the south and southwest, and yearly precipitation from the Canadian border down to Seattle runs 32 to 35 inches, most of it between October and spring. WeatherSpark adds the drying side of the ledger: January is Seattle's cloudiest month, with cloud covering most or all of the sky 71 percent of the time.
So rain arrives at an angle on the south and west faces, and little sun follows to dry them. Those are the faces we treat most heavily, with extra attention to the top third of the stack, where no roof or wall shields the brick.
Every chimney waterproofing we do in Alki includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowMoss is the usual complication. Nobody in the damp Northwest avoids roof moss, says Oregon State University Extension, and the harm is indirect: soil and debris lodge in it and whatever lies beneath stays wet longer. Repellent sprayed over moss or dirt bonds to the moss, not the brick, so cleaning comes first. The same guidance cautions that zinc sulfate, used against moss, eats copper. If your chimney flashing is copper, tell whoever treats the roof.
Cracks and missing mortar are repaired beforehand; repellent seals pores, not gaps.
Off come moss, soot and loose grit; then nothing happens until enough rainless days have passed to dry the brick's surface.
Working upward from the lowest course, we soak the brick until it takes no more and follow at once with a second pass, wet on wet.
After curing we wet a section so you can watch water bead and run.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network records the Nisqually earthquake of February 28, 2001 as magnitude 6.8, at 10:54 in the morning, 52 kilometers down inside the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. FEMA's later advisory on chimneys damaged by earthquakes points to one kind of stack as the likeliest to fall: old, unreinforced, with deteriorated mortar.
Of those three conditions, an owner controls only the last. Mortar deteriorates mainly because water gets into it, winter after winter. Waterproofing adds no strength to a chimney; calling it structural would be false, so we don't. It slows the one form of decay that, by FEMA's reasoning, turns an old stack into a fragile one.
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 Waterproofing | $320–$795 | Breathable sealer — reapplied every 3–5 years in this climate |
| 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 |
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.
Makers of these repellents speak of several years. Exposure shortens that, so on a chimney facing open water we suggest a bead test every couple of years instead of trusting a date.
Paint traps moisture behind it and the brick then decays out of sight. A breathable repellent is the opposite approach, and it leaves the brick looking as it did.
Only if the leak is rain soaking through brick. Leaks at the flashing, the crown or an uncapped flue need their own repair, and we check those before treating anything.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
