Seaview, King County
Brick soaks up water like a stiff sponge. A good water repellent slows that down while still letting moisture already in the wall escape as vapor, so the masonry dries between storms instead of staying saturated all winter. In Seaview we waterproof chimneys for $320 to $795. One short stack above a walkable roof is the low end; a tall chimney, several faces with heavy exposure, or a roof that needs ropes and anchors pushes it toward the top.
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 Seaview home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Seaview 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.
The wet half of the year in Seattle is long. WeatherSpark counts a wetter season of about six and a half months, October 10 to April 30, with November averaging around 7.5 inches across nearly 17 wet days, and January the cloudiest month, overcast or mostly cloudy roughly 71 percent of the time. Masonry that is rained on in November and sees little sun until spring has little chance to dry on its own.
At Lowman Beach Park, 7017 Beach Drive SW, Seattle Parks removed the last section of seawall and a tennis court in 2022, restored the beach, and brought a remnant of Pelly Creek back into daylight. On any waterfront property, built or natural, the side facing the water is the one that meets each storm first.
A chimney has a water side too. On Seaview's west-facing slopes, the faces turned toward the Sound and toward the southerly winter wind get the rain sideways, and they stay darker after a storm than the sheltered faces. The long-term precipitation record for the Seattle area, kept by the Western Regional Climate Center, averages a little over six inches in November and close to six in each of December and January. That is the season a repellent earns its cost. We treat all faces, and we look hardest at the ones facing the weather.
Every chimney waterproofing we do in Seaview includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowSealer is the last step, never the first. Painting a repellent over open joints or a cracked crown traps water behind it and can make things worse. So every Seaview waterproofing job begins with a close look at the mortar, the crown and the flashing. If those need work, we say so and price it separately; you can do both at once or fix first and seal later. When the brick is sound, we clean it, let it dry, and apply the product in the conditions its label requires.
Joints, crown and flashing are inspected; anything open is repaired first, because sealer cannot bridge a crack.
Moss and grime come off with a soft wash, and the brick is left to dry before anything is applied.
We brush or spray a vapor-permeable product on every exposed face, working from the top down.
You get the product name, the date and photos, so the next treatment can be planned from real information.
The Seattle Landslide Study places the whole peninsula south of the Seattle Fault, an east-west reverse fault that dips to the south, and that geometry lifts bedrock nearer the top on this side. After 2001, the Booth study found that West Seattle's chimney damage did not track soft ground, distance or slope direction; the worst pockets lined up with strands of the fault zone and dropped off sharply within a block or two.
No one can tell from those papers which Seaview blocks sit on such a strand. What a homeowner can control is the mortar. Joints that stay soaked through the winter lose strength year by year, and weak joints are what give way when the ground shakes. Keeping a sound chimney dry is a modest, practical way of keeping it strong.
What this work is quoted at for Seaview homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Seaview | 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 Seaview. 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.
Seaview is a west-facing neighborhood south of Alki and Genesee that runs down to Beach Drive SW, on Puget Sound, with homes of mixed ages, pre-1940 houses making up between 23% and 30% of the two ZIP code areas it straddles.
SeaviewKing County, WA · 47.556, -122.390
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.
$320 to $795, depending on height, the number of faces, and roof access. Repairs found during the check are quoted separately.
Only if the brick itself was the path. Most leaks around a chimney come through a cracked crown or worn flashing, which a repellent does not fix. We find the path before we seal anything.
During a dry spell, ideally in late spring or summer, when the brick has had time to dry out. July is the driest month in the Seattle record.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
