Alki, King County
Servicing a gas fireplace in Alki costs $189 to $475. At $189 the visit is a yearly tune-up of a unit we can reach easily: burner, pilot assembly, glass, gasket, vent and controls. Units that have sat unused, logs that need resetting to the maker's pattern, or a fan that has to come out for cleaning take longer and cost more. Repairs requiring parts are quoted separately, with the part named.
Typical investment
$189–$475
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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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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.
Most homes around Alki do not heat with gas. In the Census ZIP code area that includes the neighborhood, electricity is the main heating fuel for about 61 percent of occupied homes and utility gas for about 31 percent. Each household is asked for one main fuel only. Fireplaces are not counted, which leaves the number of gas units in Alki living rooms unknown. It does say what happens to most houses when the power fails: the main heat stops.
Back in 1958 a windstorm blacked out many parts of Seattle; West Seattle is the district the city's outage chapter mentions by name. Its windstorm analysis recounts December 2006: 49 percent of City Light customers dark, 95 percent restored within two days, a full week before the last were reconnected. Several people in King County died during those outages after heating their homes with charcoal.
On a peninsula open to those storms, a gas fireplace can be the one heater still working. That is worth preparing for in October, not discovering in December. During service we test the ignition with household current disconnected where the design allows it, replace backup batteries, and make sure you know how to light the unit by its manual.
Every gas fireplace service we do in Alki includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowOne code point comes up often. Factory-built fireplaces and unvented gas log heaters may be paired, under Seattle's 2021 Mechanical Code, only where the fireplace's listing names such heaters. If a previous owner dropped a log set into an existing firebox, we identify the fireplace, read the log set's listing and tell you whether the pair is allowed together. We do not assume which kind of fireplace an Alki house has; the rating plate settles it.
The rating plate gives the make, the model and the venting type, and the manufacturer's manual sets each check after that.
Glass and logs come out; burner, pilot hood and firebox floor are cleared of dust and debris.
We light the unit, read the flame pattern and time how quickly the safety shuts the gas when the pilot is removed.
Logs go back where the listing shows them, the glass is sealed, and a written note lists our readings and any part that is wearing.
In April 2001 Derek Booth, a University of Washington researcher, offered an explanation: shaking looked to be focused and amplified by the Seattle fault, so that deep earthquakes keep hitting one zone harder. The region's chimneys, he said, behave like a seismological array spread over a wide area. FEMA's advisory on damaged masonry chimneys ranks the remedies, and its middle option leaves the fireplace in use: from the firebox up, brick gives way to a metal flue, or an insert goes in.
A gas unit in an older house is sometimes exactly that arrangement: an appliance set in a brick firebox and vented through a liner. If yours is one, the liner connection and the gas line are what we examine after any shaking you felt, and the shutoff valve is the thing we make sure you can find.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gas Fireplace Service | $189–$475 | Annual service and tune-up; repairs quoted after diagnosis |
| 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.
It depends on the ignition. A standing pilot needs no household current; many electronic systems have a battery holder for outages. We show you which you have and test it.
Manufacturers generally ask for a yearly check. Gas burns clean, but dust, spiders and a slowly failing sensor do their work whether the fire is lit or not.
We examine it from the unit to the termination. If it runs up an old masonry chimney, we look at the liner and the cap as part of the same visit.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
