Genesee, King County
Servicing a gas fireplace in Genesee costs $189 to $475. A yearly clean and test of a unit in good order is the low figure; a neglected one that needs more bench time is higher. A repair that calls for parts is quoted apart, before any part is ordered. Gas burns clean compared with wood, but a gas fireplace is still a combustion appliance with a vent, and both need looking at once a year.
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 Genesee home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Genesee 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.
Roughly 31.3% of households in the Census ZIP code area spanning Alki, Admiral, Genesee and north Seaview heat mainly with utility gas (2020-2024 estimates). Electricity heats 61.3%. Those figures count furnaces and baseboards, not fireplaces, and nobody tallies gas fireplaces by neighborhood. They do tell us gas lines are common on the hill, and where there is a gas line an old wood hearth is often converted. We ask on the phone whether yours is a sealed direct-vent unit, an insert in a former wood fireplace, or a log set under an open flue. The service differs for each.
Converting a wood fireplace to gas can be done three ways, and the service history of the house rarely says which was chosen. A sealed insert with its own twin liners is one. A vented log set that still relies on the old flue is another. The Census numbers above show gas heating a third of nearby homes, so conversions have had decades to accumulate.
The 2021 Seattle Mechanical Code, chapter 9, ties each appliance to its listing: an insert wears a label and goes in by its manual, and unvented gas logs belong in a factory-built fireplace only if that fireplace's listing names them. At a service visit we check the installation against that label. The frequent finding in a converted hearth is a damper that was never fixed open for a vented log set, or liners that stop short of the cap.
Every gas fireplace service we do in Genesee includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe usual complaints are few. The pilot keeps dying. Ignition comes late, with a thump. A white haze coats the glass. An odor at start-up lingers. The wall switch or remote does nothing. Behind most of them: dust in the pilot assembly, a thermocouple or thermopile gone weak, or some partial blockage of the vent.
In the windstorm of December 2006, nearly half of Seattle City Light's customers (49 percent) went dark, according to the city's hazard analysis. Most were back within two days; the last took a week. The same document ranks West Seattle high for wind vulnerability on account of its tree cover, and the city's outage history names West Seattle in a 1958 storm as well.
With six homes in ten nearby heated by electricity, an outage on the hill means cold rooms. Many gas fireplaces can run without mains power, on a standing pilot or a battery backup, but only if those parts work. We test them at every service and show you how to light the unit with the power off. The analysis also records deaths from charcoal burned indoors during that outage. A serviced gas fireplace is the safe alternative.
The rating plate gives us maker, model number and venting style. From there the manual dictates the checklist.
Out come the glass panel, the log set and the burner tray. Dust, webs and soot come off the ports and the pilot hood.
Readings taken: the pilot generator's millivolt output, manifold pressure wherever a test port exists, and how each safety control reacts.
We examine the termination outside and whatever length of vent can be reached, looking for blockage, corrosion or a loose joint.
Logs go back in the maker's layout, the glass is sealed, and the fire runs through a full cycle while we watch.
What this work is quoted at for Genesee homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Genesee | 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 Genesee. 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.
Genesee is a hill neighborhood between SW Genesee and SW Charlestown streets, from 46th to 56th Avenues SW, with homes from before and after World War II, about 23% of those in its ZIP code area built before 1940 and 16% in the 1940s and 1950s.
GeneseeKing County, WA · 47.564, -122.372
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 $475 for cleaning and testing. Parts and repair labor, if needed, are quoted separately in writing.
Not a brush, as a rule. They need the vent confirmed clear and intact. A log set under an old masonry flue is the exception: that flue should be examined like any other.
No. Under Seattle's mechanical code, an unvented gas log heater is off limits in a factory-built fireplace unless that fireplace's listing covers it. So the label gets read first, and advice follows.
A camera inspection of the flue is its own visit: $99 plus tax per chimney, and the $99 is credited to whatever work you approve from our quote.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
