Seaview, King County
No soot to brush out does not mean no upkeep. Pilots get dusty, thermocouples weaken, glass clouds over, and the vent that carries exhaust outside can be blocked by a nest or loosened by wind. Our gas fireplace service in Seaview costs $189 to $475. Yearly cleaning and adjustment costs $189; a unit that will not light and needs diagnosis and a part sits higher, and you know the figure before any part is ordered.
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 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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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.
Plenty of Seaview homes are plumbed for gas. The Census ZIP code area spanning south Seaview, Gatewood and Fauntleroy reports piped gas as the primary heat in roughly 42 of every 100 occupied homes; in the area that takes in north Seaview with Alki, Admiral and Genesee, the figure is about 31 percent. The survey does not count gas fireplaces, which are often a second heat source rather than the main one, so it cannot tell us how many there are. It does tell us gas lines run to a lot of Seaview houses.
Back in 1958 a windstorm cut electricity across much of Seattle, and the city's outage history picks out West Seattle by name. December 2006 was worse: nearly half the utility's customers sat in the dark, 95 percent had service again inside 48 hours, the last ones waited a week, and several people in King County died after burning charcoal indoors for warmth.
A gas fireplace that works without electricity can be the safest source of warmth in a house during an outage like that, but only if it is clean, its pilot is reliable and its vent is clear. Wind is also what loosens a vent termination on an exposed wall or roof. A fall tune-up on this side of the peninsula is mostly about making sure the fireplace will light the night the lights go out, and that its exhaust is going outside.
Every gas fireplace service we do in Seaview includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe most common call we get on a gas unit is that it will not stay lit. Usually that comes down to a dirty pilot assembly or a tired thermocouple or thermopile, both quick fixes once found. The second is a smell or soot on the glass, which points to a burner or log set out of position or a vent problem. We check the venting every time, since a blocked or split vent turns a nuisance appliance into a carbon monoxide risk.
We close the supply valve, lift the glass panel away, and the logs or media are lifted out so we can reach the burner.
We clean the burner, pilot and orifice, test the safety components, and look for wear or corrosion inside the box.
Inside and outside, we follow the vent to its cap and make sure nothing blocks it and every joint is tight.
The unit is reassembled and run, and we watch the flame and the draft until it is behaving as its maker intended.
At 8:29 one morning in late April 1965, a 6.5 shook the region for roughly 45 seconds, HistoryLink writes. Many West Seattle chimneys were damaged and repaired in the years after; some were later fitted with gas.
FEMA's advisory on chimneys damaged by earthquakes favors keeping a fireplace usable by rebuilding the part above the firebox around a metal flue, sometimes with an insert. Gas units vented through an old masonry chimney rely on that chimney being sound and properly lined for gas. During a service on a unit vented this way, we look at the vent path through the old brick, not just at the burner.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 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.
Expect $189 for the yearly service. Tracking down why a unit refuses to light, plus the part it needs, can take the bill up to $475, and you approve that figure first.
Some units light and run without household power, others need it for the igniter or fan. We tell you which kind you have during the service.
Only with the right equipment. In a prefab firebox, Seattle's mechanical code forbids gas logs with no vent unless that firebox carries a listing allowing them, and any change of fuel deserves a look at the flue first.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
