Alki, King County
Masonry repair on an Alki chimney starts at $475, the price of resealing or rebuilding a modest crown. Repointing is priced by the area of brick to be redone: one weathered face costs far less than four. Both jobs deal with the same enemy, water entering through mortar, and both are cheaper than the rebuild that follows when the joints are left open.
Typical investment
From $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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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.
Seattle winters are mild but not frost-proof. Decades of readings for the Seattle area put frost on roughly 33 nights a year, most of them in January, December and February. Days that never climb above freezing are scarce, fewer than three a year. That pattern, wet joints that freeze overnight and thaw by noon, is the one that slowly pushes mortar out of a chimney.
Two documents, read together, describe the Alki masonry problem. The Alki Elementary nomination dates most houses and duplexes near the school to the 1920s and the 1950s. Seattle's windstorm analysis sets the city's nearly 90,000 houses from before 1939 against structures built to the current wind code.
On a chimney the difference shows on the weather face. Rain driven sideways by wind works on the joints that meet it, and mortar that has stood through that many winters erodes there first: the joint recedes, the brick edge is left proud, and water finds a ledge to sit on. We repoint that face to full depth and check the other three, which usually need less.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Alki includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowRepointing is among the few chimney jobs Seattle's rules address by name. Look up R105.2 in the Residential Code and chimney repointing is on the list of minor work that skips the building permit. One condition is attached: the job may not alter the building envelope. The remodel page SDCI publishes repeats it. A designated landmark answers to a second rule: exterior changes to one, such as the Log House Museum, need a Certificate of Approval before work begins.
Each face is photographed and the failed joints marked, so the quote is by area and not by guess.
Grinder and chisel take the spent mortar back far enough for a fresh bed to key in, brick edges left unchipped.
Mortar goes in by layers and each joint is shaped so water runs off the face.
The top is rebuilt with a slope and an overhang, then kept damp while it cures.
Alki's first permanent school, opened in 1913, is described in its landmark nomination as unreinforced masonry: three stories of brick under a steep hipped roof, with tall ventilators and a chimney. EERI's engineers, reporting after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, found that unreinforced masonry buildings from before 1950 fared worst and commonly shed brick from parapets and chimneys.
A house chimney is a small version of the same construction. Nothing but mortar keeps one brick on the next, so joints that have turned to sand are a structural matter and not a cosmetic one. Repointing restores that bond in the courses we can reach; it does not add steel, and where a stack needs reinforcement we say so.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Masonry Repair (Crown / Repointing) | From $475 | Crown work, repointing and tuckpointing by surface area |
| 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.
If the bricks are sound and only the joints have failed, repointing is enough. If bricks are loose or the stack has moved, new mortar would only hide the problem.
Yes, on days without frost or heavy rain. Fresh mortar must not freeze, so we watch the forecast and cover the work overnight.
Old soft brick paired with a hard modern mortar tends to crack at the edges. We test the existing joint and choose a mix no harder than the brick it sits beside.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
