Gatewood, King County
Masonry work on a Gatewood chimney begins at $475. That entry price covers a crown resurfaced or a limited patch of joints raked out and refilled. Past that, the price follows the square footage of brick involved and how high it sits, and the quote states the area we measured so you can check our math. Good masonry repair is mostly patient, unglamorous work: taking out tired mortar to the right depth, matching what goes back in, and leaving a crown that throws water clear of the brick below.
Typical investment
From $475
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$99 plus tax, deducted when you approve the repair
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Pick what you're seeing at your Gatewood home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Gatewood 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 neighborhood's best-known brick building tells you how long masonry lasts here and what it needs. Gatewood School went up in 1910, a three-story, nine-room brick building by Edgar Blair, with an eight-classroom west wing by Floyd Naramore added in 1922, according to HistoryLink. More than a century on it still stands, renovated between 1989 and 1991. A chimney is a much smaller brick structure, but it lives with the same rain and the same winters, with much less shelter, since it sticks up above the roofline on every side.
Of every West Seattle ZIP area, the one around Gatewood has the biggest share of housing from 1939 or earlier, 30.1 percent, according to Census estimates. Citywide the figure is 22.8 percent; for King County, 10.9. Add the 1940s and 1950s and you reach about half the area's homes.
For brick, the cutoff that matters is around the end of the war. Seattle's building department describes unreinforced masonry as generally brick-type construction from before 1945, without steel. Its definition is written for buildings, not chimneys, but a house chimney from those decades may well have been laid the same way: brick and mortar, nothing inside. That is why we treat repointing on an old stack as structural care, not cosmetic, and why we look for loose courses near the top before refilling a single joint.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Gatewood includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowFreeze and thaw do the slow damage. The nearest long-term weather station record for the Seattle area shows the night low reaching 32 degrees or colder on about 33 days a year, mostly in December through February, while daytime highs rarely stay below freezing. Water soaked into a crack freezes overnight, expands, thaws by afternoon and sinks a little deeper. A few winters of that open a hairline in a crown into a gap, and turn sandy joints into missing ones. Repointing those joints, under Seattle's residential code, counts as minor work, done without a building permit if nothing about the envelope changes.
Gatewood occupies the hill that, per Wikipedia, rises to Seattle's high point of 520 feet at 35th Avenue SW and SW Myrtle Street. The city's windstorm analysis observes that wind gains speed passing over hills and ridges, and that structural damage can start at speeds as low as 32 mph.
On any chimney the top three or four courses and the crown get the worst of it. Rain is driven into them sideways, they dry last, and they carry the cap. On a high, open roof that wear tends to concentrate there first. When we quote masonry here, we look closely at the courses just under the crown and at the crown's edge, since a repair that stops one course too low will be back on the list within a few winters.
We map the damaged area on the stack and photograph it, so the quote can name square feet rather than a vague scope.
Old soft brick and hard modern mortar do not get along. We choose a mix that will give way before the brick does.
Joints are cut back to firm mortar, cleaned, dampened, and packed in layers, then tooled to shed water.
A crown too far gone to skim is broken off and recast, pitched to drain and with a drip lip, which is what Seattle's code asks of it.
We tarp the new mortar against showers until it has set. You get before and after photos of every area touched.
What this work is quoted at for Gatewood homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Gatewood | 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 Gatewood. 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.
Gatewood is a hilltop neighborhood named for Carlisle Gatewood, the developer who financed its streetcar line in 1907, with older homes, about three in ten of those in its ZIP code area built before 1940 and half before 1960.
GatewoodKing County, WA · 47.545, -122.386
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.
From $475 for a crown resurface or a small area of repointing. Larger areas are priced by the square foot, which the quote states.
Not on its own. Section R105.2 of the 2021 Seattle code lets repointing go ahead without one when the envelope is left untouched. Rebuilding is a different matter, which we check with SDCI.
Small repairs, yes, on a dry stretch. Larger repointing waits for weather that lets the mortar cure, and we will tell you if waiting a few weeks is safe.
Often it helps, once the new mortar has cured. Waterproofing is a separate line, and we can quote it at the same visit. An inspection beforehand is $99 plus tax per chimney, credited against approved work.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
