The Junction, King County
Masonry work on a Junction chimney starts at $475. That buys a crown resurfaced on a modest stack or a limited patch of repointing. Repointing all four faces of a tall chimney, or casting a new crown with a drip edge, runs several times higher. We price by the square foot of brick that needs attention, and the quote marks which faces carry the worst joints so each dollar points at a specific wall.
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 The Junction home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for The Junction 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.
Some of West Seattle's oldest commercial brickwork stands in the Junction. In 1918 banker and realtor William T. Campbell replaced a wooden office at the main corner with a two-story brick block designed by Arthur Loveless, known for its gabled parapet and an outsized terra cotta cornice. HistoryLink calls it the oldest commercial building still standing in the Junction. Houses on the surrounding blocks were going up during the same years, and a chimney laid then has been weathering ever since.
Repointing restores a chimney; rebuilding one brings in rules written after the earthquakes. Where a lot is classed in one of the three D seismic categories, Seattle's 2021 residential chapter on chimneys asks that a stack of 40 inches' width or less, when built new or rebuilt, be threaded with four No. 4 steel bars running its full height. Wherever a floor, ceiling or roof sits over 6 feet up, steel straps must tie it in. Which category applies is a property of the lot, and we leave that call to the code official rather than guess it.
The reason is on record. After the April 1965 earthquake, HistoryLink reports, a survey of 188 West Seattle city blocks found 1,712 of 5,005 chimneys damaged, 34 percent of the total. Mortar holds an unreinforced stack together only as long as it stays sound, which is why we look at joints with a quake in mind as well as rain.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in The Junction includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowRain does the slow work. For the lowland strip along Puget Sound, the WRCC climate narrative counts somewhere in the low-to-mid thirties of inches of rain and snowmelt annually, mostly between October and spring. Joints are the sacrificial part of a wall; once they recede, water sits in them, and the faces turned toward the wet-season weather tend to give way sooner. Repointing at that stage costs far less than rebuilding later.
We walk each face and mark the joints and units that need work, so the quote matches the wall.
Joints are cut back evenly to sound material, deep enough for the new mortar to bond.
Older brick wants a softer mortar than a modern bag mix. Our mix is chosen weaker than the brick on purpose, and tinted to sit quietly beside it.
New joints are packed in layers, tooled to shed water and kept from drying too fast.
A cracked crown is rebuilt or resurfaced so it sheds water past the brick instead of into it.
Two city sources line up on this. The exemption list in R105.2 of Seattle's 2021 residential code includes chimney repointing as minor work requiring no building permit, on the condition that the building envelope is left as it was. SDCI's page on house additions and remodels repeats the point in plainer words, alongside roofing and siding replaced without structural change.
Most masonry jobs in the Junction stay inside that exemption. A crown rebuild or a chimney taken down and relaid is another matter, and we ask SDCI before scheduling it. The two designated landmarks on the Junction's main corners are different again: on those, outside alterations wait until a Certificate of Approval has been granted.
What this work is quoted at for The Junction homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in The Junction | 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 The Junction. 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.
The Junction is the commercial heart of West Seattle, named in 1907 when two streetcar lines met at California Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street, with brick and terra cotta storefronts from the 1910s and 1920s on California Avenue and residential blocks on every side. We work every part of it — the Alaska Junction included.
The JunctionKing County, WA · 47.561, -122.387
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. Square footage of repointing and the crown work needed set the total, and the quote breaks it down by face.
Not in Seattle, as long as the job leaves the building's outer shell unchanged; repointing appears on the city's own no-permit list.
Close enough that most people cannot tell from the ground. We test a small area first and let it cure before the full job.
Yes. That visit is $99 plus tax, and on the masonry quote you sign it shows up as a deduction.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
