Seaview, King County
Brick lasts a very long time. Mortar does not, and it is not supposed to: it is the softer, sacrificial part of the wall, meant to be raked out and renewed every few decades. Masonry repair on a Seaview chimney starts at $475 with us. That covers a defined patch of repointing or a crown repair on a roof we can work from safely; full faces of repointing, rebuilt corners or replaced brick are priced by area after we have seen them.
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 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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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.
Seaview's housing is older than Seattle's on average in its southern part. In the Census ZIP code area it shares with Gatewood and Fauntleroy, about 30 percent of homes predate 1940, against roughly 23 percent across the city. Where a house of that age has a brick chimney, its joints have usually been repointed at least once, sometimes with a mortar harder than the original. Hard mortar next to soft brick sends the stress into the brick, and the faces start to flake.
Beneath much of West Seattle lies a layer of Esperance Sand resting on Lawton Clay. The Seattle Landslide Study says the peninsula has the longest trace of that contact anywhere in the city, running from Alki down the west-facing slope, and that it brings springs out on the flanks of every West Seattle hill. The study also finds water involved in nearly every slide it reviewed.
The Western Regional Climate Center credits the Puget Sound lowlands with 32 to 35 inches yearly, heaviest between October and spring. A chimney on a wet hillside lot gets it from both ends: rain driven against the exposed faces, and damp ground keeping the base and any foundation brick from ever fully drying. Masonry that stays wet loses mortar faster. We look at the bottom of a chimney as carefully as the top, and we note where ground moisture is part of the picture.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Seaview includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowWe match the new mortar to what the chimney needs, not to what is quickest. Joints are raked to a proper depth, not skimmed. Bricks that have spalled are cut out and replaced with units of a similar size and hardness. Crowns that are cracked are either sealed or recast depending on how far the damage goes. Each step is photographed so you can see what was done at a height you will probably never climb to yourself.
We look at all four sides, because the side facing the weather and the side facing the roof rarely wear the same way.
We cut weak mortar back, by hand or with a grinder, to sound material, and the joints are cleaned and dampened.
Fresh mortar goes in a few millimeters at a time, then gets struck to throw water off; damaged bricks are swapped where needed.
Excess mortar is brushed off, the crown is checked, and we send photos of each repaired face.
Seattle's 2017 report on unreinforced masonry points out that no other American city has had damage to brick buildings in three separate earthquakes inside 73 years: 1949, 1965 and 2001. SDCI describes those buildings as generally put up before 1945, with brick bearing walls and no steel in them. The report leaves single-family houses out of its count, but a brick chimney on a house is built the same way: masonry held together by mortar alone.
When mortar has gone soft, the bricks above it have nothing to grip in a quake. Good repointing will not make a chimney earthquake-proof, but it restores the bond the original builder relied on, and it is often the difference between a top that cracks and one that falls.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 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.
From $475 for a defined area of repointing or crown repair. Larger work is priced by area after the $99 plus tax inspection, which we credit to the job once you approve it.
Not for repointing alone. Seattle exempts it. Chimney repointing appears by name in the R105.2 exemptions, with one condition, that the house envelope is left as it was. For anything bigger, SDCI gets our call first.
It depends on exposure and the mortar used. The sides that take the most rain wear first, which is why we sometimes repoint one or two faces and leave the others.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
