Georgetown, King County
Chimney repair in Georgetown starts at $425. At that end of the scale the work is local: a handful of loose bricks reset, a damaged course relaid, a cracked section ground out and packed. When the damage runs deeper, say a stack that has shifted or one that must be dismantled back to roof level, the price comes from an on-site look and a written quote listing labor, materials and any permit on separate lines.
Typical investment
From $425
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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 Georgetown home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Georgetown homes.
Level 1: every reachable component checked, with a Level 2 camera run added if something stays unclear
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Full-height brushing with a head chosen for clay tile or metal liner
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Video survey and flue measurements taken before ordering anything
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Flue-by-flue measurements, or the whole crown for a multi-flue hood
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Cleaning and testing of the burner, pilot assembly and igniter
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Starting photos: crown on top, then each side of the stack
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
The houses that make up most of historic Georgetown went up fast. Seattle's 2014 survey update calls 1890 to 1916 the neighborhood's boom era, when the brewery that became Seattle Brewing and Malting consolidated here and the biggest wave of homes and storefronts followed. The same survey notes that houses built after 1923, when residential zoning and a building code arrived, sit on more uniform setbacks than the earlier ones. A chimney from the first group predates all of that, put up quickly for working-class buyers. We never assume what a particular stack is made of; for a house built in those years we look at how the brick is bonded, whether the mortar still grips, and whether someone has patched it with the wrong material.
Every chimney repair we do in Georgetown includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowTwo kinds of trouble meet in this neighborhood. The first is weather. Boeing Field's record has southerly wind dominating from about September 19 to July 8, and the gustier stretch lasts from about October 16 until April 24, so the south face of a stack soaks up the most wind-driven rain. The second is the ground, covered in the section below. A chimney cracked by shaking and then smeared over with caulk can look fine from the sidewalk for years.
The Duwamish Valley is on the city's short list of liquefaction areas, and in 2001 the shaking showed why: Boeing Field, at Georgetown's edge, ejected sand along its eastern runway and settled by as much as 9 inches. The city answered the wider wave of chimney damage with Director's Rule 5-2004, which opens by recalling how many old brick stacks turned into falling hazards that February. Since then a Seattle owner with a damaged chimney has four options: add steel, add a brace, take it down, or swap the masonry for a listed metal chimney.
Spelled out, the rule's menu is short. Only the last two feet at the top can go back exactly as before. Below that, the masonry can be rebuilt with reinforcement from the floor line under the roof, rebuilt starting at the top of the smoke chamber, rebuilt from just under the roofline with a brace on the outside, replaced by a factory-built flue above the smoke chamber, or designed by an engineer. New bars are dowelled 12 inches or more into the old work, any stack rising over 3 feet past the roof surface must be supported in two places, and a rebuild taller than 12 feet above the roof line goes to a licensed engineer.
We work out whether the damage is cosmetic, limited to the part above the roof, or reaches down toward the smoke chamber. That answer decides the method and the permit question.
Each repair is matched to one of the routes Seattle's chimney rule allows, and your quote names the route.
Failed brick comes off to sound masonry, then goes back up with the reinforcement and anchorage the method calls for.
Crown and flashing are completed, any required city visits are called in, and you receive photos of each stage.
What this work is quoted at for Georgetown homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Georgetown | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Repair | From $425 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped 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 Cap Installation | $235–$850 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
Ranges are what these jobs are quoted at in Georgetown. 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.
Georgetown is a Duwamish valley neighborhood of Seattle that ran its own city government from 1904 to 1910, with small one-story workers' houses from the boom years of 1890 to 1916, many of them remodeled around World War II.
GeorgetownKing County, WA · 47.547, -122.320
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.
Seattle has two numbers in play. Its 2004 chimney rule lets an owner skip the permit when the bill stays under 4,000 dollars, provided the repair still meets that rule. The 2021 residential code, section R105.2, puts its minor-repair line at 6,000 dollars, counted across six months. SDCI says which governs your job. Either way, work below the chamber's top always takes a permit, whatever it costs.
A hairline crack in sound brick, yes, by grinding and repointing. A crack that runs through the stack and lets it move is a structural problem, and the city's rule lists what counts as a proper fix.
Sometimes, and taking it down is one of the answers the city accepts. Before we do, we make sure it is not still serving a furnace or a water heater on gas, as the rule warns.
The on-site look before a repair quote costs $99 plus tax. Sign the quote and that amount is removed from the repair bill.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
