Hillman City, King County
Our chimney repair work in Hillman City is priced from $425. At that end sit small, contained fixes: a handful of loose bricks bedded again, a broken damper swapped, a short run of failed joints cut out and refilled. A stack that has to come down and go back up is quoted only after we have stood on the roof, and its written quote breaks out labor, brick and mortar, and any city fee one by one.
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 Hillman City home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Hillman City 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.
Hillman City is older than most people guess. HistoryLink tells how an 1888 plat called Sunnyside, sold off in five-acre lots, changed hands in 1902 and took the surname of its new owner. Houses went up beside the electric streetcar tracks in the 1890s, and the city limits reached the neighborhood in January 1907. For a repair, that history matters in one practical way: a house standing since the railway years has seen more than a century of weather, settling and at least one strong earthquake. We never assume what any one address has; we look, measure and photograph before we price.
Every chimney repair we do in Hillman City includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowChimney damage here tends to come from two directions at once. Above the roof, rain driven by the south wind soaks the same faces of a stack winter after winter until the mortar softens and bricks loosen. Below, the ground has moved. After the February 2001 quake, FEMA sent inspectors into 30,000 houses around the Sound, and the USGS counts chimney damage at one house in every three they visited. A crack that was caulked over that spring and never opened up again is one of the things we look for first.
Because the neighborhood became part of Seattle in January 1907, a chimney repair here falls under the city's own text for old brick stacks, Director's Rule 5-2004, which took effect on the first of December 2004. It was written after the 2001 earthquake turned many unreinforced chimneys into falling hazards. In short, a damaged stack has to end up reinforced, braced, removed, or replaced by a listed factory-built metal chimney. A mason may relay the final two feet of an old unsteeled stack just as they were built; below that line, new courses must carry steel. A stack that stands more than 3 feet over the roof needs bracing at two points, and one rising past 12 feet cannot be rebuilt without an engineer's own design.
Whether the job needs a permit is a question with two published answers. The 2004 rule exempts chimney work that costs the owner less than 4,000 dollars, as long as the work still follows the rule. The city's newer text, its 2021 residential code, lets small repairs and alterations go permit-free when their value stays at or under 6,000 dollars across six months (R105.2), so long as no bearing wall or post is cut, removed or shifted. We put both figures in front of you and let the city's permit office, SDCI, confirm which one governs your quote. One line has no threshold at all: dig lower than the crown of the smoke chamber, and both that chamber and everything above it go back up to today's code, with a permit, at any price.
When a permit is pulled, the rule asks for three inspection calls: at the end of demolition, before the concrete of the bond beam is placed, and when the work is done. Any old brick left in place also has to be examined and tuckpointed where it needs it, so a partial rebuild never leaves weak joints below the new courses.
Roof, attic hatch if there is one, and firebox: we go over all three and write down how deep the damage reaches.
The fix is matched to one of the repair routes in Seattle's chimney rule, and the quote names it.
Unsound brick comes off to solid masonry; the new courses go up with the steel and ties the method calls for.
Crown and flashing are closed, required city inspections are booked, and you receive photos from every stage.
What this work is quoted at for Hillman City homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Hillman City | 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 Hillman City. 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.
Hillman City is a Rainier Valley neighborhood of Seattle platted in 1888 and renamed by its developer in 1902, with homes on streets laid out in the electric-railway era, in a ZIP code area (98118) where 18 percent of the housing predates 1940.
Hillman CityKing County, WA · 47.551, -122.287
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.
Sometimes. Hairline cracks in otherwise solid masonry can be repointed. Brick that has shifted, or a stack that moves, has lost its bond, and patching only hides that until the next storm or tremor.
Removal is one of the outcomes Seattle's rule accepts for a damaged stack. Before anything is capped or removed, we make sure no furnace or water heater in the basement still sends its exhaust up that flue.
That trip to your roof is $99 plus tax. If the rebuild or fix we quote gets your signature, the invoice for it starts $99 lighter.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
