Rainier Beach, King County
Chimney repair in Rainier Beach starts at $425. At that end the job is contained: a handful of loose bricks reset, a broken damper replaced, a short run of joints cut out and refilled. A rebuild from the roof up is a different price range altogether, and we quote it only after seeing it, with labor, materials and any permit fee 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 Rainier Beach home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Rainier Beach 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.
Seattle keeps a list of buildings with unreinforced brick or clay-tile bearing walls, and Rainier Beach has four of them, three in the critical-risk category the city reserves for schools and emergency facilities, according to SDCI's validation report. Those are public buildings, not houses, and the list says nothing about any home chimney. It does say something about the ground rules. SDCI's own figure for a damaging Seattle earthquake over the next 50 years is 86 percent. In 2001 the weak point was the chimney: of roughly 30,000 houses FEMA's inspectors visited after Nisqually, a third had chimney damage, a USGS report states.
The shore at Rainier Beach has a working past. HistoryLink's Rainier Valley essay records a 75-acre hillside sliding a hundred feet toward the lake in 1898, in what is now Mount Baker, and the city's Mount Baker context statement adds that the last sawmill then moved south to Rainier Beach. We read no source mapping slide-prone slopes in this neighborhood, so we draw no conclusion about any lot here; on a sloping site we simply check a chimney for lean and for gaps where it meets the roof.
The more common reason for a repair call is wind. Seattle's emergency managers count close to 90,000 homes in the city built before 1939, ahead of modern wind standards, and say falling trees cause the costliest windstorm damage to buildings. A limb that clips a stack can crack it at the roofline without knocking it down, and that crack is easy to miss from the street. After a big storm, we look first where the chimney passes through the roof.
Every chimney repair we do in Rainier Beach includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowSince December 2004, Director's Rule 5-2004 has governed how an old brick chimney in Seattle may be repaired. The top two feet can be rebuilt in kind; past that, the choice is reinforced brick or a listed metal chimney made in a factory. A stack standing more than 12 feet above the roof needs a licensed engineer's design, and one over 3 feet tall needs bracing at two points. If the repair reaches down past the upper limit of the smoke chamber, the rule wants the chamber and the whole stack rebuilt to today's code, under a permit, at any price. For smaller jobs, two thresholds are on the books: under 4,000 dollars without a permit in the 2004 rule, and minor work valued at no more than 6,000 dollars per six months in R105.2 of the city's current residential code, the 2021 edition. Which one applies to a given chimney is a question for SDCI, and we ask it before we start.
Water, movement or heat each leave a different pattern. We trace which one it is before choosing a fix.
We work out which route of the 2004 rule fits, whether an engineer is needed, and whether SDCI requires a permit.
Matched brick and mortar, reinforcement where the rule requires it, and the site protected below.
Final photos, any city inspection booked, and a list of what to watch next.
What this work is quoted at for Rainier Beach homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Rainier Beach | 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 Rainier Beach. 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.
Rainier Beach is a neighborhood in the southeast corner of Seattle, just inside the city limits, on the lakeshore, with homes in a ZIP code area (98118) where roughly one unit in four was built between 1950 and 1969.
Rainier BeachKing County, WA · 47.523, -122.262
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.
Homeyou's modeled estimate of typical Seattle costs puts a full rebuild from the crown down to the roofline at $1,000 to $3,000. It is an algorithmic figure, read October 4, 2026, and not our quote. Small repairs cost far less, and a permit-scale rebuild can cost more.
Up to two feet of an unreinforced chimney can be rebuilt in kind under Seattle's rule. Past that, reinforcement or a metal chimney is required.
Let the fire go out and stay out, and keep children and cars clear of whichever side the stack would land on. Then book a visit; an inspection runs $99 plus tax, an amount deducted later from whichever repair quote of ours you approve.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
