Beacon Hill, King County
Masonry repair on Beacon Hill covers two jobs, crowns and repointing, and is priced from $475. A crown resurfaced on a small single-flue stack is the entry price. For repointing, the bill follows the square footage of joints raked out and refilled, so a tall chimney with four exposed faces costs more than a short one against a gable. The quote gives the square footage it is based on.
Typical investment
From $475
Book an inspection
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 Beacon Hill home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Beacon Hill homes.
Level 1: every reachable component checked, with a Level 2 camera run added if something stays unclear
Learn more
Full-height brushing with a head chosen for clay tile or metal liner
Learn more
Photo assessment sorting surface wear from structural failure
Learn more
Video survey and flue measurements taken before ordering anything
Learn more
Flue-by-flue measurements, or the whole crown for a multi-flue hood
Learn more
Cleaning and testing of the burner, pilot assembly and igniter
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Brick has a long record on this ridge. Besides the brickyards the city's context statement places on and below the hill, the 1920s left a set of brick-clad buildings that still stand: the two-story grocery of 1925 at 3013 Beacon Avenue South, the 1927 Hanford Street Grocery and Bakery, the three-story Jefferson Park Apartments on South Spokane Street. House chimneys from those same decades were laid with soft lime-rich mortar, and on a chimney of that period we test the joints before anything else. Mortar is meant to be the sacrificial part of a wall. After a hundred winters it has usually done its sacrificing.
Per the Western Regional Climate Center, the Puget Sound lowlands get 15 to 20 clear or partly cloudy days in a summer month and as few as 4 to 8 in a winter one. Mortar on an exposed chimney therefore spends most of November through February saturated. The center's narrative also puts January lows across the lowlands at 28 to 32°F, right at the freezing mark.
Water held in a porous joint expands when the night dips below freezing, and each such night loosens a little more sand. We cannot put a number on how many times that happens in a Beacon Hill winter, because no source we read counts it. What we can show you is the result: joints on the weather side recessed by half an inch or more, and a crown crazed with fine cracks. Repointing restores the joint's ability to shed water, which is what stops the cycle.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Beacon Hill includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe mistake we are most often called to undo is a hard patch. Modern cement mortar pressed into old joints is stiffer than the brick beside it, so the brick cracks instead of the joint. The second is a crown that was simply mortared flat: water sits on it, finds the hairline cracks and gets into the stack from above. Seattle's residential code describes what belongs there instead: a top of stone, metal or concrete pitched to shed rain, a projecting lip so drips fall away from the brick face, and a sealed, flexible joint where it meets the flue liner.
Each face is probed and photographed. Sound joints are left alone; the quote covers only the area that fails the probe.
Soft mortar is removed to a consistent depth by hand or with a guarded grinder, without widening the joint or chipping the brick edges.
New mortar, blended for brick of this age and softness, is packed in layers and tooled to shed water.
The old wash comes off. A new crown is formed with an overhang and drip edge, and a flexible joint is left around each flue tile.
New mortar stays under a tarp until set. Photos of every face go into your report.
Shade matters to moss as much as rainfall, Oregon State University Extension explains. A flat, cracked crown offers both moisture and a rough surface, and so do recessed mortar joints on the shaded faces of a stack. Once growth takes hold it keeps the masonry beneath it damp long after the rain has stopped.
The extension advises cleaning before applying any moss-control product, and warns that the job is not for everyone; on a chimney it means working at the roof's highest point. We clear the growth as part of the repair, then remove the reason it settled there: the crown is rebuilt with the slope and drip edge Seattle's code describes, and the joints are filled flush so nothing stands in them.
What this work is quoted at for Beacon Hill homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Beacon Hill | 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 Beacon Hill. 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.
Beacon Hill is a Seattle neighborhood strung along a north-south ridge that reaches 350 feet, with houses built mostly from 1910 to 1929 between McClellan Street and Jefferson Park, and wartime streets of the 1940s south of Spokane Street. We work every part of it — North Beacon Hill, Mid-Beacon Hill, South Beacon Hill included.
Beacon HillKing County, WA · 47.579, -122.311
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. Crown work on one small stack is near that figure; repointing rises with the area of wall involved, and the quote states the area.
Not when nothing structural changes. On its page about house remodels, SDCI puts repointing a chimney among jobs done with no permit at all, and R105.2 in the city's residential code carries it on its exempt list too. Rebuilding courses is a different scope with its own rules.
Mortar wants dry, mild days. WeatherSpark's Boeing Field figures put the clearer part of the year between June 14 and October 8, and that is when we schedule most of this work.
It is $99 plus tax. If the repointing or crown quote that follows gets your go-ahead, the $99 comes off it.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
