Brighton, King County
Masonry repair on a Brighton chimney starts at $475. For that we can close hairline cracks in a crown or repack a patch of joints that have gone sandy. A crown broken off and poured again, or a stack repointed from shingles to top, sits higher, and the final figure tracks how many square feet of brick need work and how far the old mortar has decayed. For comparison, other Seattle companies post their prices too; Mad Hatter Chimney Sweep's page puts a crown, mended or replaced outright, at $800 to $1,500. Their figure, not ours.
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 Brighton home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Brighton 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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Photo assessment sorting surface wear from structural failure
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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
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Brighton has been inhabited by settlers long enough to hold chimneys of very different ages. English families named it Brighton Beach in the 1880s; it got a post office and its first school in 1901 and a larger school just to the west in 1904. In the 98118 ZIP area that Brighton is counted in, 18.1 percent of the housing dates from 1939 or earlier and another 26 percent from the 1950s and 1960s. Mortar mixed in 1910 and mortar mixed in 1960 do not age the same way, and repointing has to match what is already in the wall.
About one housing unit in four in ZIP area 98118 was built in the two postwar decades (the census splits it 13.8 to 12.5 between the fifties and sixties), a heavier share than Seattle's 15.8 percent for the same span. Brighton's schools trace the same growth, from the junior high land the board took in 1948 to the Graham Hill building finished in 1960.
Masonry from those years has now weathered more than half a century. On a house of that age we start at the crown, because a crown troweled flat out of mortar, with no overhang, no drip edge and no break at the flue tile, is a shortcut of every era and it fails from the top down. What the city's code asks for instead is a crown with fall toward its edges, an edge that sheds drops away from the face, and a caulked joint against the flue tile. Then we work down the joints, since a crown that leaked for years has usually sent water into the courses below it.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Brighton includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowWinter here hovers at the freezing line. January nights in the lowlands around the Sound average 28 to 32 degrees, according to climate summaries from the Western Regional Climate Center, and frost stays off the calendar only from late April to mid-October. A crown cracked by summer heat fills with rain in October and can freeze overnight in December, which widens the crack a little each time. The city treats repointing as routine: SDCI says no permit is needed to repoint a chimney when nothing structural changes. Bigger jobs fall under the city's chimney rule, though, and it requires us to examine the original brick we keep and refill its joints wherever they have failed.
We map which joints have failed and test the old mortar so the new mix will not be harder than the brick.
Failed mortar is cut out to an even depth and the joints are brushed clean.
Joints are packed and tooled; a failed crown is replaced with a sloped, overhanging one.
The new mortar is kept from drying too fast, and the finished work is photographed.
What this work is quoted at for Brighton homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Brighton | 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 Brighton. 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.
Brighton is a Rainier Valley neighborhood of Seattle settled in the 1880s and named after the English seaside town, with homes in a part of the valley whose postwar growth brought a junior high site in 1948 and Graham Hill School in 1960.
BrightonKing County, WA · 47.535, -122.279
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.
SDCI says repointing without structural change needs none. Rebuilding parts of the stack is a different matter and falls under the city's chimney rule.
Mortar harder than the brick forces movement into the brick itself, which then cracks and spalls. Older chimneys need a softer mix.
A first visit is our inspection at $99 plus tax. Accept the masonry quote it produces and we deduct those $99 from the bill.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
