Chimney and fireplace service in Seattle

Seattle has twice the national share of pre-war housing. The Census Bureau's 2024 survey counts 22.8 percent of the city's roughly 394,000 homes as built in 1939 or earlier, about 90,000 houses and apartments, and another 15.6 percent from 1940 to 1959. HistoryLink calls the Craftsman bungalow Seattle's signature style, and the city also filled up with Seattle Boxes, its local take on the Foursquare, and brick Tudors. Nearly all of them were built with a masonry chimney, and most of those chimneys are now around a century old.

Most no longer heat the house. About 61 percent of Seattle homes heat mainly with electricity and 0.2 percent with wood, so the fireplace is used for evenings and the chimney beside it may also vent a gas water heater or an old oil furnace, which still heats 2.9 percent of homes. Newer Seattle, from townhouses to condos, mostly has gas fireplaces with metal vents. At the free inspection we check each flue from the roof and from inside, take photos and write down the price of any work.

West Seattle, the Seattle Fault and the 2001 quake

After the Nisqually earthquake of February 28, 2001, a magnitude 6.8, a University of Washington and USGS team surveyed about 60,000 chimneys between Bremerton and Mercer Island. The damage was concentrated in West Seattle, as it had been in the 1965 quake, and followed the line of the Seattle Fault. FEMA's guidance calls unreinforced masonry chimneys extremely vulnerable and says they can be damaged even by fairly light shaking. In practice that means a cracked joint at the roofline, a shifted top or loose brick, which we look for on every Seattle roof.

If a chimney is no longer used, FEMA says the most reliable fix is removing it and venting anything that still needs it through a metal flue, or cutting it down to 1 to 2 feet above the roof. Typical ranges: rebuilding the top few courses $1,000 to $3,500, a full rebuild above the roofline $5,000 to $15,000 or more, and removal $1,000 to $10,000 depending on how much comes out.

Seattle's chimney repair rule, DR 5-2004

Seattle's Director's Rule 5-2004 was written after Nisqually and applies to all chimney repairs, not just earthquake damage. Repairs costing the owner under $4,000 need no permit but must still follow the rule. The top 2 feet may be rebuilt as it was. Other work must use reinforced masonry or a listed metal chimney, a chimney more than 3 feet above the roof must be braced at two points, and work below the top of the smoke chamber needs a full rebuild and a permit at any cost.

The rule also warns that a chimney may vent a gas water heater, so we check that before any chimney is capped or taken down. We tell you at the inspection where your job falls, and we recommend confirming current requirements with SDCI before larger work.

Historic districts, Capitol Hill and soft old brick

Seattle has eight historic districts, among them Harvard-Belmont on the west slope of Capitol Hill, Ballard Avenue and Columbia City. Inside them a Certificate of Approval is needed before any change to a building's exterior, even work that would not need a permit. Repair in kind, with the same materials and details, needs no certificate, but the board coordinator has to confirm that before work starts. Individually designated city landmarks need one too.

On any old Seattle chimney the mortar matters. The National Park Service warns that mortar harder than the brick causes cracking and spalling, so on Craftsman and Tudor chimneys we repoint with a soft mortar that matches. Repointing typically runs $500 to $2,500 and spalled brick replacement $1,000 to $3,500.

Where we work in Seattle

West Seattle · Capitol Hill · Ballard · Queen Anne · Wallingford · Beacon Hill · Ravenna · Magnolia · Green Lake · Madrona · Columbia City · Phinney Ridge