Chimney and fireplace service in South King County

South King County is mostly suburban housing from the 1960s on. The Census Bureau's 2024 survey puts the median year built at 1984 in Federal Way, 1985 in Kent, 1988 in Renton and 1991 in Auburn. Des Moines is older, with a median of 1974 and 18 percent of its homes built between 1940 and 1959. Across the area about 40 percent of homes heat with gas and most of the rest with electricity, so the fireplace is usually a gas unit or a brick or factory-built wood fireplace used on cold evenings.

The weather is the same steady wet as the rest of the Sound. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals give Renton's airport about 35 inches of rain over roughly 153 days and about 30 nights at or below freezing, and Sea-Tac about 39 inches. That is enough to rust a chase cover, crack a crown and open the flashing on a twenty-year-old house. At the free inspection we check the top of the chimney first, photograph it and write down the price of any repair.

Burn bans and what still works

South King County falls under the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's King County trigger. In a Stage 1 ban, wood fireplaces and uncertified stoves and inserts cannot be used, though EPA-certified stoves may run without visible smoke. In Stage 2 no wood burning is allowed. Gas and propane fireplaces and inserts are allowed in both stages, which is why many owners convert. Typical ranges: gas logs $500 to $2,000, a gas insert $2,000 to $8,000, a wood-to-gas conversion $1,500 to $8,000.

Caps, crowns and animals

An uncapped flue lets in rain, birds and raccoons. A chimney cap typically runs $250 to $850, and animal or nest removal $300 to $750. On masonry chimneys the crown, the concrete slab on top, cracks with age and lets water into the brick below; a new crown typically runs $600 to $2,200. On factory-built fireplaces the chase cover does the same job, typically $300 to $700 to replace.