Ballard, King County
Chimney work in Ballard starts from one fact: this was its own city until 1907, and it still holds two housing stocks. North and west of the old core, more than a third of the homes predate 1940. Around the core and along the canal, the median building dates from 1995. One crew serves both, and the first visit is the same everywhere: $99 plus tax per chimney, a sum we take off the bill of any work you then approve in writing.
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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 Ballard home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Ballard homes.
The whole flue brushed, using heads picked for the liner's size and shape
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A Level 1 review of everything reachable, raised to a Level 2 camera scan when a question stays open
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Camera survey and measurements taken before any liner is chosen
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A photo assessment that distinguishes surface wear from structural damage
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Measurement of each flue, or of the crown when a single cap will span several
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Crown and all four sides photographed before any work
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Inspection of crown, joints and flashing before anything is applied
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Leak tracing from the stain indoors to the entry point on the roof
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Glass removed, cleaned and checked for a sound gasket
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A camera scan to identify the type and extent of the deposit
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The duct brushed along its entire run, dryer end to outside hood
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Interior photos of several duct runs before cleaning
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Service-area map — Ballard, Seattle. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Ballard runs from the Ship Canal north to NW 85th Street and from Shilshole Bay east to Greenwood, Phinney Ridge and Fremont, in Wikipedia's description. Its named parts include Loyal Heights on the bluff, Whittier Heights, West Woodland, Adams and, at the northwest edge, Golden Gardens. The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 survey counts 15,725 housing units in ZIP area 98117 and 16,938 in ZIP area 98107. Both ZIP areas reach past Ballard's informal boundaries, so every such figure on this page describes a ZIP area, not the neighborhood itself.
HistoryLink dates the first homestead claim on the site to 1852, when Ira Wilcox Utter filed for land beside Salmon Bay. In 1888 Thomas Burke, Daniel Gilman and John Leary formed the West Coast Improvement Company and sold lots under the name Gilman Park. Ballard incorporated in 1890, when the census found 1,636 people between Salmon Bay and what is now NW 65th Street.
Industry came fast. For 1892 a city survey lists three shipyards, three sawmills, five shingle mills and a plant making sashes and doors. A wagon bridge had crossed Salmon Bay in 1889, a trolley ran on Ballard Avenue the next year, and by 1900 two streetcar lines reached Seattle. The annexation vote of November 6, 1906 passed 996 to 874; the survey names a steadier water supply and better police and fire protection as the motives. The Seattle Municipal Archives date the annexation May 19, 1907, and HistoryLink May 29.
In ZIP area 98117, 36.3% of the housing was already standing by the end of 1939, and the 1940s added another 14.3%. The median year is 1950, and 72.0% of units are detached houses. For comparison, Seattle as a whole has 22.8% of its housing from before 1940 and 36.8% detached.
ZIP area 98107 reads like another place: median year 1995, 28.3% of units from the 2010s, 17.6% from before 1940, one unit in four detached. The Wallingford history prepared for Seattle's preservation office puts the house-building boom in Ballard at about 1900 to 1910, a time when plan books were a common source of North Seattle bungalows; Victor Voorhees's Western Home Builder alone offered 125 designs. None of these sources says what kind of chimney a given house has. We establish that on site, never from the address.
Work on the Ship Canal began in November 1911, and the locks at Ballard opened in 1917 with a marine parade on the Fourth of July. Shilshole Bay closes the neighborhood to the west. No weather station record was found for this western side of North Seattle, so we give no Ballard rainfall or wind figure.
What the city does publish is its windstorm profile. Almost 90,000 Seattle homes were built before 1939, it notes, long before current wind-load rules, which now hold a new Ballard building to a three-second gust of 85 mph. When the 2006 windstorm hit, Seattle City Light saw 49% of its customers go dark, and a week passed before the last of them had it back. After a storm of that size, look at the chimney top from the street before lighting anything.
Ballard Avenue is a city landmark district. The Landmarks Preservation Board designated it on January 14, 1975, the City Council created the district by ordinance on April 13, 1976, and Seattle Municipal Code chapter 25.16 governs it; the street also entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Inside it, a Certificate of Approval comes before any change to a building's exterior, painting, signs, awnings and demolition included. The seven-member board meets monthly.
For houses outside the district, the city's ordinary rules apply. Repointing a chimney, painting and cleaning need no building permit. Minor repairs under a value limit are exempt too, unless they touch load-bearing parts or the building envelope. Past that, SDCI treats a permit as the rule and gives fireplace, gas and furnace work as examples. It publishes nothing that settles liners or inserts specifically, so for those we ask the department before work starts. Seattle enforces the 2021 Seattle Residential Code and does not expect to finish adopting the 2024 codes before May 2027.
ZIP area 98117: gas 48.5%, electricity 41.7%, fuel oil 7.9%. ZIP area 98107: electricity 69.9%, gas 26.6%, oil 0.8%. Those are the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 estimates of the main heating fuel in occupied homes. The oil share in 98117 is the highest among the North Seattle ZIP areas measured, ahead of 98115 at 5.8% and 98125 at 4.7%.
Wood is the main fuel for about 40 households in 98117 and for none in 98107. That does not mean forty fireplaces. The survey records a single main fuel per home and has no count of fireplaces, stoves or chimneys, so every occasional hearth in Ballard is missing from it. For chimney work the practical reading is this: ask first what the flue serves. It may be an oil furnace, a gas furnace or water heater, an insert, an open fireplace lit at Christmas, or nothing. Whatever the answer, a notice issued by the State Fire Marshal's Office in September 2026 wants chimneys and fireplaces seen and cleaned by a professional once a year.
SDCI gives Seattle 86 chances in 100 of a damaging earthquake inside the next half-century. The city's hazard profile expects a deep quake of magnitude 6.0 or more every 30 to 50 years; the latest, Nisqually, struck on February 28, 2001 at magnitude 6.8. No source we read records chimney damage by neighborhood for that event, so we claim none for Ballard.
What is documented is which chimneys do worst. FEMA's advisory on masonry chimneys points to old unreinforced brick ones with weakened mortar as the likeliest to fail, and upward of one home in three across ZIP area 98117 was standing before 1940. For a new masonry chimney up to 40 inches wide, Seattle's code now demands four continuous No. 4 vertical bars and, to anchor the stack to the house, a pair of steel straps fastened into the floor framing. A chimney from Ballard's boom years went up long before those rules.
After damage, FEMA advises against rebuilding the same thing. Where the fireplace is no longer wanted, its preferred fix is to cut the chimney down and cap it at roof level; where it is, to rebuild above the firebox as a light framed chase around a metal flue. Until a doubtful chimney is dealt with, its interim advice is short: spend as little time as you can next to it, and do not sleep beside it.
The grid we quote from for Ballard homes — the $99 inspection comes first, the written quote before any work.
| Service | Price in Ballard | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Sweep | $209–$459 | 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 |
| Chimney Cap Installation | $265–$850 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
| Masonry Repair (Crown / Repointing) | From $475 | Crown work, repointing and tuckpointing by surface area |
| Chimney Waterproofing | $320–$795 | Breathable sealer — reapplied every 3–5 years in this climate |
| Chimney Flashing Repair | $375–$1,495 | Reseal at the low end, full flashing replacement at the high |
| Gas Fireplace Service | $189–$479 | Annual service and tune-up; repairs quoted after diagnosis |
| Creosote Removal | From $245 | Priced by creosote stage — glazed stage 3 is the heavy end |
| Dryer Vent Cleaning | $105–$295 | Full run cleaned; roof or upper-floor terminations at the top |
| Air Duct Cleaning | From $525 | Whole HVAC system — trunks, branches and every register |
Ranges are what these jobs are quoted at in Ballard. 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.
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.
Yes, from the canal to NW 85th Street, Loyal Heights, Whittier Heights, West Woodland and Adams included. Ballard is one of the ten North Seattle neighborhoods on our route.
It is $99 plus tax a chimney, and that amount is subtracted from any job you go on to approve.
Yes, with one extra step. No exterior change goes ahead in the landmark district until its board has granted a Certificate of Approval. We supply photos and a description of the work for the application.
Yes, on an ordinary day and with wood that has dried out. Once a ban is called, the regional stage rules govern every Seattle address, and an open hearth goes dark from the very first stage.
Roof and masonry jobs belong in July, August or September. The flue can be done whenever suits you, as long as it comes ahead of the autumn's opening fire.
Choose a genuine opening on the crew's calendar. We inspect, quote in writing, and hand over a photo record of every repair.
