Northgate, King County
Most Northgate chimneys belong to the postwar decades. The district grew up around a shopping mall that opened in 1950, became part of Seattle in 1954, and the median home in its ZIP area dates from 1974. At each house our first question is what was added after the stack went up: an insert, a replacement furnace, a gas log set. Every job begins with a look, $99 plus tax per chimney, and Northgate customers see that fee come back as a credit on any quote they approve.
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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 Northgate home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Northgate 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 — Northgate, Seattle. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Wikipedia describes Northgate as a district of four sub-areas: Haller Lake, Pinehurst, Licton Springs (also called North College Park) and Maple Leaf, which has its own page on this site. The south fork of Thornton Creek drains the area, and Interstate 5 runs through it. ZIP area 98125, which takes in Northgate and reaches beyond it, holds 22,057 housing units in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 estimates: 46.0% of them detached houses, 24.5% of them units in buildings of 50 apartments or more.
Until World War II the ground north of 85th Street was still worked as small farms, by the account of the city's commercial district survey. Then came the mall. Its doors opened on April 21, 1950, at twelve noon. The site covered 62 acres, from NE 103rd Street to NE 111th and from 1st Avenue NE to 5th. Architect John Graham Jr. laid it out for 80 stores supplied through an underground delivery tunnel, with a three-story Bon Marche and a four-story medical-dental building. In HistoryLink's telling, no regional shopping center in the country had been designed as a mall before it.
The city caught up later: Seattle annexed everything from N 85th to N 145th streets in 1954. The mall grew with the district, to some 50,000 cars a day by 1968 and 123 stores by 1980. The city's survey notes what that did to older shopping streets such as Aurora Avenue, which gradually lost trade to it.
ZIP area 98125 is the postwar ZIP area of North Seattle. Only 7.6% of its housing units predate 1940. The 1950s contributed 15.5%, the 1960s 12.2% and the 1970s 13.2%, and the median year built is 1974. For comparison, 22.8% of all Seattle housing is older than 1940.
These are counts of housing units by age, nothing more. They do not say which houses have a masonry fireplace, which a factory-built one and which a gas unit, and no public source read for this page does. That question is settled at the door, with the appliance label and a look up the flue.
No weather station record was found for Northgate itself. The nearest long one belongs to the National Weather Service station at Sand Point, in northeast Seattle. Across 1986 to 2016 its yearly averages were 35.50 inches of precipitation and 3.6 inches of snow, with measurable rain on about 158 days and a freezing low on 24.
The extremes are wider than the averages suggest: 105°F on July 29, 2009, 10°F on December 21, 1990, and 4.15 inches of rain in a single day on December 3, 2007. The calendar that follows for chimney work is simple. Anything involving mortar, sealant or repellent belongs in the dry months, and anything inside the flue can be done all year.
Three parts of Seattle's codes come up again and again in housing of Northgate's age. First, lining: under Residential Code R1003.11 a Northgate masonry flue has to be lined for the appliance on it, and the code accepts clay tile to ASTM C315, a system holding a UL 1777 listing, or an approved material that shrugs off corrosion and 1,800°F. Second, inserts: section 905.1 of the Mechanical Code wants each one listed and labeled to UL 1482 and put in by its manual. Third, metal chimneys built in a factory: R1005.1 demands a listing and a label, and Type HT pipe when the appliance burns solid fuel in a dwelling.
Fuel adds a fourth consideration. Oil is still the main heat in 4.7% of homes in ZIP area 98125, and when such a furnace is replaced, the flue it leaves behind has to suit the new appliance. Wood stoves come with the Clean Air Agency's own shorthand, in which a single glass door under an EPA label signals a certified model, and with an exit: the agency's recycling program for uncertified stoves and inserts in King County. Seattle's permit office publishes no sheet saying whether a liner or an insert needs a permit, so we ask SDCI before work starts instead of assuming.
Four counties around Puget Sound fall under one air regulator, and that regional agency is who can tell a Northgate household to leave the fireplace cold; a fire-safety ban is a different order, and it comes from the fire marshal. An air quality ban is called on a forecast of fine particles and comes in two stages. At the first level, Northgate hearths go dark, as do stoves that never earned certification. At the second, even certified wood stoves and pellet units must stay cold. A household with no other adequate heat can burn only if the agency approved its exemption in advance.
Three details are worth knowing before Northgate's first still, cold week. WAC 173-433-150 gives a household three hours; a chimney still smoking after that counts against it as proof of a breach. While a ban lasts, an exempt household and a certified stove must both burn without visible smoke. And on ordinary days chimney smoke is held to 20% opacity, with trash, treated lumber and plastic never legal as fuel. Why so strict? Across the region in winter, according to what the agency published for 2024, home wood heat puts more fine particles into the air than anything else.
The grid we quote from for Northgate homes — the $99 inspection comes first, the written quote before any work.
| Service | Price in Northgate | 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 Northgate. 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.
All of it, Haller Lake, Pinehurst and Licton Springs included. Maple Leaf, which Wikipedia counts as part of the district, has its own page.
$99 plus tax per chimney, a sum deducted from the work if you approve our quote.
Most days, yes, provided the wood is dry. A first-stage ban takes open fireplaces and uncertified stoves out of use; a second-stage ban stops every kind of wood burning.
Yes. A factory-built system is repaired with the parts its listing specifies, so we identify the brand before ordering anything.
Mid-June to early October, the stretch WeatherSpark marks as Seattle's clearest.
Choose a genuine opening on the crew's calendar. We inspect, quote in writing, and hand over a photo record of every repair.
