Wallingford, King County
Wallingford is the hill north of Lake Union, and nearly half of what stands on it was built before 1939. For a chimney, that single fact outweighs everything else: age of brick, age of mortar, and several generations of owners each doing something to the fireplace. On this page we have gathered the dated, public facts about the neighborhood that bear on that, from the streetcar years to the lake-side rain gauge, and we say plainly where the record stops and a look at your own roof has to take over.
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$99 plus tax, deducted when you approve the repair
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Pick what you're seeing at your Wallingford home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Wallingford 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 — Wallingford, Seattle. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
John Wallingford bought land on the hill in 1888, and the neighborhood carries his name. The area became part of Seattle in the annexation of May 3, 1891. Earlier maps show two shoreline settlements here, Edgewater on the west and Latona on the east, between Fremont and the university. Interstate 5, begun in the late 1950s and opened as the full Seattle Freeway in 1965, runs along the east edge. The south edge is Lake Union, where Gas Works Park occupies the site of the former gas plant.
Thomas Veith's history of the neighborhood, prepared for the city, places the most visible surge of home construction between 1906 and 1915, a little after the 1900-1910 booms in Ballard, Fremont and Green Lake. The trigger was transit. Tracks were laid on 45th Street as far as Meridian Avenue in 1907, and by 1909 streetcars connected Wallingford to the rest of Seattle. That year many streets were graded and given curbs and sidewalks, among the works the city carried out for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
It did not fill at once. Seen from Lincoln High School before World War I, there were about as many empty lots as houses, and platting went on into the 1920s: the Hope Addition was filed on August 29, 1922. Apartment buildings joined the houses in that decade.
The Wallingford-Meridian Streetcar Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on December 9, 2022. The listing takes in 636 buildings: 570 single-family houses, 66 multifamily. Wikipedia's article on the neighborhood describes the housing stock as dominated by 1920s-era box houses and bungalows and reports that 45.9 percent of housing structures were built before 1939.
None of those sources counts fireplaces or says how the chimneys were built. The city's survey of neighboring Fremont says a Craftsman house is recognized partly by its chimney of brick or stone, and there the public record ends. We do not extend it. Whether your house has an unlined brick flue, clay tiles, a later steel liner or a gas vent is established on the first visit, with a camera.
Latona School and the Interlake School building were both designated Seattle Landmarks in April 1981. Interlake was then leased for reuse as shops and apartments and is known today as Wallingford Center. Near it stands the Valencia Apartments of 1909, Mediterranean in flavor, which the city's review of neighborhood business districts picks out as a notable early building.
We mention them because customers ask whether landmark or district status affects work on a private house. That is a question for the city's preservation staff and SDCI, and the honest answer from a chimney company is to supply the photos and scope they need, not to guess.
The Census publishes heating fuel by ZIP area, not by neighborhood. In ZIP area 98103, which Wallingford shares with Fremont, Green Lake, Phinney Ridge and south Greenwood, electricity is the primary heat of 56.7 percent of occupied homes; utility gas, of 39.6; fuel oil, of roughly 1.3; wood, of roughly 0.5.
The table lists one primary fuel per home and has no line for fireplaces. A hearth used on winter weekends does not appear in it. What it does show is that the flues doing daily work in this area serve gas and oil appliances, and those need looking at as much as any fireplace.
Wallingford meets Lake Union along its south side. A gas plant was built there in 1907, at the start of the neighborhood's building boom. It went quiet after 1956, when natural gas came to Seattle by pipe; the city acquired the grounds in 1962 and opened them as Gas Works Park in 1975. The older residential blocks near the lake aged badly in between: after 1930 they showed noticeable blight, recorded at the time in a university thesis (1939) on substandard housing.
The gauge nearest the lake reads wetter than the regional figure. At Portage Bay, the lake-side station, a typical year between 1972 and 1998 delivered 37.92 inches across 151 or so wet days, against the 32 to 35 inches the Western Regional Climate Center gives for the lowlands up to Seattle. For 1909-1983 the University of Washington station shows 34.11 inches, some 146 wet days and 33.1 nights of frost in the average year.
Put together, those records describe masonry that is rained on roughly two days in five and frozen a few dozen nights a winter. On chimneys of Wallingford's age that shows up as worn joints, cracked crowns and flashing that has been patched more often than replaced, which is what a first inspection is there to sort out.
Three sources of earthquakes are on the Washington Geological Survey's list for this region. First, deep quakes, 45 kilometers down or more; the 6.8 Nisqually shock of late February 2001, born near 52 kilometers' depth, was of that kind. Shallow crustal faults can produce up to magnitude 7.5. The Cascadia megathrust offshore is capable of magnitude 9 and last ruptured about 300 years ago.
No published study reports what any of them did to Wallingford's chimneys. We are left with the general finding and the local age profile. FEMA's advisory reserves its gravest warning for old brick chimneys, unreinforced, their mortar weakened, and advises against rebuilding a damaged one just as it was. Wikipedia's figure of 45.9 percent of structures built before 1939 says how many Wallingford houses belong to the generation FEMA is describing, if they still carry their original stack. Whether yours does, and what state its mortar is in, are things an inspection can answer.
The grid we quote from for Wallingford homes — the $99 inspection comes first, the written quote before any work.
| Service | Price in Wallingford | 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 Wallingford. 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.
No. The land north of Lake Union came into Seattle with the annexation of May 3, 1891, before the neighborhood had its present name. Seattle's codes have applied throughout.
The 2021 Seattle Residential Code, which is the 2021 International Residential Code with state and local amendments. The 2024 editions are in the pipeline; SDCI's own forecast for completing their adoption is May 2027 at the earliest.
The National Register listing has a defined boundary; the city or the listing documents can confirm an address. We work on both sides of it and document exterior work with photos in any case.
We come out and inspect. $99 plus tax is the charge for one chimney, and it buys video plus a written report. Say yes to the quote that follows and $99 leaves its total.
Choose a genuine opening on the crew's calendar. We inspect, quote in writing, and hand over a photo record of every repair.
