Ballard, King County
Chimney repair in Ballard starts at $425. That figure buys a small job: a crown crack sealed, a few bricks reset, a damper replaced. Rebuilding a stack from the roofline up costs several times more, and height, scaffolding and the quantity of brick to replace account for the gap. We price nothing unseen. The $99 plus tax visit comes first and, once you give the go-ahead on the repair, its cost is knocked off the invoice.
Typical investment
From $425
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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.
A Level 1 review of everything reachable, raised to a Level 2 camera scan when a question stays open
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The whole flue brushed, using heads picked for the liner's size and shape
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Camera survey and measurements taken before any liner is chosen
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Measurement of each flue, or of the crown when a single cap will span several
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Glass removed, cleaned and checked for a sound gasket
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Crown and all four sides photographed before any work
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Ballard voted to join Seattle on November 6, 1906, by 996 to 874, and stopped being its own city the following May. Its mills were then turning out cedar shingles by the hundreds of millions, 322 million in 1898 according to HistoryLink, and houses were filling the slope behind the waterfront. Chimneys from those years are now past their hundredth winter. In ZIP area 98117, which covers those blocks and more, better than a third of housing units predate 1940, against 22.8% for Seattle as a whole.
Electricity is the main heat for 69.9% of occupied homes in ZIP area 98107, the one around the Ballard core, and the Census Bureau's estimate of homes there heating mainly with wood is zero. It is also a ZIP area of apartments, with 29.1% of housing units in buildings of 50 units or more. Citywide the pattern is similar: 61.1% electricity, 32.8% utility gas, and 727 households in all of Seattle naming wood.
A chimney nobody depends on for heat tends to drop off the maintenance list. It keeps standing in the weather all the same, and a cracked crown admits the same water with or without a fire beneath it. So the first thing we settle on a Ballard repair is what the chimney is for. If a furnace or water heater vents through it, the flue has to stay sound and the repair is not optional. If it serves an occasional fireplace, the work can be staged. If it serves nothing, closing the top properly may be all the stack needs, and we say so.
Every chimney repair we do in Ballard includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowWhat fails is predictable. The crown, the mortar slab on top, cracks and lets water into the core. Joints wash out on the weather side. Brick faces flake once water sits behind them. Seattle's cool season is mild, with December lows averaging 38°F in WeatherSpark's figures, but frost does come, and wet masonry is what it works on. Wind does the rest. Seattle's emergency managers write that a major Puget Sound windstorm can blow steadily at 60 or 70 mph, gusting as high as 90. A stack with loose upper courses should be dealt with before one of those, not after.
A repair that ignores where the water gets in will be done twice. We trace each defect to its source and photograph it.
Each repair appears as its own priced line, letting you decide which items happen this season and which can be scheduled later.
Roof, gutters and planting under the work area are covered. Indoor work is done under dust control.
Damaged material comes out back to sound masonry, and the section is rebuilt with mortar matched to the existing brickwork.
Photos of each finished item are sent along with the invoice.
What this work is quoted at for Ballard homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Ballard | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Repair | From $425 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped after diagnosis |
| 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 Cap Installation | $265–$850 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
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.
Seattle's residential code exempts minor repairs from a building permit up to a value limit counted over six months, and it names chimney repointing as exempt outright. The exemption stops where structure begins: load-bearing supports, changes to the building envelope and anything that lowers fire resistance are never covered. A rebuilt stack is not a patched joint, so for larger repairs we confirm the permit question with SDCI ahead of the first day on site instead of assuming.
Ballard Avenue adds its own review. The landmark district there, designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board in 1975 and set up by City Council ordinance the next year, requires a Certificate of Approval before the outside of a building is changed. The city describes the street's buildings as modest commercial architecture from the 1890s through the 1940s. Rebuilding or altering a chimney on one of them goes to the seven-member district board first.
Ballard is a former mill town that joined Seattle in 1907 and runs from the Ship Canal north to NW 85th Street, on Shilshole Bay and Salmon Bay, with houses from before 1950 north and west of the old town and many newer buildings near the canal. We work every part of it — Loyal Heights, Whittier Heights, West Woodland, Adams included.
BallardKing County, WA · 47.668, -122.384
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.
From $425 for a minor fix. A new crown, a rebuilt top section or firebox work costs more, and you see each line priced before agreeing to anything.
Some repairs can. Mortar and crown work want a dry spell above freezing, and Seattle's clearer stretch runs from mid-June to about October 8, so that is when large masonry jobs are best scheduled. Emergency stabilizing is done whenever it is needed.
Treat it as dangerous until someone has looked. Keep people off the ground beneath it and book an inspection. We will tell you whether it can be stabilized or has to come down to the roofline.
Yes. A flue venting a gas or oil appliance needs sound masonry around it just as much as one above a fireplace.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
