Ballard, King County
A chimney sweep in Ballard costs $209 to $459 per flue. Where your job falls in that bracket depends on the appliance at the bottom (an open fireplace, an insert, a stove, an oil furnace), on how the roof can be reached and on how much soot the brushes meet. The price covers the brushing itself, the firebox and smoke chamber, a basic visual check of the system and photos of the flue taken before and after.
Typical investment
$209–$459
Book an inspection
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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A photo assessment that distinguishes surface wear from structural damage
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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 was a separate mill city until 1907, and its housing still splits in two. In ZIP area 98117, which takes in the blocks north and west of the old core along with ground beyond Ballard, the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 survey puts the median year of construction at 1950 and dates 36.3% of housing units to 1939 or earlier. ZIP area 98107, around the core and the canal, has a median of 1995, and 28.3% of its units went up in the 2010s. A sweep therefore meets flues of very different ages a few blocks apart, and no public record says which kind of fireplace a given address has. We find that out at the door.
The Census Bureau asks each household which fuel does most of its heating. In ZIP area 98117, north and west of old Ballard, the 2020-2024 answers are utility gas for 48.5% of occupied homes, electricity for 41.7% and fuel oil for 7.9%, roughly 1,190 homes. About 40 households there name wood. In ZIP area 98107, around the core, electricity leads with 69.9%, gas follows at 26.6% and the estimate for wood is zero.
That survey counts main heat only, so the fireplace lit on a December weekend is invisible in it. For a sweep it means two things. Most Ballard fireplaces we clean are occasional ones, with long gaps between visits. And a number of flues carry no wood smoke at all: they vent an oil or gas appliance. CSIA, pointing to the NFPA 211 standard, wants each chimney and vent checked once a year, used or not, which is why those flues get looked at too.
Every chimney sweep we do in Ballard includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowSeattle's wetter season lasts about 6.6 months, October 10 to April 30 in WeatherSpark's charts, and those are the months when fireplaces are lit. Soot left in a flue through that stretch sits in damp air. CSIA, the trade's safety institute, sweeps a masonry fireplace once its soot is one-eighth of an inch deep, and earlier if any of the deposit has turned glazed. In a house where the fire is lit on a handful of winter evenings, that mark can take years to reach, so we measure the deposit and show it to you instead of selling a date on the calendar.
We lay protective sheeting along the path to the hearth and switch on the vacuum before brushing begins.
We photograph the firebox, the damper area and as much of the flue as a light and a camera can reach, so you see the starting point.
A brush matched to the flue's dimensions travels the entire length, worked from the rooftop or the firebox as access allows.
Smoke shelf, damper and firebox are cleaned by hand, then vacuumed out.
Afterward you get the after-photos with a short written account of any problem, and a priced quote where a repair is needed.
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 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 |
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.
Cleaning appears on Seattle's short list of work that needs no building permit, next to painting and to repointing a chimney. A sweep changes nothing in the structure, so it belongs there. The same city guide states that most projects beyond that list do need a permit, and fireplace work is one of the examples it gives. If a sweep turns up something larger, we check the scope with the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) before any of it starts.
One part of Ballard has a second layer. Inside the Ballard Avenue Landmark District, created by ordinance in 1976, a change to the outside of a building needs a Certificate of Approval from the district board before work begins. Brushing a flue alters nothing outside. A new chimney top on one of those buildings is a different matter, to be raised with the board, which meets monthly.
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.
Between $209 and $459 for one flue. A single open fireplace under a roof that is easy to reach sits near the bottom; pulling an insert out, a steep roof or thick deposits push it higher. You hear the figure before we start.
Perhaps not every year. The trade guideline is a soot layer one-eighth of an inch thick, and a rarely used fireplace gets there slowly. A yearly look is still worth having, because nests, fallen mortar and a rusted damper do not depend on how often you burn.
Yes. Oil remains the main heat in a share of the older homes north of the Ballard core, and a furnace flue collects soot of its own. It is priced like any other flue, inside the same bracket.
Late summer. The roof is dry, the schedule is open, and the flue is ready before the first cold evening of October.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
