Northgate, King County
Creosote removal in Northgate starts at $245 and is priced by what the camera shows. Stage one, a dusty soot, is close to a sweep. Stage two, hard black flakes, needs rotary chains or whips. Stage three, a glassy tar, needs a chemical poultice and time, and it costs the most. An insert that has to come out, or a metal chimney with bends, adds labor. The $99 plus tax inspection establishes the stage, and we deduct it when the removal is approved.
Typical investment
From $245
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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.
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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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
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Wood is the primary heat source for roughly 80 households in ZIP area 98125, by the Census Bureau's count, in a ZIP area of 22,057 housing units. Many more have a fireplace, stove or insert the survey never counts, because it records one main fuel per home. In a district built largely between 1950 and 1980, a wood-burning appliance has had time to be used hard, neglected, replaced and used again, and each owner's habits are written on the flue wall.
The appliance matters as much as the wood. Under WAC 173-433-100, Washington caps particulate emissions from new solid-fuel heaters at 2.5 grams an hour for catalytic stoves and 4.5 for all others, and a device without certification may be neither sold nor given away. The Clean Air Agency offers a quick way to tell which kind stands in a Northgate living room. Look at the front: a lone glass door with an EPA label on the unit points to certification, while twin doors, glass or solid, point the other way.
A certified stove burns its smoke more completely, so less of it condenses in the flue. An uncertified one, run with its air shut down, coats a flue quickly. If yours is in that group and still works, the agency runs a recycling program in King County that pays owners to turn in such stoves and inserts. Open masonry fireplaces, pellet stoves and gas units do not qualify, and the agency's page gives no end date, so confirm it is still funded before counting on it. Whatever replaces the old unit, Seattle's mechanical code wants an insert listed to UL 1482 and set up by its manual, and the manual is where the liner requirement is found.
Every creosote removal we do in Northgate includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowHeavy creosote has three ordinary causes: wood that was not dry, fires throttled down to burn slowly overnight, and a flue too large or too cold for the appliance feeding it. An insert set into a fireplace with no liner running to the top is the textbook case, since its cooled smoke spreads out in the big masonry flue and leaves tar there. The fix has two parts. Remove the deposit, then correct the cause, or the glaze comes back.
The camera records where the deposit lies and which stage it has reached.
Chains, whips or stiff brushes, spun by a drill, break up everything brittle.
For glazed tar, a remover is applied and left to work. It dries the glaze into a crust that can be knocked off.
On the return visit the crust is cleaned out, smoke chamber and firebox are vacuumed, and the insert is reconnected.
A second recording shows bare flue wall, along with any heat damage the tar was covering.
Once a ban is declared over Northgate, a chimney may show no smoke at all. That holds for certified stoves and for households with an exemption, and outdoor fires stop too. WAC 173-433-150 starts a clock: three hours after the declaration, smoke still rising from a chimney is prima facie evidence of a violation, and anyone already burning has to stop feeding the fire. An inspector from the agency who sees it issues the property owner a Notice of Violation. No fine amount appears on the pages we read, so we quote none.
Between bans, the everyday limit is 20% opacity. A flue coated with creosote works against both rules: it drafts weakly, the fire smolders, and smoldering is what makes visible smoke. In its 2024 data summary the agency traces the region's wintertime fine particles chiefly to one source, wood burned to heat homes. Removing the tar and burning only dry wood is how a Northgate household stays inside the opacity rule for the rest of the winter.
What this work is quoted at for Northgate homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Northgate | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Creosote Removal | From $245 | Priced by creosote stage — glazed stage 3 is the heavy end |
| 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 |
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.
Northgate is a district that grew around the shopping mall opened in 1950 and joined Seattle in 1954, with postwar houses and apartments, in a ZIP area whose median build year is 1974. We work every part of it — Haller Lake, Pinehurst, Licton Springs included.
NorthgateKing County, WA · 47.707, -122.327
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 $245 for loose, sooty deposits. Glaze that calls for a chemical treatment and a return trip costs more, itemized in writing before we start.
Damp wood, slow overnight burns, or an appliance connected to a flue too big for it. We tell you which applies, because cleaning without fixing the cause is money spent twice.
They can help dry out light deposits so that a brush removes more. They do not replace mechanical cleaning, and against a thick glaze they achieve nothing useful.
With glazed creosote, no. A hot fire can set it alight, and a chimney fire is how liners and tiles crack.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
