Northgate, King County
Servicing a gas fireplace in Northgate costs from $189 to $479. Units that open easily and have been maintained are at the bottom. One with a pilot that has gone out, a dirty burner and fogged glass takes longer and costs more. Repair parts are extra and quoted first. For a unit that will not run at all, we start with the $99 plus tax inspection to find the fault, and that $99 is credited to whatever service or repair you approve.
Typical investment
$189–$479
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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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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.
Northgate Mall opened on April 21, 1950, on 62 acres between NE 103rd and NE 111th streets, and HistoryLink calls it the nation's first regional shopping center designed as a mall. It gained 25 stores in 1965 and a roof in 1974. The homes around it went up across those same decades. A gas fireplace in one of them may be original to the house or a later conversion of a wood-burning fireplace, and the two are not serviced the same way.
Across ZIP area 98125, utility gas is the main heat in 26.0% of occupied homes, behind electricity at 66.9% and ahead of fuel oil at 4.7%, according to 2020-2024 Census Bureau estimates. The median home there was built in 1974.
A converted fireplace is where two code sections meet. Seattle Residential Code R1003.11 expects the masonry flue of a Northgate house to be lined for whatever appliance now uses it, which for a gas unit venting up an old fireplace flue means a liner of the size and material given in the unit's manual. The 2021 Seattle Mechanical Code, for its part, holds fireplace inserts to their listing and to the maker's instructions. So a service visit covers more than the burner. We confirm that the vent path matches the manual, because a gas unit that exhausts into an oversized Northgate fireplace flue leaves moisture behind.
Every gas fireplace service we do in Northgate includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowGas burns clean but not without residue. Burner ports clog with dust and pet hair. Ceramic logs shift and begin to soot. The pilot's sensor weakens until the valve drops out, and the glass gasket flattens. A unit vented through an old masonry flue has one more point to check, the liner that carries its exhaust. Seattle's windstorm hazard profile records deaths from charcoal burned indoors for heat during power outages, a reminder that improvised heat is the dangerous kind and that a maintained appliance with a working alarm nearby is the safe one.
Gas is turned off at the unit's valve, and the unit is left to cool before the glass comes off.
Logs, embers and media are lifted out in order. Firebox and control compartment are vacuumed.
Pilot hood, sensor and burner are cleaned, and the sensor's millivolt reading is compared with the manufacturer's minimum.
Glass and gasket are inspected and refitted. The vent run and its termination are checked for blockage, corrosion and slope.
We fire the unit through a complete cycle, checking the flame pattern, leak-testing the connections and measuring carbon monoxide.
A burn ban in King County starts with a forecast. If the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency sees fine-particle pollution heading past a daily average of 35 micrograms in each cubic meter of air, at any point in the two days ahead, it declares one, and Northgate is covered like every other part of Seattle. Its opening stage idles hearths and any stove short of certification. The second adds certified stoves and pellet stoves. Neither list names gas appliances.
For a Northgate household with both a wood fireplace and a gas one, that is the practical value of keeping the gas unit serviced: on the still, cold days when wood is off limits, it is the fire you may light. It matters, too, for the agency's hardship exemption, which only covers homes lacking any other adequate heat source. Adequate means a system able to keep rooms at 70°F, and the agency does not accept the cost of running an existing furnace as grounds, so a home with central heat should not count on that exemption for its wood stove.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gas Fireplace Service | $189–$479 | Annual service and tune-up; repairs quoted 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 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.
$189 to $479 per visit, repair parts not included. You approve any repair before it is done.
Yes. Both ban stages target wood and pellet devices only; the regional agency's lists leave gas units out.
Not if it was fitted as its manual requires, with the venting or liner the manufacturer specifies. That is the first thing we verify.
Not a sweep in the wood-burning sense, but its vent needs looking at. Nests, corrosion and disconnected joints happen in gas vents too.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
