Fremont, King County
On a Fremont chimney, masonry repair as we define it (crown work and mortar joints) is priced from $475. A crown resurfaced or a few square feet of joints repointed sits at that level. A crown broken up and recast with a proper drip edge, or repointing all four sides of a high chimney, is a larger bill, larger still if we have to build staging to stand on. The measure is surface: we count the square feet of joint to redo and the size of the crown, and price from those.
Typical investment
From $475
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$99 plus tax, deducted when you approve the repair
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Pick what you're seeing at your Fremont home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Fremont 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.
The city's Fremont survey report dates the Craftsman style to 1900-1930 and counts stone or brick chimneys among its defining features, with low roofs, wide eaves and deep porches. It credits the Tudor Revival houses of 1900-1940 with big, conspicuous chimneys, set as a rule on the facade toward the street. Many North Seattle bungalows came out of plan books; the report cites Victor Voorhees, who offered 125 designs. In houses like these the chimney is part of the architecture, which sets the standard for masonry work: joints of the right width and color, a crown that does not shout from the street.
The two wettest months in the Portage Bay record, kept on the Lake Union side from 1972 to 1998, were December at 6.03 inches and November at 5.63. The yearly average there was 37.92 inches. WRCC's statewide narrative allots 32 to 35 inches to the lowland strip that ends at Seattle, so the lake-side gauge ran above that band.
Almost a third of the year's water therefore arrives in eight or nine weeks, when the sun is too low to dry anything. A flat crown holds that water in puddles; a cracked one passes it into the stack. This is why we cast crowns with a slope and an overhang that throws drips clear of the brick, and why we repoint the upper courses first: they take the rain before anything else does.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Fremont includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe crown is the slab that closes the top of the stack around the flue. When it is a thin wash of mortar without overhang, it cracks, and each crack feeds water into the courses below. Joints then erode from the top down. Repointing replaces the outer part of each joint with fresh mortar, and repointing appears by name on the city's permit-exempt list, with the reminder that exemption from a permit is not exemption from the code. Mortar choice is the craft: a mix harder than the old brick will break the brick instead of protecting it.
Seattle's emergency planners space deep quakes of 6.0 and up some 30 to 50 years apart. For a chimney built new today, the Seattle Residential Code answers with steel: four continuous No. 4 vertical bars for chimneys up to 40 inches wide, and two steel straps tying the stack to the house framing, each fastened to four joists.
A chimney from Fremont's building years is older than those requirements. What holds such a stack together is mortar, and repointing restores only the outer part of the joint. We say so plainly: repointing keeps water out and slows decay, which matters because weakened mortar is the condition earthquake advisories warn about, but it does not turn an unreinforced stack into a reinforced one. If the joints are soft through their full depth, we report that instead of dressing the surface.
Depth of erosion is probed and the crown is checked for hollow or loose sections.
On paper: the sides to repoint, and the crown's fate (seal, resurface, recast).
Out with the spent mortar; the crown gets its form and its drip edge; joints are filled in lifts.
Tarps keep showers off the green mortar, and the pictures reach you once it has set.
What this work is quoted at for Fremont homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Fremont | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Masonry Repair (Crown / Repointing) | From $475 | Crown work, repointing and tuckpointing by surface area |
| 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 Fremont. 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.
Fremont is a neighborhood platted in 1888 beside what became the Ship Canal and annexed to Seattle in 1891, on Lake Union, with houses built mostly between 1902 and the end of the 1920s.
FremontKing County, WA · 47.651, -122.350
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.
This page covers the crown and the joints. Replacing bricks, correcting a lean or rebuilding courses is structural repair and is quoted separately.
Yes, on dry days above freezing, with the fresh joints covered. We reschedule when the forecast would leave new mortar wet or frozen overnight.
It does. Crown and joints are measured during an inspection ($99 plus tax, one chimney). That $99 then counts as the first payment on masonry work you approve.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
