Greenwood, King County
Masonry repair on a Greenwood chimney, meaning the crown and the mortar joints, is quoted from $475. A hairline-cracked crown that can be sealed and resurfaced is a job at that level. Repointing is priced by area, so one weathered face costs less than four, and a crown that has broken into pieces has to be chipped away and poured anew, which costs more than a resurfacing. Scaffolding or roof jacks, where the pitch demands them, are listed as their own line.
Typical investment
From $475
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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 Greenwood home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Greenwood 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.
Greenwood has a restored example of its own early brickwork. Greenwood Elementary School was built in 1909 and enlarged in 1928, according to HistoryLink, and the original building was restored in 2001 after being placed on a historic register. Restoration of that kind follows a principle that applies to a house chimney just as well: new mortar should match the old in strength, so that the joint, which is cheap to redo, wears before the brick, which is not. Across ZIP area 98103, where the south end of Greenwood is counted, 9,936 housing units date from 1939 or earlier.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Greenwood includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowRepointing is one of the few chimney jobs Seattle addresses by name. It sits on the city's list of work that needs no permit, next to painting and cleaning, with the reminder that exempt work must still comply with the code. Crown replacement is not named there. Because most projects outside the list need a permit according to SDCI, we ask the department whenever the scope goes beyond joints. Timing matters too: fresh mortar and crown mix should not be rained on while they set, so we watch the forecast and cover new work.
Peat underlies central Greenwood; since August 2008 the city's critical-areas list has included peat bogs. At roof level the conditions are Seattle's. WeatherSpark gives the city a short snowy period of about 1.3 months, from December 12 to January 20, with January averaging 1.2 inches of snow, inside a wet season that runs far longer. We know of no freeze-thaw count for Greenwood or for Seattle and do not offer one.
Mortar is the part of a chimney designed to give way first, and water is what wears it. A joint that stays saturated from October onward softens, and on the handful of nights cold enough for snow the water in it freezes. A cracked crown funnels rain straight into the top courses. Repointing with a compatible mortar and restoring the crown's slope remove both entry points. We schedule the larger jobs for the dry months, and for small winter repairs we tent the work.
Sound, weak and missing mortar are marked on photos so the quote reflects measured area.
Mortar strength is matched to the brick: soft brick gets a soft, lime-based mortar.
Joints are opened to solid material, dampened, packed in layers and tooled.
The crown is repaired or recast with a slope to the edges and a gap around the flue tile for movement.
New work is covered until set, then photographed for your records.
According to Seattle's construction department, a damaging earthquake has an 86 percent likelihood of striking the city within 50 years. The same department has tallied 1,100-plus unreinforced masonry buildings it considers liable to collapse, with upward of 22,000 people living or working inside them. A retrofit code was adopted in fall 2024, and following it remains a choice for now. Those are buildings, not chimneys; nobody publishes a count of unreinforced chimneys for Greenwood.
A typical old house chimney is unreinforced masonry on a small scale. FEMA's chimney advisory identifies weakened mortar as the condition that makes old brick chimneys the most likely to fail. Repointing addresses exactly that condition. It is not a seismic retrofit and we never describe it as one, but a stack with sound joints is in a better state than one held together by habit.
What this work is quoted at for Greenwood homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Greenwood | 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 Greenwood. 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.
Greenwood is a neighborhood platted in 1907 on a former cemetery tract, on both sides of N 85th Street, with houses on either side of the old city limit, the blocks north of N 85th Street annexed only in 1954.
GreenwoodKing County, WA · 47.691, -122.355
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 $475. Joint area, the state of the crown and roof access are the variables, and each appears separately on the quote.
Seattle lists chimney repointing among the work that needs no permit. If the job extends to rebuilding, we check with SDCI.
$99 plus tax, the inspection price. Have us do the masonry and the total is reduced by that $99; the fee stands by itself only if you decide not to proceed.
Close, after it cures. We adjust sand and pigment to the existing joints, though fresh mortar always looks lighter for the first months.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
