Phinney Ridge, King County
Crown work and repointing on Phinney Ridge carry a $475 minimum. For that sum, expect a small stack's crown given a new surface, or one modest patch of joints redone. Beyond it, the price follows the surface: how many square feet of joints must be ground out and refilled, whether the crown can be resurfaced or has to be broken out and recast, and what it takes to work safely on that roof.
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 Phinney Ridge home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Phinney Ridge 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 ridge's commercial strip shows what the brickwork of its building years looks like. The city's survey of neighborhood commercial districts picks out a two-story brick block of 1932 at N 73rd Street, apartments over shops with Art Deco detail still intact, and a Tudor-inspired tavern of 1934 at Phinney Avenue N and N 61st Street. Houses nearby went up in the same years and earlier. Across ZIP area 98103, the census area Phinney Ridge belongs to, only 3.2% of housing units date from the 1940s and 5.9% from the 1950s, against 34.7% from before 1940: the old stock is prewar, not postwar.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Phinney Ridge includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowOld mortar is softer than modern mixes, and it is meant to be. Repointing soft historic brick with a hard cement mortar traps water behind the joint and breaks the brick faces off within a few winters, so the mix is chosen after looking at what is there. On the paperwork side, chimney repointing is on the list Seattle publishes of permit-exempt work, in the company of cleaning and painting. Exempt does not mean unregulated: the code still governs how such work is done. Recasting a crown is not on that list by name, so we ask SDCI where a job goes further than joints.
WeatherSpark's Seattle averages count 3.6 months of cool season, opening November 12 and closing March 1. December is coldest, its average low 38°F, and the thermometer seldom dips under 28°F. That cool season falls inside the wettest months. We have no count of freeze-thaw cycles for Phinney Ridge or for Seattle and will not quote one.
What can be said is simpler. A cracked crown or an open joint stays saturated for months, and on the few nights the temperature does drop below freezing, the water inside expands. On exposed high ground, where the city's emergency management office says wind picks up speed, rain is also driven deeper into those openings. Repointing and crown repair close the paths water uses, which is why this work is worth doing before the wet season and not after the damage shows indoors.
We probe the mortar on each face and map where it is sound, weak or gone.
The replacement mix is selected to be no harder than the brick it holds.
Failed joints are removed to a consistent depth and repacked in layers, then tooled to shed water.
Where needed, the crown is recast with a slope and an overhang so rain runs clear of the brick.
New work is protected from rain while it sets, and you receive the photo record.
Nisqually, the earthquake that struck on the last day of February 2001, measured 6.8 and began some 52 kilometers down. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network reports that more than a thousand unreinforced masonry buildings in the region were red- or yellow-tagged afterward. Seattle today counts over 1,100 unreinforced masonry buildings it regards as a collapse hazard, and its retrofit code, adopted in fall 2024, is voluntary for now. Both tallies are of whole buildings. House chimneys are not in them, and for this neighborhood we found no figures of any kind.
The link to repointing is mortar. An old chimney is held together by its joints and nothing else, so joints that have turned to sand leave the bricks stacked more than bonded. Sound mortar does not reinforce a chimney, but it restores the strength the stack was built with, and that is the baseline for any further decision.
What this work is quoted at for Phinney Ridge homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Phinney Ridge | 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 Phinney Ridge. 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.
Phinney Ridge is a ridge-top neighborhood between Aurora Avenue N and 8th Avenue NW, named for Guy Phinney, with houses that followed the Phinney Avenue streetcar north between 1906 and 1909.
Phinney RidgeKing County, WA · 47.679, -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. The total depends on the area of joints to redo and on whether the crown is resurfaced or recast.
No, as far as repointing goes: the city's exemption list includes it by name, on condition that the result meets code. For anything beyond that we confirm with SDCI first.
That is what the inspection answers. It costs $99 plus tax, and when you approve the masonry quote we take the $99 off the bill.
A sealer applied over failed joints hides the problem and holds water in. Joints are repaired first; a breathable water repellent can follow once the masonry is sound.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
