Chimney service in Fife, WA

In Census estimates for 2020 to 2024, about 1.2% of occupied homes in Fife list wood as their main heating fuel. Statewide the share is about 2.8%. Those are households where the stove is the furnace, lit day after day from fall into spring.

For them, the age of the stove matters as much as the state of the flue. A homeowner in Pierce County who hauls a still-working older stove or insert to an approved recycler can collect $500 from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and that includes certified units that fall short of the 2020 EPA limits.

Fife, WA spends a long stretch of the year damp. By WeatherSpark's count, its rainier season lasts some 6.8 months, from around October 9 to May 2, and November tops the chart at close to 8 inches of rain. Skies stay mostly cloudy for about 8.2 months, with December overcast or mostly so around 74% of the time, and snow, when it comes, tends to fall between mid-December and mid-January.

Moss is the slow problem. Oregon State University's extension service, whose advice is written for this wet corner of the country, explains that a moss mat holds on to soil and debris, keeps them damp, and in time pries shingles up far enough for water to get beneath them. Around a chimney, that wet mat usually builds on the uphill side, right where the roof meets the stack.

Washington's residential code builds in an answer for wider stacks. A chimney more than 30 inches across that stops short of the roof's peak must have a cricket behind it: a small peaked diverter that splits runoff around the stack instead of letting it pool. On a Fife roof we check that the cricket is there where required and that moss has not taken it over.

The EPA found in 2009 that air in the Tacoma-Pierce County area broke the federal limit on fine particles measured over 24 hours, a finding in force from December 14 of that year. Its 2015 notice puts home wood burning behind 74% of the fine particles emitted directly on winter days at the time. The area was cleared, or redesignated to attainment, on March 12, 2015, and it now runs under the first of two ten-year maintenance plans.

One lasting result is the Tacoma-Pierce County Smoke Reduction Zone. Since October 1, 2015, an uncertified wood stove or insert there cannot legally change hands, whether sold, bought or handed on for free, and it cannot be put back in or fired up. Open fireplaces fall outside that rule, but a ban day still means no fire in them.

Since March 15, 2024, homes across Washington fall under the 2021 state codes, whose Residential Code follows the 2021 IRC with state amendments. A masonry stack has to clear the roof it pierces by a minimum of three feet, and it must also stand two feet or more above anything on the building within a ten-foot radius.

Where a spark arrestor is fitted, the same chapter fixes its mesh: openings that stop a half-inch sphere but pass a three-eighths-inch one, and a screen that comes off for cleaning. Permit questions for a specific job go to the City of Fife before work is scheduled.