Lakewood, Pierce County
Lakewood cap jobs run $265 to $750, fitted. One round or square flue with an off-the-shelf stainless cap is the cheap end; a cap that covers two flues, a custom-sized top for an unusual crown, or a hard-to-reach roof pushes it toward the top. The price includes measuring, the cap, fastening it and a look at the crown it sits on.
Typical investment
$265–$750
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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 Lakewood home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Lakewood homes.
Level 1 or Level 2 as needed; Level 2 includes a camera run through the entire flue
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Top-to-bottom brushing of flue and firebox under drop cloths, with a HEPA vacuum pulling the dust
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Loose or damaged brick, open joints and firebox panels repaired
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A full-length stainless-steel or cast liner, firebox to chimney top
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Burner, pilot assembly and valve cleaned and adjusted
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Crown patched, or recast entirely if it can't be saved
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Uncapped flues are common on Lakewood's older brick chimneys, and so are caps that have rusted through or blown half off. Owners near the tree-lined lakes also find bird nests and fallen debris in the flue each spring. A cap closes the top of the flue to rain, animals and debris while still letting smoke out, and its mesh keeps embers from drifting onto a roof.
Most Lakewood chimneys were built in the decades around the city's 1975 median, per Census estimates, and many have since had an insert added. When an insert is connected to a stainless liner, the cap often mounts on the liner's top plate rather than on the old clay tile, and it has to be sized to the liner, not the original flue.
Houses from before 1960, about 22.3% of Lakewood's stock, sometimes carry two or three flues in one stack: a furnace flue next to the fireplace, for example. A single cap spanning the whole crown can cover them all, provided each flue's draft stays clear.
Every chimney cap installation we do in Lakewood includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe cap has to handle Lakewood's winter wind. WeatherSpark's windier season here runs from about October 16 to April 23, with November the gustiest month on average, and a cap that is only friction-fit into the flue tile can loosen and fall. We fasten caps to the flue or the crown so they hold through a season of storms, and we choose stainless steel so rain does not rust them out in a few winters.
A cap clamped to a cracked flue tile is only as secure as the tile. On Lakewood chimneys old enough to have ridden out the February 2001 Nisqually earthquake, a 6.8 that the seismic network places under Anderson Island, the top tile is one of the pieces we inspect before fastening anything to it.
The USGS account of that quake records that FEMA found chimney damage in roughly a third of 30,000 inspected homes. If the tile at the top has cracked or shifted, we will suggest a crown-mounted cap instead, or a camera check if the damage looks like it goes deeper.
We measure each flue and the crown so the cap fits snugly and does not block the draft.
You get a written price for the cap and installation, with any crown repair shown as a separate line.
The cap is set on the flue or crown and secured with screws or anchors so wind cannot lift it.
With the cap on, we check that smoke clears normally and send you a photo of the finished top.
What this work is quoted at for Lakewood homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Lakewood | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Cap Installation | $265–$750 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
| Chimney Sweep | $189–$449 | 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 $375 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped after diagnosis |
Ranges are what these jobs are quoted at in Lakewood. 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.
A capped chimney keeps embers off the roof; it does not make a fire legal on a ban day. Even a Stage 1 ban, the lighter of Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's two levels, shuts down wood-burning fireplaces along with any stove or insert that lacks certification, and it stops every kind of outdoor burning too, backyard recreational fires included. The state rule behind these bans is WAC 173-433-150.
Finding out takes a minute: the agency posts the current status on its website, answers a recorded line at 800-595-4341 and sends alerts by email to anyone who signs up.
Lakewood is a city incorporated in 1996 around a string of lakes where Tacoma families first built lodges in the late 1800s, on American Lake, with homes with a median build year of 1975, about 59% of them built before 1980.
LakewoodPierce County, WA · 47.172, -122.519
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.
$265 to $750 installed. Most single-flue stainless caps are at the lower end; multi-flue or custom caps cost more.
Washington's residential code only regulates the mesh where an arrestor is fitted. Its holes must be small enough to catch anything half an inch across while still passing something three-eighths of an inch, and it must be removable for cleaning.
It stops rain falling straight down the flue. Leaks that come through the crown, the brick or the flashing need their own repair.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
