Lakewood, Pierce County
A chimney inspection in Lakewood is $99 plus tax per chimney; approve the repair quote and the fee is subtracted from that bill. The visit covers an examination of the firebox, damper, smoke chamber, flue, crown, cap and flashing, a camera where the flue calls for one, and a written report with photos you can keep whether or not you book any work.
What we charge
$99 plus tax
Book an inspection
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.
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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A stainless cap sized to your actual flue dimensions
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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.
A Lakewood inspection usually starts from one of three questions. A buyer wants to know what comes with a 1970s house before closing. An owner has a wood insert that has been in the fireplace for twenty years and wonders what the liner behind it looks like. Or someone on American Lake or Gravelly Lake has noticed a stain on the ceiling near the chimney after a stormy week. The inspection is the same in each case; what changes is where we spend the most time.
Census estimates date the median Lakewood home to 1975, and about 58.9% of the city's units were built before 1980. Many of those houses started with an open masonry fireplace and later had a wood or gas insert slid into it, and the inspection's job is to see whether the flue still suits what is burning in front of it.
NFPA 211 and CSIA count adding, removing or swapping an appliance for a different type among the grounds for a Level II inspection, with the flue scanned by video. On an insert that usually means sliding it forward, following its liner up and confirming it is connected and sized for the unit.
Every chimney inspection we do in Lakewood includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowLakewood's windier months run from mid-October to late April, per WeatherSpark, and they overlap almost exactly with the rainy ones. Rain driven sideways gets into a cracked crown or a lifted flashing seam and then shows up indoors, weeks later and a few feet away from where it entered. On the inside, the usual findings are a creosote layer heavier than the owner expected, a damper that no longer closes, and on older flues a clay tile that has cracked or shifted.
February 28 is a double anniversary in Lakewood: the city incorporated on that date in 1996, and five years later to the day the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake rolled out from deep beneath Anderson Island. USGS reporting on the quake notes that FEMA's teams, going house to house, found a damaged chimney at roughly 10,000 of the 30,000 homes they checked.
Not every cracked tile from 2001 was found in 2001. A liner can split behind the smoke chamber with nothing visible from the hearth, which is why a seismic event is on the list of Level II triggers and why our camera goes up any flue old enough to have been standing that morning.
Pick a two-hour window online. Tell us if there is a second fireplace or a stove on another floor, so both are planned for.
The firebox, damper, smoke shelf and flue are examined from below, with the camera fed up the flue where the opening allows it.
On the roof we check the crown, the cap, the flashing and the upper brick, and photograph the top of the flue.
You get the photos and a written report. If work is needed, the quote is itemized, and the $99 comes off its total when you approve it.
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 Inspection | $99 plus tax | Level 1 visual; Level 2 adds a full camera scan |
| Chimney Sweep | $189–$449 | Full flue swept, Level 1 inspection included |
| 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 |
| Chimney Cap Installation | $265–$750 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
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.
An inspection is often when an old stove's status comes up. Since October 1, 2015, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's stove rule for Tacoma and Pierce County has made it illegal to operate, buy, sell, give away or reinstall an uncertified wood stove or insert in the smoke reduction zone. An open fireplace falls outside that rule, though it still has to stay dark during a burn ban.
What we look for is the EPA certification label, which the agency says normally sits on the back or a side of the unit. A plain steel door or a pair of glass doors hints at an older, uncertified stove, and a UL listing on its own is not the same thing. We note what we find in the report.
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.
$99 plus tax for each chimney. It comes off the repair total once you sign off on the quote; if you decide not to go ahead, the $99 is the whole bill and the report is still yours.
Under NFPA 211, selling or transferring a property triggers a Level II inspection, and CSIA advises getting one when a home sells. It is a national standard rather than a Washington legal requirement, but it is what we suggest to buyers.
Yes, when it can be done safely. If the roof is too steep or wet that day, we tell you what could not be seen and photograph the top from the best point available.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
