Tacoma, Pierce County
In Tacoma our chimney repair work begins at $375, which covers something small and local, say a handful of loose bricks or one cracked run of mortar close to the top. Larger jobs, like rebuilding the part of a stack above the roofline, are quoted after we have seen the chimney, with photos of every problem and the reason each line of the quote is there.
Typical investment
From $375
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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 Tacoma home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Tacoma 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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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.
Most repair calls in Tacoma come from the older neighborhoods: the North Slope, the Stadium district, Proctor and the College Park area, where brick chimneys have stood through more than a century of rain, a few earthquakes and several owners' patch jobs. Our first task is often telling original work from later repairs.
The Stadium-Seminary Historic District covers about 200 acres, running roughly between 1st, I and 10th Streets and the shoreline, with buildings from 1888 to 1930 in Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Châteauesque, Neoclassical and Mission styles.
Nearby, the College Park district holds 582 primary buildings and Buckley's Addition, an early streetcar suburb, 592. A large house from that era can carry a wide stack serving several fireplaces, and repairing one opening means checking how the others share the same masonry.
Every chimney repair we do in Tacoma includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe recurring damage here is brick faces that have flaked off after years of wet winters, mortar rinsed from the upper joints, stacks leaning slightly away from the house, and cracks that date from the 2001 earthquake and were never looked at. Hard cement patches on soft old brick also cause trouble of their own.
The 2001 Nisqually quake, a 6.8 on the last day of February, started deep below Anderson Island in the south of the county. Chimneys took the brunt of it: a third of the 30,000 houses FEMA assessed had one damaged, and around 15 million dollars of federal help was spent on them.
Not every cracked stack was fixed then. When we find old diagonal cracks or a top section that has twisted on its joints, we treat it as possible quake damage and check the flue below it too.
Rebuild a stack and the state code decides how tall it ends up: three feet clear of its roof penetration, and two feet higher than anything on the house within a ten-foot radius. Broad chimneys, over 30 inches across and away from the ridge line, also get a small peaked cricket on the uphill side so water runs around them.
On a contributing house inside a local district, Tacoma can send a permitted chimney change to its landmarks commission. We raise that question at the quote stage, never halfway through the job.
We look at the stack from the roof and the flue from inside, and separate old repairs from original masonry.
Every defect gets its own photo and its own price, which lets you sort the must-do items from the ones that can sit a season.
Damaged units come out, joints are cut and refilled, and a leaning or loose upper section is taken down and relaid.
The finished work is photographed, debris is removed from the roof and yard, and the flue is checked for fallen mortar.
What this work is quoted at for Tacoma homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Tacoma | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Repair | From $375 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped after diagnosis |
| 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 Cap Installation | $265–$750 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
Ranges are what these jobs are quoted at in Tacoma. 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.
Back in 2009 federal regulators ruled that Tacoma and the surrounding county were breathing too much fine particulate over 24-hour periods. Home wood fires turned out to be the main culprit: 74 percent of what was emitted directly on a winter day. The area was brought back into attainment in March 2015 and now runs on a maintenance plan.
Air has improved since: of the days tracked in Pierce County in 2023, 272 rated good, 90 moderate and just 3 unhealthy. A repaired chimney that drafts well burns cleaner, which matters on the days burning is still allowed.
Close to 40 inches of precipitation reach Tacoma's long-running gauge in an average year, 39.76 inches over 1982 to 2016, and the heaviest months are November and January. Old brick soaks that water up, and the face slowly breaks away where it cannot dry.
With only about 31.8 nights a year dropping to freezing at the same station, most of the damage we repair is from saturation, not frost. That is why we also look at what lets water in: the crown, the cap and the joints near the top.
Tacoma is the port city the Northern Pacific Railroad chose in 1873 as the western terminus of its transcontinental line, on Commencement Bay, with the territory's oldest housing — about 27% of homes built in 1939 or earlier, in Queen Anne, Craftsman and Foursquare styles. We work every part of it — North Slope, Stadium-Seminary, Proctor, College Park, Buckley's Addition included.
TacomaPierce County, WA · 47.253, -122.444
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 $375 for a small repair. A partial rebuild above the roof or work on a tall stack costs more, and is quoted once we have seen it.
It depends on the scope, so we check it with you before starting. On a contributing building in a local historic district, changing the chimney may also go through design review.
Not until it has been looked at. Cracks can run through the flue as well as the outside brick, and smoke or heat can escape through them.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
