Fife, Pierce County
Sealing the brick on a Fife chimney against rain runs $320–$795; stack height and how much masonry stands above the roofline decide where you land. What goes on is a vapor-permeable repellent. Rain beads off, yet vapor trapped inside the brick keeps an exit. Brick with open joints or cracks gets repaired before any coat is sprayed, never after.
Typical investment
$320–$795
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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 Fife home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Fife 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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A stainless cap sized to your actual flue dimensions
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Burner, pilot assembly and valve cleaned and adjusted
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Waterproofing is a brick-and-mortar job, and in Fife that narrows the field. Most homes here are recent, with a median build year of 2000, and their chimneys are metal flues inside sided chases that need sealing of a different kind. The houses that do have masonry stacks tend to be the older ones, and their brick has already been through several decades of Northwest rain. For those, a repellent is one of the cheaper ways to slow down the wear.
Estimates from the 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey put wood as the leading heat source in a little over one Fife home in a hundred, roughly 1.2%.
Chimneys on those homes are warm and in use for months at a stretch, and the brick around the flue goes through more heating and cooling than a stack that sees a fire twice a year. Ecology's 2019 progress report shows how many county homes moved away from older stoves: about 5,000 uncertified units were removed after 2012. The chimneys left serving wood heat deserve brick that sheds water well.
Pierce County logged 272 good-air days in 2023 by the regional clean air agency's tally, alongside 90 moderate ones and just 3 rated unhealthy. Winter wood smoke is one of the things the agency's burn bans exist to keep in check.
A standing smoke limit applies too: no plume darker than 20% opacity beyond six minutes in a given hour, and never garbage, treated lumber or plastic in the firebox. Wet brick leaves the smoke alone, but a wet flue does not, which is another reason to keep water out.
Every chimney waterproofing we do in Fife includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowBrick acts like a sponge. On a Fife chimney that means weeks at a time of absorbing rain between October and May, then drying slowly under grey skies. Water held in the brick carries salts to the surface, leaving white streaks, and in a hard frost it can crack the face. A repellent reduces how much water goes in in the first place; it does not fix a crown or flashing that is already letting water through.
Fife sees roughly 6.8 wet months each year, from about the second week of October into early May, according to WeatherSpark, and its cloudy season is longer still at around 8.2 months. Brick that soaks up rain in that stretch gets few sunny days to dry.
Moss makes it worse. OSU Extension explains that a moss mat holds damp soil and debris against the roof and can lift shingles until water gets under them; next to a chimney, that mat also keeps the lowest courses of brick wet. We clear it before applying a repellent, and OSU's own advice is to let more sun reach the roof by trimming trees.
We check joints, crown and flashing. If they leak, sealing the brick would only hide the problem, so we say so.
Grime and moss get scrubbed away, then the job waits on a stretch of dry weather long enough for proper absorption.
A vapor-permeable product goes on the whole exposed stack, so the brick can still breathe.
The product and date go in writing, which tells you when a fresh coat falls due.
What this work is quoted at for Fife homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Fife | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney Waterproofing | $320–$795 | Breathable sealer — reapplied every 3–5 years in this climate |
| 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 Fife. 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.
Fife is a city incorporated in 1957 on farmland just south of the Port of Tacoma, along I-5, with mostly newer homes — a median build year of 2000, about 22% built before 1980.
FifePierce County, WA · 47.239, -122.357
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.
$320–$795. Little brick showing above a low roof keeps it near the bottom; a tall stack with lots of exposed face pushes toward the top.
Yes, people use both terms. What matters is that the product is breathable. A sealer that traps moisture in the brick can do more harm than good.
Plan on three to five years between coats here. Because the product and date are written down, the next one is easy to schedule.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
