Lakewood, Pierce County
Masonry repair on a Lakewood chimney starts at $425. That entry price is for a limited job, such as repointing one face of a short stack or resurfacing a sound crown. Full crown replacement, repointing all four sides, or taking down and relaying the top courses costs more, and the written quote itemizes each part so you can see where the money goes.
Typical investment
From $425
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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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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.
Crowns and mortar joints are the parts of a Lakewood chimney that wear out first. We often find older stacks finished with a thin mortar wash on top rather than a proper cast crown with an overhang, and that wash cracks and lets water straight into the brick below. On the lake properties, where wind across open water drives rain against the stack for much of the winter, the joints on the weather side erode visibly faster than the sheltered ones.
The Census Bureau's five-year estimates show a Lakewood housing stock built mostly after the war: about 22.3% of homes are from before 1960, and most of the rest came in the building years up to the median of 1975. When one of those chimneys was topped with a simple mortar slope instead of a formed crown, that top is usually where the water gets in now.
Those same stacks were built for an open fire, and many now carry an insert. When the mortar and crown are sound again, it is worth confirming the insert's liner runs all the way up through the new crown, so the repair seals around a flue that fits.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) 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 weather gives masonry little time to dry out. WeatherSpark counts about 6.2 months of the windier season, mid-October to late April, laid over a wet season of about 6.7 months. Mortar that stays damp that long softens and washes out of the joints, and once the joints are recessed, rain runs into the wall rather than off it. December nights averaging about 35°F add the occasional freeze on top.
Stair-step cracks through the mortar of a brick chimney are a classic mark of movement. Lakewood's older stacks all came through the Nisqually quake of 2001, a 6.8 centered about 52 km beneath Anderson Island, and FEMA's post-quake inspections found chimney damage at about a third of 30,000 homes, according to the USGS report.
Repointing closes those cracks, but it can also hide whether the flue inside moved with the brick. When the outside pattern suggests movement, NFPA 211 and CSIA treat the event as a reason for a Level II inspection with video, and we do that before the new mortar goes in.
Every face of the chimney and the crown are examined and photographed, with the worst joints measured for depth.
Crown work, repointing and brick replacement are priced as separate lines, so you can choose the order of the work.
Old mortar is ground out, the joints are refilled and tooled, and the crown is formed or cast with a slope and overhang that throw water clear.
The new mortar is left to cure properly, and you get photos of the finished crown and joints, plus advice on when a water repellent makes sense.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Masonry Repair (Crown / Repointing) | From $425 | Crown work, repointing and tuckpointing by surface area |
| 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.
When the EPA returned the Tacoma-Pierce County area to attainment in 2015, its notice looked back at the original designation: on a winter day then, residential wood burning accounted for 74% of the fine particles put straight into the area's air. Washington Ecology reported in 2019 that about 5,000 residents of the area had removed uncertified wood stoves since 2012.
A Lakewood chimney with a new crown and tight joints will not break that pattern on its own. What matters for air quality is what burns underneath: a certified appliance, dry wood, and a cold hearth whenever Puget Sound Clean Air Agency calls a ban.
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.
It starts at $425. Full crowns and complete repointing are priced higher; the quote itemizes each piece of the job.
Caulk can buy a season on a hairline crack. A crown with no slope or overhang will keep cracking, and rebuilding it properly is what stops the water.
The drier months, roughly June to September, are easiest for mortar to cure. Urgent repairs can be done in the wet season with protection.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
