Carnation, King County
Chimney work in Carnation starts from two facts. The town has the oldest housing of the four we cover, and it is the wettest of them. A flue here may belong to a prewar house or to a home finished after 2000, and both stand through seven months of rain a year. Every job begins with a $99 plus tax on-site visit, and those $99 are credited against the job if you sign off on our written quote.
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 Carnation home — we'll point you to the right fix.
What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Carnation homes.
Brushing of the whole flue, top to firebox, with brush heads sized to the liner
Learn more
A Level 1 check, or a Level 2 with a camera run through the flue when the visible parts are not enough
Learn more
A camera run and full measurements before any liner is ordered
Learn more
A photographed assessment that separates cosmetic wear from structural damage
Learn more
Measurement of each flue, or of the full crown for a multi-flue cap
Learn more
Close-up photos of the crown and of every face of the stack
Learn more
Inspection of brick, joints and crown before anything is applied
Learn more
Leak tracing at the roof and, where reachable, in the attic
Learn more
Cleaning and testing of the burner, the pilot assembly and the ignition
Learn more
A camera scan to grade the deposits and map where they sit
Learn more
Rotary brushing and air cleaning of the full duct length
Learn more
Every supply and return run cleaned with agitation tools under negative pressure
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Service-area map — Carnation, WA. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Carnation is the smallest town on our route. The Census survey counts 2,366 residents, and the state's April 2026 estimate is 2,415. It lies in east King County at the point where the Tolt River flows into the Snoqualmie River, and WeatherSpark's land survey of the two miles around it finds 54% tree cover and 26% cropland. Some 88% of its housing units are detached houses and about four in five occupied homes are owner-occupied, so the person who calls us is nearly always the person who decides.
The town was platted as Tolt on May 6, 1902. Residents voted 108 to 71 to incorporate, and the incorporation took effect on the last day of 1912, according to HistoryLink. In 1910 Elbridge Amos Stuart had cleared 350 acres nearby for the Carnation dairy farm, and in 1917 the town adopted the farm's name. It went back to Tolt in 1928 and settled on Carnation in 1951.
Growth was slow for most of that century: HistoryLink puts the population at only about 1,500 in 1996. That history explains the housing. A core of early homes, a modest number from the postwar decades, then two larger waves in the 1980s and 1990s and after 2000.
Census estimates for 2020 to 2024 give Carnation a median construction year of 1993. Around 14.5% of units predate 1960, and about 9.4% predate 1940, far above the share in Redmond, Sammamish or Duvall. Another 15.6% were built from 1960 to 1979, about 38.8% across the 1980s and 1990s, and 31.1% since 2000. The bureau notes that counts for a town this small carry wide margins.
Whether a given address has brick, a factory-built box inside a framed chase, or a direct-vent appliance is not in any public record, and we do not guess. For heat, about half of occupied homes rely mainly on electricity and 44.5% on utility gas; wood is the main fuel in only a handful.
Inside city limits, every permit application must pass through Carnation's Online Permit Center; the city's form list includes one titled Mechanical Permit Application. The city's pages do not list which hearth or stove jobs need one, so we ask staff before structural or appliance work. Outside the limits, King County's rules apply.
Who declares an air quality burn ban? Puget Sound Clean Air Agency does, for King County and three others. Under Stage 1, open hearths and uncertified stoves go cold; under Stage 2, so does every wood or pellet device. In both, a home whose only adequate heat is wood needs an approved exemption.
HistoryLink describes Carnation as standing at the confluence of the Tolt and the Snoqualmie River, a place people have lived for thousands of years. The Great Northern Railroad arrived from the north in 1910, and a branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul came up from the south in 1911.
The rivers still set the terms. The City of Carnation follows two gauges: one on the Snoqualmie River 1.3 miles northwest of town, draining 603 square miles, and one on the Tolt 5.5 miles northeast, draining 81.4. A municipal drinking-water reservoir lies 16 miles upstream on the South Fork Tolt. In 2024 the city received a Community Rating System Class 6 rating, which takes 20% off flood insurance policies there automatically.
For a chimney, river country means wet ground at the base, humid air around the stack and, after a high-water season, ash pits and cleanout doors that deserve a look. We ask about past water near the foundation on every Carnation visit.
WeatherSpark's figures for Carnation: about 7.3 months of wetter season, opening near October 7 and closing near May 17; November on top with roughly 9.8 inches of rain and 18.0 wet days; July at the bottom with about one inch. December skies are overcast or mostly cloudy some 77% of the time.
Nearby station records agree on the scale. Upstream, a station with records from 1898 to 2016 averaged 59.14 inches of precipitation yearly. The station at the Tolt South Fork reservoir, in the foothills, averaged 95.20 inches. And WRCC's regional narrative notes that the lower valleys sometimes fill with fog or low cloud until midday in late summer and early fall.
All of that lands on brick, mortar, metal caps and flashing. Most of what we fix in Carnation traces back to water, which is why we schedule exterior work for the dry months and look at the top of the chimney on every visit.
The grid we quote from for Carnation homes — the $99 inspection comes first, the written quote before any work.
| Service | Price in Carnation | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| 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 $425 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped after diagnosis |
| Chimney Cap Installation | $235–$850 | Stainless cap fitted; multi-flue and custom at the top |
| Masonry Repair (Crown / Repointing) | From $475 | Crown work, repointing and tuckpointing by surface area |
| Chimney Waterproofing | $285–$790 | Breathable sealer — reapplied every 3–5 years in this climate |
| Chimney Flashing Repair | $330–$1,500 | Reseal at the low end, full flashing replacement at the high |
| Gas Fireplace Service | $189–$425 | Annual service and tune-up; repairs quoted after diagnosis |
| Creosote Removal | From $215 | Priced by creosote stage — glazed stage 3 is the heavy end |
| Dryer Vent Cleaning | $105–$265 | Full run cleaned; roof or upper-floor terminations at the top |
| Air Duct Cleaning | From $525 | Whole HVAC system — trunks, branches and every register |
Ranges are what these jobs are quoted at in Carnation. 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.
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.
Yes. Carnation is one of the four towns on our regular route, along with Redmond, Sammamish and Duvall, and a single flue is a normal visit.
$99 plus tax per chimney. That amount is credited toward the job when you approve the quote that follows.
For the work, no. For permits, yes: rural addresses around Carnation are in unincorporated King County, which has its own permit office and its own list of what needs a mechanical permit.
Late June to early October for anything involving mortar, sealants or roof work, since that is the dry season here. Indoor work can be done in any month.
Choose a genuine opening on the crew's calendar. We inspect, quote in writing, and hand over a photo record of every repair.
