Carnation, King County
Masonry repair on a Carnation chimney is priced from $475. That figure covers a crown resurfacing or a small area of repointing. A crown rebuilt from the brick up, or joints renewed across several faces of a tall stack, costs more, and the written quote gives the number before any mortar is mixed.
Typical investment
From $475
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Book your $99 inspection
$99 plus tax, deducted when you approve the repair
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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.
A Level 1 check, or a Level 2 with a camera run through the flue when the visible parts are not enough
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Brushing of the whole flue, top to firebox, with brush heads sized to the liner
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A photographed assessment that separates cosmetic wear from structural damage
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A camera run and full measurements before any liner is ordered
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Measurement of each flue, or of the full crown for a multi-flue cap
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Cleaning and testing of the burner, the pilot assembly and the ignition
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Crowns and joints are where an old chimney shows its age, and Carnation has more old chimneys per street than its neighbors. By Census estimates about 9.4% of the town's homes went up before 1940, against 1.6% in Redmond and half a percent in Sammamish. Those 72 or so houses are a rough count with a wide margin of error, yet the direction is clear. Lime-rich mortar from that period is softer than modern mixes, and packing a hard modern mortar into it can crack the brick around the joint.
HistoryLink records that the Great Northern reached Tolt from the north in 1910 and that a second railroad built a branch from the south a year later. The town stands on the flat where the Tolt meets the Snoqualmie River. Today the city's flooding page separates the two seasons of high water there: heavy winter precipitation, then spring snowmelt swollen by rain.
Brick near grade in that kind of setting draws moisture upward as well as taking it from above. On the lowest courses we look for crumbling faces and for dark, permanently damp joints. Repointing those courses with a breathable mortar lets the wall dry outward, where a hard, dense patch would hold the water in.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Carnation includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowThe crown is the sloped slab that closes the chimney's upper end around the flue. Washington's 2021 residential code, section R1003.9.1, spells out what a sound one looks like: made of concrete, stone or metal, pitched to shed rain, given a drip edge, with a caulked bond break wherever it meets a flue liner. Many older crowns are a thin skim of mortar with none of that. Once it cracks, every rain feeds water into the core of the stack, and the joints below start to fail from behind.
Over more than a century of readings, the Snoqualmie Valley's long-record station, upstream of town, collected an annual average of 59.14 inches of precipitation. Three months each topped eight inches: November at 8.49, December at 8.61, January at 8.25. July averaged 1.31.
Those four numbers set our calendar. Crown pours and large repointing jobs are booked for the dry middle of the year, which WeatherSpark places between late June and early October in Carnation. From November to January we limit masonry to urgent, tented repairs, because mortar that cures wet and cold never reaches full strength.
We test the existing mortar and the brick. That decides the mix: a softer, lime-based mortar for early brick, a standard one for later construction.
Failed joints are cut back to sound material with hand tools or a guarded grinder, then brushed and dampened so the new mortar bonds.
Mortar goes in by layers and is tooled to shed water. On a crown, forms are set so the slab projects past the brick and water falls away from the stack.
New work is protected from rain and frost while it sets. We come back for photos once the cover is off.
What this work is quoted at for Carnation homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Carnation | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Masonry Repair (Crown / Repointing) | From $475 | 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 $425 | Masonry repair — brick and mortar, scoped after diagnosis |
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.
Carnation is a small town platted as Tolt in 1902, where the Tolt River meets the Snoqualmie River, with homes with a median build year of 1993, though about one in seven dates from before 1960.
CarnationKing County, WA · 47.648, -121.914
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 $475. The area to repoint, the height of the stack and whether the crown is patched or rebuilt decide the total, and that total is written down before work begins.
Yes, $99 plus tax. Approve our masonry quote and the same amount is taken off it.
Yes, with protection. Mortar must not freeze or be rained on while curing, so we tent small jobs and book large ones for a dry spell.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
