Mercer Island, King County
Masonry repair on Mercer Island, meaning crown work and repointing, starts at $475. The price grows with the area of mortar to be cut out and replaced, and with whether the crown can be patched or has to be recast. Every quote comes with photos of the joints and crown we are proposing to fix.
Typical investment
From $475
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$99 plus tax, deducted when you approve the repair
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What we do
The same crew, the same written quote — for Mercer Island homes.
Level 1 or Level 2 inspection, with a camera scan where warranted
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Complete sweep of the flue and firebox, protected by drop cloths and HEPA filtration
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Restoration of brick, mortar joints and firebox
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A stainless-steel or ceramic liner run the full height of the flue
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A stainless cap fitted to your flue's exact dimensions
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Cleaning of the burner, pilot and valve assembly
Learn moreRanges shown for orientation — the exact figure is written up on-site, after the inspection.
Mortar is the part of a chimney built to wear out first. On a house from the island's big growth years, when the population rose from about 1,200 in 1940 to nearly 13,000 in 1960, the original joints have had more than six decades of wet winters to soften, and the crown poured at the top has had the same time to crack.
Mercer Island has Lake Washington on every shore; water accounts for about 6.52 of its 12.90 square miles. King County's lake profile describes the largest of its three major lakes.
Late-fall and winter storms in western Washington bring the strongest winds, usually out of the south or southwest, according to the Western Regional Climate Center. On most island chimneys, that is the face where joints recede first and where our repointing usually begins.
WSU Extension's demossing manual says moss thrives from fall through spring on surfaces that stay wet, and that uncontrolled moss shortens a roof's life. OSU Extension points to shade as the other half of the equation.
On a chimney, moss settles into recessed joints and along the crown edge and keeps both damp. We scrape it out by hand before repointing, because new mortar laid over live moss will not bond, and we skip the pressure washer that OSU says can damage shingles.
Every masonry repair (crown / repointing) we do in Mercer Island includes:
Smoke coming back into the room, or a smell that won't go? Book the inspection first.
Book nowTwo defects cover most of what we repair. The first is a crown finished level with the outer brick and lacking any drip edge, which sends rain straight down the face of the chimney. Soft or recessed mortar joints then let that water into the brick, where it stays through a long wet season. Fixing one without the other usually brings us back within a few years.
The Seattle fault is not abstract here: the City of Mercer Island reports at least two of its strands crossing the island. Washington DNR gives an 85 percent chance of a deep magnitude 6.5 or larger quake somewhere in the Puget Sound region within 50 years.
FEMA and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes both single out older unreinforced chimneys with degraded mortar as the most vulnerable. Repointing restores the mortar, but FEMA is clear that it does not by itself improve seismic performance, so we describe your options honestly rather than selling joints as a retrofit.
We mark which faces and courses have failed and photograph the crown from above, so the quote covers the joints that need work and not the whole stack by default.
Failed joints are ground out to a consistent depth. Sound joints are left alone, since removing good mortar only weakens the wall.
New mortar goes in and is tooled to shed water. The crown is patched if it is sound underneath, or recast with a drip edge if it is not.
We keep fresh mortar protected while it sets, clean the roof and gutters of dust, and photograph the finished work for your records.
CSIA's guidance is for the crown to overhang the chimney by roughly two inches all the way around, so rain falls clear instead of streaming down the brick and mortar. Many older crowns were poured flush and do the opposite.
That detail matters in a climate where, per the Western Regional Climate Center, the wet season runs from October into a winter peak and January humidity rarely drops below about 78 percent. When we recast a crown, we build in that overhang.
What this work is quoted at for Mercer Island homes — the exact figure comes from the $99 on-site inspection, credited toward the work.
| Service | Price in Mercer Island | 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 $1,895 | 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 Mercer Island. 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.
Mercer Island is an island city in the middle of Lake Washington, on Lake Washington, with mid-century and high-value waterfront homes.
Mercer IslandKing County, WA · 47.571, -122.222
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 for crown work or a limited area of repointing. Larger areas and full crown rebuilds cost more, and the quote itemizes each.
No. FEMA's guidance says repointing alone does not improve a masonry chimney's seismic performance. It stops water damage, which is worth doing, but it is not a seismic upgrade.
Mortar needs a dry, above-freezing window to cure properly, so we schedule around the forecast. Urgent crown sealing can often be done between storms.
A $99 on-site inspection, a written quote before any work, and photos of every item we touch.
