Chimney and fireplace service in Everett

Everett was platted in 1890 as an industrial city and grew into the Milltown, at its peak with 11 lumber mills and 16 shingle mills, along with a brick factory and ore smelters. Its north end still shows it. The Census Bureau's 2024 survey counts 15.6 percent of Everett's homes as built in 1939 or earlier, three times the Snohomish County share, and many of those houses on the peninsula have brick chimneys a century old. South Everett, annexed in the 1960s and 1970s as Boeing arrived, is mostly newer.

Everett is also one of the wettest places we work by rain days. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals give Paine Field measurable rain on about 178 days a year, roughly every other day, with about 29 nights at or below freezing. Electricity heats 67.5 percent of Everett homes, so the fireplace or stove is often a second heat source. At the free inspection we check the chimney from the roof and from inside, take photos and write down the price of any work.

North Everett's old brick

The older neighborhoods on the peninsula, from Riverside and Bayside to Northwest Everett, have the city's oldest chimneys. After a century of near-constant wet, the usual findings are washed-out mortar near the top, a cracked crown, spalled brick and clay flue tiles with open joints or none at all. The National Park Service warns that mortar harder than the brick causes cracking and spalling, so we repoint with a mortar that matches. Repointing typically runs $500 to $2,500, a crown $600 to $2,200 and a stainless liner $1,500 to $5,000.

The city also designates historic overlay districts, including the Riverside, Norton-Grand and Rucker-Grand overlays. If your house is in one and the work would change how the chimney looks, check with the city before it is scheduled.

Snohomish County burn bans

Everett falls under the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's Snohomish County trigger, which is lower than King County's: a Stage 1 ban can be called when fine particles are forecast above 30 micrograms per cubic meter within 72 hours. In Stage 1, wood fireplaces and uncertified stoves cannot be used; in Stage 2, no wood burning at all. Gas and propane units are allowed in both. Gas logs typically run $500 to $2,000 and a gas insert $2,000 to $8,000.

Where we work in Everett

Northwest Everett · Riverside · Bayside · Delta · Port Gardner · Lowell · Silver Lake · Valley View · Pinehurst · View Ridge-Madison · Cascade View · Westmont