Level 1 sweep and inspection to the NFPA 211 annual standard - flue, crown, cap, and flashing checked and photographed
Chimney sweep logs do not sweep chimneys. They loosen some creosote - which then falls where a brush and vacuum still have to collect it.
Fast, Reliable Chimney Cap & Crown Across Burien
Chimney cap and crown repair in Burien typically costs between $450 and $2,400, depending on whether you need a simple cap replacement or a full crown rebuild with custom stainless fabrication. Most cap-only jobs run $450-$950, while crown repair with coating lands between $800 and $1,800. We schedule Burien jobs within five to seven business days during the spring and summer, and we bring the camera down the flue on every single visit so you see exactly what we see before any work is quoted.
Burien homes west of 1st Ave S face conditions most chimney companies in King County never deal with. Salt-laden marine air off Puget Sound eats through crown mortar at a rate that surprises homeowners who moved here from inland suburbs. If you own one of the 1950s-1970s brick ranch homes that dominate neighborhoods like Gregory Heights, Boulevard Park, or the bluff streets above Seahurst, your chimney cap and crown are doing more work than you think, and most of that work is invisible from the ground. Call us at (980) 580-8641 and we’ll put a camera on it.
Key takeaways:
- Written price before any work starts, always, under Clause 1 of the Haven Standard.
- Camera-scan documentation on every visit, including the day we quote the job.
- We serve all of Burien: Three Tree Point, Seahurst, Gregory Heights, Boulevard Park, Chelsea Park, and the downtown core.
- No recommendation without camera evidence you can review yourself, on your own phone or screen.
Why Emberly Chimney Cleaners Is Burien’s Preferred Chimney Cap & Crown Company
Burien homeowners call us because we don’t do flashlight inspections. Since 2009, every job we’ve run in the Puget Sound region, more than 38,000 inspections and cleanings total, has started with a camera scan down the flue and a written scope of work before anyone touches a brick. Clause 4 of the Haven Standard requires a photo record on every visit, and we’ve kept that archive continuously since the company’s first year. When a Burien homeowner asks whether their crown is actually failing, we show them the footage. When they ask whether a new cap is really necessary, we show them the water staining at the smoke chamber. The answer is in the image, not in our opinion.
We know Burien’s housing stock because we’ve worked on it for years. The post-WWII brick ranches and split-levels that line streets from Ambaum Blvd SW up toward Shorewood share a common set of problems: original clay flue tiles, mortar joints that have never been repointed, and crowns that were poured thin to begin with. Those are not the chimneys you want to gamble on with a handshake quote and a “trust me.” Our techs are background-checked, uniformed, and assigned by name. You get a text when we’re on the way, and every job finishes with a written warranty plus the photo record.
Licensing is visible before we arrive. We’re independently owned and operated under the Haven Standard, and our license information is displayed on every page of our site, not tucked into a filing cabinet. Corrine Halstead leads the team and has made one thing consistent across every Burien job we’ve run: if the homeowner can’t verify the problem with their own eyes, we don’t recommend fixing it.
Our Chimney Cap & Crown Services in Burien

Most Burien homes need more than just a cap bolted on. The combination of salt air, Douglas fir debris, and 60-year-old masonry means the cap and crown work together or they fail together. Here’s what we do most often across Burien:
Cap Installation
A new stainless cap on a Burien chimney has to do two jobs at once: keep rain out of the flue and keep fir needles from building a damp mat on top of the flue tile. We install caps from Famco and Copperfield, sized to the actual flue dimensions, not a universal slip-on that rattles in the first Puget Sound windstorm. Standard single-flue cap installations in Burien run $450-$750, including the cap, hardware, and a camera scan before and after.

Cap Replacement
If your existing cap is rusted through or bent from a branch fall on a bluff street above Seahurst, replacing it is straightforward. But we always check what the failed cap was hiding. On a 1960s split-level above Seahurst, our tech found a crown with spalling mortar and a rusted multi-flue cap. Salt air had eaten the wash, and Douglas fir needles had matted on the flue openings. We removed the old cap, ground back the failed crown, and installed a custom stainless multi-flue cap over a new Gelco crown coating, after showing the homeowner the camera evidence of moisture intrusion at the smoke chamber. Cap replacement in Burien typically runs $500-$950, and a custom multi-flue cap on a wide chimney can push to $1,400 depending on flue spacing.

Crown Repair
The crown is the concrete wash that sheds water away from the flue liner. On Burien’s 1950s and 1960s brick chimneys, that wash was often poured too thin and without enough slope. Add 38 inches of annual rain plus salt fog, and you get spalling, cracking, and water traveling down into the flue liner and firebox. We grind back the failed material, re-form the wash with proper slope, and finish with a Gelco crown coating that flexes and seals. Crown repair in Burien runs $800-$1,800 depending on crown size, access, and whether we’re repairing or rebuilding the wash from scratch.

Crown Coating
If the crown is structurally sound but showing early cracks or surface spalling, a crown coating is the right move before the damage reaches the flue liner. We use Gelco and HeatShield products designed for the wet, salt-heavy conditions west of 1st Ave S. Coating a crown on a typical Burien ranch home runs $600-$1,200, and it includes a camera scan to confirm the liner and smoke chamber are still dry. We don’t coat over a failing crown and call it done. If the mortar is crumbling, we tell you, and the camera footage shows it.

What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
- 3
A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
- 4
You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Before
AfterTrusted Brands We Service in Burien
We stock parts from manufacturers that hold up in Puget Sound conditions. Famco and Copperfield caps come in stainless steel that resists the salt corrosion we see on Sound-facing chimneys from Three Tree Point to Seahurst. Gelco crown coatings and DuraFlex flue liners round out the most common materials on our Burien jobs. Because we source through Haven’s buying network, our part costs stay honest, and Burien customers aren’t paying a markup for a cap we ordered overnight from a distributor. We carry the most common cap sizes and crown repair materials in our service vehicles, which means most Burien jobs don’t wait on a parts shipment.
Common Chimney Cap & Crown Problems We See in Burien Homes

- Salt air erosion on Sound-facing crowns. Homes west of 1st Ave S, especially on Three Tree Point and the bluff streets above Seahurst, get steady marine air that accelerates mortar joint erosion and crown cracking. We see crowns on 15-year-old chimneys in these neighborhoods that look worse than 40-year-old crowns in Tukwila or Renton.
- Douglas fir needles plugging caps and flue openings. The bluff streets are lined with mature firs that overhang chimneys. Needles and small branches drop onto caps, mat together, and create a damp, creosote-trapping environment inside the smoke chamber. A simple mesh cap upgrade often solves this if the crown is still sound.
- Original clay tile flues with no cap at all. A surprising number of Burien split-levels and ranches never had a cap installed, or the original cap rusted off decades ago. Rain falls directly down the flue, erodes the clay tiles from the inside, and the damage shows up as water staining on the smoke chamber wall. By the time you see it from the living room, the liner often needs work too.
- Thin crowns that spall within a decade. Many Burien chimneys built between 1950 and 1975 have crowns poured with too little slope and too little thickness. Once the surface cracks, water sits in the fissures, freeze-thaw cycles widen them, and the crown starts shedding pieces. We see it most on ranch homes in Gregory Heights and Boulevard Park where the chimney is fully exposed to weather on all four sides.
Pricing for Chimney Cap & Crown in Burien, WA
Here are the numbers we’ve been writing on Burien quotes this year:
| Service | Typical Burien Price Range |
|---|---|
| Single-flue cap installation | $450 - $750 |
| Multi-flue cap (custom stainless) | $800 - $1,400 |
| Crown repair (grind back, re-form, coat) | $800 - $1,800 |
| Crown coating (no structural repair) | $600 - $1,200 |
| Cap replacement + minor crown repair | $900 - $2,400 |
The variables that move a Burien quote are flue size, chimney height and roof pitch, whether we need a lift for bluff access, and what the camera finds once we’re down the flue. None of that is guesswork. Every quote is written, scoped, and priced before work starts, and the camera record from the inspection is yours to keep. Call (980) 580-8641 for a free estimate. We bring a written price, not a sales pitch.
We Also Serve Cities Near Burien

While this page covers Burien specifically, our team runs chimney cap and crown jobs throughout the region. We regularly schedule work in Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, and Spokane, and the same camera-documented standard applies on every job. See our full Chimney Cap & Crown service page for details that apply across the service area. Dispatch and scheduling coordination comes from our Seattle office, and crews serve Burien locally.
Serving Burien, WA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Burien area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Chimney Cap & Crown in Burien

Salt-laden marine air off Puget Sound is the main difference. Burien’s western waterfront and bluff neighborhoods, including Three Tree Point and Seahurst, sit directly on the Sound, and the salt accelerates mortar joint erosion and crown cracking far faster than in inland King County suburbs like Tukwila or Renton. Add over 38 inches of annual rain plus persistent marine fog, and the crown rarely gets a chance to dry out. Homes west of 1st Ave S routinely show crown spalling in half the time we’d expect to see it east of I-5. If you’re in that belt and haven’t had the crown inspected in the last two years, call (980) 580-8641 and we’ll put the camera on it.
Annually, even if you barely burn. The problem in Burien isn’t creosote buildup from heavy use, it’s moisture damage that progresses whether the fireplace is used or not. Rain, fog, and salt air attack the crown and cap continuously. We inspect the cap and crown during a standard chimney sweep visit, and the camera scan covers the flue liner, smoke chamber, and firebox in one pass. A yearly inspection catches a cracked crown before it becomes a $1,800 repair and a liner replacement.
Sometimes the cap alone is enough, but usually not when the crown is cracked. The crown is what sheds water away from the flue. If it’s cracked and spalling, a new cap won’t stop water from working through the fissures and into the flue liner. We’ll show you the camera footage, and if the crown damage is superficial, we may recommend a coating rather than a full repair. But if the crown is structurally failing, the cap replacement is only doing half the job. The written quote spells out which parts need work and why, with photos to match.
Salt accelerates the chemical breakdown of the cement paste in the crown mortar. It penetrates the surface pores, crystallizes as the crown dries, and slowly spalls off the top layer. Over several years, the crown loses its slope, water starts pooling, and the cycle speeds up. On Sound-facing chimneys in Burien, we’ll often find crowns with a rough, pitted surface and visible aggregate, while a chimney the same age a few miles inland in SeaTac or Tukwila still has a relatively smooth wash. Annual inspection is the only way to catch it before the flue liner takes on water.
The most common problem is actually a combination: Douglas fir debris plugging the cap from above while salt air erodes the crown mortar from outside. Mature firs overhang many bluff-street chimneys, dropping needles and small branches that mat on top of standard caps and restrict draft. That trapped debris stays damp, and the salt air keeps it wet. We recommend custom stainless caps with proper mesh sizing for those homes, paired with a crown inspection every year. It’s a pattern we see far more in Burien’s bluff neighborhoods than anywhere else in our service area. Call (980) 580-8641 and we’ll take a look with the camera.
If you’re in Burien and you suspect your chimney cap or crown is failing, or you simply want the camera record to prove it isn’t, call us at (980) 580-8641. We’ll schedule a visit, bring a written price, and leave you with the footage to back it up.
Written by Corrine Halstead, Owner at Emberly Chimney Cleaners, serving Burien under the Haven Standard since our founding in 2009.





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