Chimney care for Bothell homes on both sides of the county line

Everything is available at Bothell addresses: sweeping, inspection, masonry and crown repair, cap installation, flashing and leak work, relining, waterproofing, and full rebuilds. Most jobs begin as one of two visits — a cleaning, or an inspection because something looks or smells wrong.

1. 1

   You describe the symptom

   Smoke pushing into the room, a stain on the ceiling near the chimney, crumbling brick visible from the driveway, or a fireplace not swept in years. That decides what comes on the truck.

2. 2

   We look before we quote

   Firebox, damper, smoke chamber, and flue from inside; crown, cap, flashing, and exterior masonry from outside. Roof access depends on pitch, surface, and the weather that day.

3. 3

   You get a written scope and price first

   Nothing starts until you have read what is proposed and approved it. If part of the work can wait a season, that is said plainly rather than bundled in.

4. 4

   Photographs, before and after

   The chimney is photographed before and after, from the same angles where roof and weather allow, so you can see the parts you cannot reach.

Most Bothell homeowners meet the split through property tax bills or street numbering. For chimneys it matters in a narrower way, and it is worth knowing which rules follow the city and which follow the county.

• Follows the city. Building permits, code review, and inspection of the finished work. One counter serves the whole city, in both counties.
• Follows the county. Air quality burn bans, which the regional air agency calls county by county rather than city by city, on a different fine-particle trigger for each.
• Follows the county. Assessor and property records, so the year-built figure for a Bothell house comes from either the King County or the Snohomish County assessor, never both.

A large share of the housing on the King County side of Bothell went up in the 1970s, with a later wave in the 1990s around Norway Hill. That age line matters. A 1970s house is old enough to have a site-built masonry fireplace with a clay tile flue, and a crown — the sloped masonry slab capping the chimney — that has taken about fifty wet winters. Clay tile does not fail gracefully: it cracks and separates at the joints, and none of that shows from the ground. Houses built from the 1990s onward more often have a factory-built firebox and a listed chimney system, which ages and is inspected differently.

Elevation inside the city varies more than people expect. Downtown and Bothell Landing sit low along the Sammamish River, while Westhill, Norway Hill, and Beckstrom Hill rise well above them. A ridge chimney takes more wind-driven rain on one face than a sheltered valley chimney does, and wind-driven rain is the load that finds a cracked crown or a lifted flashing.

Bothell is not covered by Seattle's permitting department, and it does not send you to a county counter either. Building and land use applications for addresses anywhere in the city go to the City of Bothell Permit Center, part of the Community Development Department, and the city takes applications online through MyBuildingPermit.com. That is true on the King County side and the Snohomish County side alike.

Whether a given job needs a permit depends on what is being done. Routine sweeping and inspection do not. Structural masonry work, a rebuild above or below the roofline, and changes to how an appliance vents are the kinds of work a building department expects to review.

The written scope you approve is the price. What lands in that scope comes down to access, condition, and how much of the chimney has to come apart.

• Roof access. Pitch, height, surface, and how close the chimney sits to a ridge or wall change the equipment and the time on the roof. Ridge lots in Westhill or Norway Hill are often steeper than the street suggests.
• How far the damage runs. Repointing a few open joints is a different job from rebuilding the stack above the roofline, and neither is knowable until someone has looked.
• Whether water has already been getting in. A crown or flashing that has leaked for seasons usually means the masonry below needs attention too, so the repair widens.
• Appliance and flue type. An open masonry fireplace, an insert, and a wood stove each call for different work, and a liner must be sized to the appliance it serves.
• Season and weather window. Crown repair, flashing, and water repellent need dry masonry and a dry forecast, so the drier half of the year yields more usable working days.

If your Bothell house dates from the 1970s or earlier and you do not know when the chimney was last examined, start with an inspection rather than guessing at a repair.

• Start here. Chimney inspection, then chimney sweeping if the flue is due for cleaning.
• If water is the problem. Chimney crown repair, cap installation, flashing repair, leak repair, and waterproofing.
• If the masonry or flue has failed. Chimney masonry repair, liner installation, and full rebuild and restoration.
• Nearby cities we also cover. Kirkland, Everett, Shoreline, and Redmond, plus the rest of the King and Snohomish county service area.