Chimney Masonry Repair · Redmond, WA
Crumbling mortar on a Redmond chimney: repointing, veneer, or something else
Mortar you can rake out with a house key, joints washed back behind the brick face, thin flakes of brick in the gutter. The conditions are the same everywhere; what they mean depends on what the brick is attached to.
In Redmond that is the first question, because a good share of the brick chimneys here are a single skin wrapped around something else.
Reviewed by Chimney4u editorial team · Last updated
Is it a masonry chimney, or brick wrapped around a metal one?
- What is on top. A solid stack is finished with a cast slab and the flue tile standing proud of it. A veneered chase is finished with a flat sheet-metal cover. If the top is metal, the brick below it is a skin, not a structure.
- What the brick is doing. A single wythe of veneer carries itself and nothing else. Repointing it restores its weather surface, but it will not do anything about water already behind it, which is the more common problem on a chase.
Matching mortar on brickwork of this vintage
Most repointing advice online is written about historic masonry — soft brick, lime-rich mortar, a hundred years of weathering. Redmond's brickwork is generally not that, and the correction runs in both directions.
- The rule does not change. Repointing mortar has to be equal to or lower in compressive strength than the mortar it replaces, and softer and more vapor-permeable than the brick. Mortar harder than the units drives movement stress into the brick, producing cracking and spalling that cannot be repointed out.
- But the answer lands elsewhere on the ladder. The industry's selection rule is the lowest compressive strength that meets the project's requirements — not the lowest strength that exists. On modern brickwork that is usually a different type than the very soft mixes specified for historic walls.
Shade, wet, and the elevation that fails first
Brick and mortar pull water in through microscopic capillaries and dry by evaporation. The damage begins when a chimney stops fully drying between wettings, and on a Redmond lot that condition is not evenly distributed around the stack.
So the elevation to look at first is the shaded one — typically north-facing, or whichever side sits under the canopy and stays dark after rain. Saturated masonry that then freezes spalls at the face, and the side that never dries is the side that gets there first.
- Replacement brick has a grade requirement. Brick used where it will be wet and freezing must meet the severe weathering grade, demonstrated by passing 50 freeze-thaw cycles or by strength and absorption criteria. That is a specification question, not a color-matching one — and an exact visual match to an aged brick is often not obtainable anyway.
- Moss is a symptom worth reading. Persistent moss and dark patches that never dry between rains say the masonry is no longer completing its wet-and-dry cycle, which is the condition freeze-thaw damage accumulates under.
The permit question here is not the Seattle one
- Inside the city limits. Redmond's Development Services Center reviews and issues the city's land use and construction permits, including residential permits, through the city's ePermitting service. Whether your scope needs one depends on the work and the property — ask them before it starts.
- Outside them. King County's Permitting Division issues building permits for unincorporated King County, and it holds the permit records for the Redmond Ridge urban planned development. A Redmond mailing address does not settle which office applies.
Local considerations in Redmond
- With a median structure year of construction of 1989 for all housing units and 1980 for owner-occupied units, brick on a Redmond chimney is often a single wythe of veneer over a wood-framed chase rather than a solid masonry stack.
- The Washington State Residential Code cap requirement — sloped concrete, metal or stone with a drip edge and a caulked bond break around the flue liners — describes a masonry chimney, which is one way to check whether what you have been quoted matches what is on your roof.
- Repointing mortar must be equal to or lower in compressive strength than the mortar it replaces, and the selection rule is the lowest strength that meets the project's requirements — which on late-twentieth-century brickwork is not the same answer as on historic masonry.
- Roughly three quarters of the region's normal annual precipitation falls October through March, with about 25 nights a year at or below freezing, and Redmond's 38.1 percent tree canopy keeps shaded elevations from drying between storms.
- Replacement brick for a chimney that will be wet and freezing must meet the severe weathering grade, demonstrated by passing 50 freeze-thaw cycles or by strength and absorption criteria.
- Seattle's Director's Rule 07-2025 and SDCI's repointing permit guidance are City of Seattle materials; in Redmond it is the Development Services Center, or King County's Permitting Division for unincorporated parcels, that decides what a scope requires.
What the job includes
- Confirmation of what the brick is doing — a solid stack, or a single wythe of veneer on a framed chase — before a repointing scope is written
- A close look at the joints where access allows, including a light scrape to find where sound mortar begins, and a check of the shaded elevation first
- A written scope and price naming the areas, the cut-back depth, the mortar and the joint profile, with nothing starting until you approve it
- Removal of deteriorated mortar to a uniform depth of at least twice the joint width, or deeper where sound mortar has not been reached
- Head joints chiselled by hand rather than ground, repacking in thin lifts, and the last lift tooled at thumbprint hardness to match the original profile
- Cut-out and replacement of individual broken or spalled bricks, specified to the severe weathering grade for wet, freezing exposure, with the replacement shown to you first
- Photographs of the same joints before and after, from the same angles where practical
What it does not include
- Anything above the brick on a framed chase. A sheet-metal chase cover is not a masonry crown, and replacing one is a separate scope
- Flue work of any kind. Repointing addresses the outside of the chimney; on a veneered chase there is no clay liner behind the brick to begin with
- Flashing, cap and crown work, which are their own details and are usually sequenced ahead of the joints rather than after them
- Water repellent, which only makes sense once the masonry is sound and is never a repair in itself
- Sweeping and creosote removal, which is a cleaning rather than masonry work
- Determining whether your parcel is inside the Redmond city limits, or filing your permit — those sit with the Development Services Center or King County permitting
- Structural engineering. Where the signs point to movement rather than weathering, that assessment belongs to a structural engineer and the repair follows it
What to look for
- Mortar you can rake out of a joint with a house key
- The binder has failed. This is the clearest case for repointing, and an open water path into the chimney.
- Thin flakes of brick face in the gutter or on the ground, mostly on one side
- Spalling concentrated on the elevation that dries slowest — usually the shaded one under the canopy.
- Spalling low on the chimney near a trim line or a roof transition
- On a veneered chase that pattern points at water behind the skin rather than through the joints, and repointing alone will not answer it.
- A flat sheet-metal cover on top of a brick-looking chimney
- It is a framed chase with veneer, not a masonry stack. There is no crown and no clay flue liner behind that brick.
- A white bloom on the brick that returns after you clean it off
- Recurring efflorescence, read in the industry as an unresolved water path to find before repairs rather than a surface to scrub.
- Stepped or diagonal cracking, cracks through several bricks, or a chimney out of plumb
- Movement signals rather than weathering. These call for investigation before any joint scope is written.
What changes the price
We do not publish a headline figure, because it would be a guess about your chimney. These are the things that genuinely move the number, and we put a real one in writing after we have looked.
- Whether the brick is structural or a veneer
- Restoring the weather surface of a single wythe on a chase, and repointing a solid stack, are different scopes with different neighboring repairs attached to them.
- How much of the chimney needs work
- Spot repointing a few failed joints differs from a whole elevation. Because access is a large fixed cost, a chimney with a substantial share of failed joints is often better done in one pass than returned to.
- Access, height and roof condition
- A ladder-reachable chimney, a steep pitch needing staging, and a mossy shaded roof are three different setups, and access frequently costs more than the mortar work.
- How the old mortar comes out
- Sandy mortar cuts quickly; hard mixes in narrow joints have to be worked out by hand to protect the brick edges, and wider joints need deeper cut-back and more lifts.
- Mortar identification and brick sourcing
- A previously patched chimney with an unknown mix may need laboratory analysis first, and sourcing a severe weathering grade brick that also matches in color, texture and size takes real effort.
- Whether a water source has to be corrected first
- If a failed cover, cap or flashing destroyed the joints, that repair belongs in the scope ahead of the repointing, or the mortar gets paid for twice.
- The working window
- Mortar wants moderate wall temperatures so the water in it neither freezes nor evaporates too quickly, which narrows the good stretches in a wet, shaded winter.
Chimney Masonry Repair in Redmond — common questions
- How do I tell whether my Redmond chimney is real masonry or brick veneer?
- Look at the top and at the thickness. A solid masonry stack is finished with a cast slab, with the flue tile standing proud of it and a drip edge shedding runoff clear of the brick. A veneered chase is finished with a flat sheet-metal cover, and the brick is a single wythe wrapped around a wood frame with a listed metal chimney inside. This is a common arrangement in housing of Redmond's age — the city's adopted housing element puts the median structure year of construction at 1989. The distinction changes what repointing can and cannot fix.
- Should I ask for the softest mortar available on a 1980s chimney?
- No — ask for the right one. The rule is that repointing mortar be equal to or lower in compressive strength than what it replaces, and softer and more vapor-permeable than the brick, with the selection rule being the lowest strength that meets the project's requirements rather than the lowest strength that exists. Very soft mixes are generally specified for historic masonry, and most Redmond brickwork is not that. Note too that hardness and permeability are separate properties, so matching means matching both, and where the original mix cannot be judged by eye, samples can go to a laboratory.
- Why is only one side of my chimney falling apart?
- Because only one side stays wet. Masonry absorbs water and dries by evaporation, and damage accumulates where the drying never completes. Around three quarters of this region's normal annual precipitation falls October through March, with roughly 25 nights a year at or below freezing, and Redmond reports 38.1 percent tree canopy as of 2017 — so a shaded, north-facing or tree-covered elevation stays saturated through the same months it is freezing at night. That is the face where spalling shows up first.
- Do I need a permit to repoint a chimney in Redmond?
- The Seattle answer does not apply here, in either direction. SDCI's guidance that repointing needs no permit where no structural changes are made is City of Seattle homeowner guidance, and Director's Rule 07-2025 on unreinforced masonry chimneys is a Seattle rule. In Redmond, the Development Services Center reviews and issues the city's construction permits through its ePermitting service, and King County's Permitting Division covers unincorporated parcels with Redmond mailing addresses. Requirements change and depend on the property — ask the office that covers your parcel before work starts.
- Can replacement brick just be matched by eye?
- Appearance is the easier half. Brick used where it will be wet and freezing has to meet the severe weathering grade, demonstrated by passing 50 freeze-thaw cycles or by strength and absorption criteria, and replacements should match the originals in physical properties as well as color, texture and size. An exact visual match to a brick that has weathered for decades is often not obtainable, which is worth agreeing on before the cutting starts rather than after.
Sources
- Housing Element – Adoption (Redmond 2050 Comprehensive Plan) — City of Redmond. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Technical Notes on Brick Construction 46 - Maintenance of Brick Masonry — Brick Industry Association, December 2017. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Technical Notes on Brick Construction 8B - Mortars for Brickwork: Selection and Quality Assurance — Brick Industry Association, March 2020. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Technical Notes on Brick Construction 9B - Manufacturing, Classification and Selection of Brick: Selection, Part 3 — Brick Industry Association. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Preservation Briefs 2: Repointing Mortar Joints in Historic Masonry Buildings — U.S. National Park Service, Heritage Preservation Services (Robert C. Mack, FAIA and John P. Speweik), October 1998, ISSN 0885-7016. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Common Problems with Brick Masonry — U.S. National Park Service (originally published 2008; page states last updated June 29, 2018). Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Tree Canopy — City of Redmond. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- SDCI Director's Rule 07-2025, Alteration and Repair of Unreinforced Masonry Chimneys — Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI). Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Chapter 10 Chimneys and Fireplaces - Washington State Residential Code 2021 — UpCodes (reproducing the Washington State Residential Code 2021, based on IRC 2021). Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Technical Notes on Brick Construction 7B - Water Penetration Resistance: Construction and Workmanship — Brick Industry Association, November 2017. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- U.S. Annual/Seasonal Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00024233 (seasonal precipitation) — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Accessed 2026-08-27.
- U.S. Annual/Seasonal Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00024233 — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Technical Notes 6A - Colorless Coatings for Brick Masonry — Brick Industry Association. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Technical Note 7 - Water Penetration Resistance: Design and Detailing, November 2017 — Brick Industry Association. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- House Additions & Remodels — Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI). Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Development Services Center — City of Redmond. Accessed 2026-08-27.
- Permits, inspections, and codes - buildings and land use — King County Department of Local Services, Permitting Division. Accessed 2026-08-27.
Next step
Start with an inspection
Tell us what you have noticed. We will look at the chimney, show you what we found, and put a price on the work before anything begins.