Chimney Flashing Repair in Seattle

The chimney is the hardest-working joint on a Seattle roof: a masonry tower punching through a shingle field, with four transitions that all have to shed water in a climate that rains for eight months. When chimney flashing fails, water follows the brick down into the house and shows up as stains on the chimney breast, a damp fireplace surround, or peeling paint in the room below.

Proper chimney flashing is a two-part system. Step flashing weaves into the shingle courses along the sides, and counterflashing is cut into the mortar joints and folded down over the step flashing, so water running down the brick face never reaches the roof deck. On the uphill side, a cricket or back pan diverts water around the chimney instead of letting it pool behind it.

Thousands of Seattle chimneys are 'sealed' with tar instead. If yours has a black smear where metal should be, that's the leak's history and its future.

Signs this is your problem

• Water stains on the ceiling or wall next to the chimney
• Damp smell or white mineral deposits (efflorescence) on interior brick
• Visible tar smears or rusted metal around the chimney base
• Leak that appears during long soaking rains rather than short showers
• Mortar joints above the flashing line crumbling or open

How the repair works

1. Diagnose the whole stackChimney leaks can be flashing, crown, mortar, or brick absorption. We identify which before quoting, so you don't pay to fix the wrong thing.
2. Cut and remove failed metalOld flashing and tar come off; surrounding shingles are lifted carefully for reuse where sound.
3. New step + counterflashingNew step flashing woven per course; counterflashing ground into mortar joints and sealed — not surface-glued to the brick.
4. Cricket where neededWide chimneys on the downhill side get a cricket to stop water ponding behind the stack.

What it costs

The Seattle factor

Seattle's pre-war neighborhoods — Ballard, Beacon Hill, Columbia City, Capitol Hill — are full of original brick chimneys on 100-year-old houses. Many no longer vent anything but still stand through the roof, and their aging mortar makes the flashing junction the most likely leak point on the whole house.