Maintenance plans

The same work as a one-off sweep, on a schedule you do not have to remember, with a record that gets more useful every year it exists.

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What a plan actually buys you

Let us be straight about this first, because the rest of the trade is not: a maintenance plan does not get you a longer checklist. Everything on it — the sweep, the Level 1 inspection, the cap, the crown, the flashing, the check for animals — is already included in an ordinary visit, at the ordinary price. If a company is selling you those as a premium package, they were charging you for less than a full job before.

What a plan buys is three things a single visit cannot.

The calendarYou stop having to remember. In this trade almost nobody cancels over price — they forget, for four years, until there is smoke in the living room.

The recordYear one, the written findings are a photograph. Year three, they are a timeline: what moved, what did not, what got worse and how fast. Nobody else in this trade can offer that, because nobody else writes it down.

A locked priceAfter the first visit we have seen your chimney, so we can stop quoting a range and give you a number. It does not move for the length of the plan.

And no peak surchargeSeptember to November is the rush here. Plan visits get booked out of that queue at the same price as any other month.

The three plans

Year one is priced from the published range, because we have not seen your chimney yet and nobody honest prices one they have not seen. From year two it is the fixed number below.

The Annual

$280 a year

One visit: a full sweep, a Level 1 inspection and written findings set against last year’s.

Visits: One, booked before the season.

Right for: A fireplace in normal use through a Washington winter.

Annual & Spring Check

$440 a year

The autumn visit, plus a spring exterior check — crown, cap, flashing, mortar and animal activity. Spring is when a wet winter shows what it did.

Visits: Two: autumn inside, spring outside.

Right for: Older masonry, an exposed stack, or a chimney that has leaked before.

Heavy Use & Multi-Flue

From $620 a year

Two sweeps and two inspections. More than one flue, or a stove that burns all winter and builds creosote faster than a fireplace does.

Visits: Two or more, by system.

Right for: Wood stoves, rentals, and houses with a second flue.

Puget Sound market ranges, 2026 — published so you can check any quote against them, ours included.

Seasonal maintenance, and why spring matters here

Everyone books chimney work in September. That is the right month for the inside of the flue — and the wrong one for the outside of the stack, because a Puget Sound winter is what causes the damage and you cannot see the damage until the winter is over.

Rain, moss and a freeze-thaw cycle that runs dozens of times between November and March. In April the crown shows the new cracks, the mortar shows where the water went, the flashing shows whether it lifted. Found then, it is a repair. Found the following September, it has had a summer and another winter to spread.

What a plan does not do

It does not commit you to repairs. It does not roll into anything automatically. And if we turn up for your scheduled visit and the flue does not need sweeping, we will tell you that, charge you for the inspection instead of the sweep, and write down why. A plan that finds nothing in a given year is a plan that worked.

See the report you would be comparing

Questions about plans

Is this cheaper than just booking each year?

Slightly, and that is not the main reason to do it. The price is locked and the peak-season surcharge does not apply, but the real value is that the visit happens without you having to think about it, and that the findings stack up into something comparable.

What if I sell the house?

The written history goes with you and it is worth having — a documented chimney is one less thing for a buyer’s inspector to turn into a negotiation. Tell us and we will stop the plan.

Do I have to do the repairs you find?

No. The findings are ranked — needs attention now, watch it, or it is fine — and the middle category exists precisely so that things can wait. Take the report to somebody else for a second opinion if you want to. That is what it is for.

My fireplace barely gets used. Is a plan worth it?

Probably not annually, and we would rather say so. An idle chimney still needs looking at, but what it usually needs is the spring exterior check, not a sweep. Call and we will tell you honestly which one you are.

Can I start in the middle of the year?

Yes. The first visit is whenever suits, and the schedule sets itself from there.

Ask about the plans.

Tell us how the fireplace gets used and we will tell you which one fits — including if the answer is none of them.

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