Liners and relining

The liner is the part that keeps a fire inside the chimney instead of inside your walls. It is also the part nobody can see.

Book your service Call or text

Technician working at the top of a chimney flue

What a liner does

It contains the heat and the combustion gases, protects the surrounding masonry and framing from both, and gives the flue a smooth, correctly sized path so the appliance drafts properly. A chimney with a broken liner still looks completely normal from the living room.

Clay tileThe traditional liner in older masonry chimneys. Cheap, durable, and it cracks — from freeze-thaw, from settling, and from the thermal shock of a chimney fire.

Stainless steelA continuous flexible or rigid liner run down the flue and insulated. The standard repair when clay tile has failed, and the standard when an old chimney gets a new appliance.

UnlinedCommon in houses built before the 1940s. It was legal then. It is not adequate now, and it is one of the more common findings on pre-war Seattle and Tacoma homes.

The costRelining runs roughly $4,600 – $8,000 for a typical run. It is the most expensive thing on this website, and the reason we would rather find the cracked liner early.

How a broken liner gets found

Usually during a sweep, when a brush passes a gap that should not be there. Sometimes after a chimney fire, when the thermal shock has already done it. Occasionally during a Level 2 inspection for a home sale, which is the worst possible time to learn about it and the most common.

This is also the finding most often invented by dishonest operators, because you cannot check it yourself. So when we find one, you get it documented in writing, and you are welcome to get a second opinion before spending a cent.

A safer chimney starts with an honest look at it.

Booking takes a minute. Peak season here runs September through November.

Book your service Call or text