How To Clear A Clogged Chimney
Meet the Chimney Maintenance Pros
Jim Smart owns Smart Sweep Chimney Service. He and his son Jesse are certified professional person chimney sweeps. Together, this father/son squad inspect, clean and repair fireplace chimneys in the Minneapolis/St. Paul expanse. Jim too holds a certificate in forensic chimney fire assay.
If you utilise your fireplace or woodstove regularly but can't call back the last time your chimney was cleaned, it's probably overdue. In many cases, yous can clean the chimney yourself and relieve a few hundred dollars.
Removing ordinary chimney soot is pretty simple. But if you lot take heavy creosote buildup, you'll have to call in a pro. Nosotros'll show you how to audit yours to see if information technology qualifies as a DIY job. If it does, simply follow these steps. Otherwise, rent a certified chimney sweep.
Is Fireplace Cleaning a DIY Job?
Clean creosote buildup from all parts of the chimney. Most chimney fires start in the smoke chamber/smoke shelf area, and so it's the most important area to make clean (Effigy A). Since that expanse is difficult to reach in some fireplaces, check yours to see if you can achieve into it and all the same take room to maneuver a brush. If y'all can't achieve it, this isn't a DIY project.
Figure A: Chimney Cutaway
Next, see if you lot tin admission the fireplace chimney crown. If y'all accept a very steep roof pitch or aren't comfortable working on your roof, this isn't a task for you. Telephone call a certified chimney sweep. If you determine you lot can handle the heights, make sure to wear a safety harness.
Chimney Fires Destroy Homes
Creosote buildup may not wait unsafe, but it ignites at a mere 451 degrees F, and once it starts burning, it expands similar foam sealant. In less than a minute, it builds to more than than 2,000 degrees F and can engulf your entire chimney and destroy your home.
Even if you clean your chimney regularly, you should yet have it inspected by a qualified chimney sweep once a year. Certified chimney sweeps are trained to recognize chimney deterioration and venting problems and can appraise your fireplace chimney's condition.
If you burn mostly green (moisture) logs, accept your chimney cleaned or inspected every fifty burns. If y'all run across moisture bubbles out the ends of the logs when they're burning, the wood is wet. This greenish woods doesn't fire cleanly and sends a lot of unburned particles (smoke) up the chimney, where they build up as creosote and soot. Dry hardwoods, such every bit oak and birch, burn down hotter and cleaner. With them, have your fireplace chimney cleaned or inspected every 70 burns.
How To Tell If Your Fireplace Chimney Needs Cleaning
A quick style to tell if your chimney needs cleaning is to run the point of your fireplace poker along the inside of your chimney liner. If you find a 1/viii-in. or more layer of buildup (the thickness of a nickel), call a chimney sweep.
Chimney sweeps may see 40 to fifty chimney fires a yr, and more than half of the chimneys they service require extra cleaning considering the homeowners wait too long before calling. In extreme cases, the hardened layer of buildup requires cleaning with special tools or chemicals.
A professional cleaning includes an inspection for soot buildup, obstructions, cracks in the chimney liner and signs of water damage. Older chimneys often have gaps between dirt liner sections where the mortar has fallen out.
When hiring a chimney sweep, look for someone who's certified and insured and will provide an upfront cost estimate. (For a list of certified chimney sweeps, contact the Chimney Safety Institute of America at csia.org.)
Exercise an Inspection
Strap on goggles and a respirator, clean the ashes out of the firebox and remove the grate. And so open a door or window and await a few minutes before opening the damper so the pressures equalize. Then open the damper and await a few more minutes for heat to ascent from the firm.
Grab your brightest flashlight and a fireplace poker and lean into the firebox. Polish your light into the smoke chamber and flue and utilize the poker to scratch the surface. If the soot has a matte black stop and the scratch is ane/8 in. deep or less, it's a DIY job. Just if the buildup is deeper or has a shiny, tar-like appearance, you take heavy creosote buildup. Terminate using your fireplace immediately and call a professional chimney sweep.
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-clean-a-chimney/
0 Response to "How To Clear A Clogged Chimney"
Post a Comment