Do You Need To Clean A Chimney With A Gas Fireplace

Encounter the Chimney Maintenance Pros

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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 burn analysis.

If you use your fireplace or woodstove regularly but can't remember the last time your chimney was cleaned, it's probably overdue. In many cases, you lot tin can make clean the chimney yourself and relieve a few hundred dollars.

Removing ordinary chimney soot is pretty simple. But if y'all have heavy creosote buildup, you'll accept to phone call in a pro. Nosotros'll show you how to audit yours to see if it qualifies equally a DIY task. If it does, just follow these steps. Otherwise, hire a certified chimney sweep.

Is Fireplace Cleaning a DIY Job?

Clean creosote buildup from all parts of the chimney. Most chimney fires beginning in the smoke bedroom/smoke shelf area, so it's the almost important expanse to clean (Figure A). Since that surface area is difficult to achieve in some fireplaces, bank check yours to see if y'all can reach into it and even so have room to maneuver a brush. If you can't accomplish it, this isn't a DIY projection.

Effigy A: Chimney Cutaway

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Next, run into if yous can access the fireplace chimney crown. If you have 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 make up one's mind yous can handle the heights, make certain to clothing a safety harness.

Chimney Fires Destroy Homes

Creosote buildup may not look dangerous, just it ignites at a mere 451 degrees F, and in one case it starts burning, it expands like foam sealant. In less than a infinitesimal, it builds to more than 2,000 degrees F and tin engulf your unabridged chimney and destroy your home.

Even if you make clean your chimney regularly, you lot should withal accept information technology inspected by a qualified chimney sweep once a year. Certified chimney sweeps are trained to recognize chimney deterioration and venting problems and tin can assess your fireplace chimney'south condition.

If you fire mostly green (wet) logs, take your chimney cleaned or inspected every fifty burns. If yous see moisture bubbling out the ends of the logs when they're called-for, the woods is wet. This light-green forest 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 equally oak and birch, burn hotter and cleaner. With them, take your fireplace chimney cleaned or inspected every lxx burns.

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How To Tell If Your Fireplace Chimney Needs Cleaning

A quick mode 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 lot find a ane/eight-in. or more layer of buildup (the thickness of a nickel), call a chimney sweep.

Chimney sweeps may meet 40 to 50 chimney fires a year, and more than one-half of the chimneys they service require extra cleaning because 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 betwixt clay 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 Prophylactic Constitute of America at csia.org.)

Do an Inspection

Strap on goggles and a respirator, clean the ashes out of the firebox and remove the grate. Then open a door or window and wait a few minutes before opening the damper so the pressures equalize. Then open the damper and wait a few more minutes for heat to rise from the house.

Grab your brightest flashlight and a fireplace poker and lean into the firebox. Polish your lite into the smoke chamber and flue and use the poker to scratch the surface. If the soot has a matte black cease and the scratch is 1/8 in. deep or less, it's a DIY job. Merely if the buildup is deeper or has a shiny, tar-like appearance, you take heavy creosote buildup. Stop using your fireplace immediately and phone call a professional chimney sweep.

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