How To Clean A Wood Stove Insert Chimney

Encounter the Chimney Maintenance Pros

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Jim Smart owns Smart Sweep Chimney Service. He and his son Jesse are certified professional chimney sweeps. Together, this father/son team inspect, clean and repair fireplace chimneys in the Minneapolis/St. Paul surface area. Jim also holds a certificate in forensic chimney burn analysis.

If you use your fireplace or woodstove regularly only tin't remember the last fourth dimension your chimney was cleaned, information technology'due south probably overdue. In many cases, you can clean the chimney yourself and salvage a few hundred dollars.

Removing ordinary chimney soot is pretty simple. But if you lot accept heavy creosote buildup, you'll have to call in a pro. We'll show y'all how to audit yours to run across if it qualifies as a DIY job. If it does, only follow these steps. Otherwise, rent a certified chimney sweep.

Is Fireplace Cleaning a DIY Job?

Make clean creosote buildup from all parts of the chimney. Near chimney fires start in the smoke chamber/fume shelf area, and so it'south the nigh of import expanse to clean (Figure A). Since that area is difficult to reach in some fireplaces, check yours to come across if you can attain into it and all the same have room to maneuver a brush. If you can't reach it, this isn't a DIY projection.

Effigy A: Chimney Cutaway

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Next, see if y'all can access the fireplace chimney crown. If you take a very steep roof pitch or aren't comfy working on your roof, this isn't a job for you. Call a certified chimney sweep. If y'all decide you lot can handle the heights, make sure to wear a safety harness.

Chimney Fires Destroy Homes

Creosote buildup may not look dangerous, but it ignites at a mere 451 degrees F, and once information technology starts called-for, information technology expands like foam sealant. In less than a infinitesimal, information technology builds to more than 2,000 degrees F and can engulf your entire chimney and destroy your abode.

Even if you make clean your chimney regularly, you should still accept it inspected by a qualified chimney sweep once a year. Certified chimney sweeps are trained to recognize chimney deterioration and venting issues and can assess your fireplace chimney'due south condition.

If yous burn down more often than not green (moisture) logs, have your chimney cleaned or inspected every 50 burns. If you see wet bubbles out the ends of the logs when they're burning, the forest is wet. This light-green wood doesn't burn cleanly and sends a lot of unburned particles (fume) up the chimney, where they build up as creosote and soot. Dry hardwoods, such equally oak and birch, burn hotter and cleaner. With them, have your fireplace chimney cleaned or inspected every 70 burns.

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How To Tell If Your Fireplace Chimney Needs Cleaning

A quick way 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 notice a i/8-in. or more layer of buildup (the thickness of a nickel), call a chimney sweep.

Chimney sweeps may come across 40 to 50 chimney fires a year, and more than half of the chimneys they service require actress 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 harm. Older chimneys ofttimes have gaps betwixt clay liner sections where the mortar has fallen out.

When hiring a chimney sweep, look for someone who'due south certified and insured and volition provide an upfront cost guess. (For a list of certified chimney sweeps, contact the Chimney Safety Found of America at csia.org.)

Practice 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. So open up the damper and look a few more than minutes for rut to ascent from the house.

Grab your brightest flashlight and a fireplace poker and lean into the firebox. Shine your light into the smoke sleeping accommodation and flue and apply the poker to scratch the surface. If the soot has a matte blackness finish and the scratch is 1/8 in. deep or less, it's a DIY job. Only if the buildup is deeper or has a shiny, tar-like appearance, you accept heavy creosote buildup. Stop using your fireplace immediately and phone call a professional chimney sweep.

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