why you should hire a chimney sweep

Why You Should Hire A Chimney Sweep Now: Instead Of Waiting Until Autumn

It makes common sense and cents to possess flues and venting systems attended to well before the burn season. Some considerations:
• Your chimney should be swept before moisture mixing with soot and creosote form sulfuric and hydrochloric acids that fret the chimney structure. Chlorine from household cleaning compounds could also be in combustion air rising up the chimney. Sulfur is in soot deposits from a coal fire.
• Damp creosote within the flue features a sour sickly smell. Warm weather, rain, high humidity tend to extend the strength of the odor. It’s always there in your chimney, but you don’t usually notice it during the heating season. In winter the draft helps carry the smell away and therefore the flue also stays drier. But in summer, downdrafts (flow reversals of the air within the flue) can send the odor into the house. Cleaning out the creosote or soot may help eliminate this smell. Many sweeps also use a special deodorizer.
• Unwelcome visitors should be evicted from the chimney and smoke shelf. Birds, squirrels, raccoons or snakes could also be taking shelter there. Birds using your chimney as a motel can block the flue with their nests and leave it a stinking mess. Raccoons are often dangerous and sometimes carry parasites deadly to humans. (Your sweep may recommend that you simply call a licensed professional animal removal service.)
• Next, a chimney cap should be installed to stay out birds,animals, leaves, rain and snow.
• Your sweep may have to schedule a second visit if he or she finds that your heating plant needs additional service. Discovering issues now ensures they’re going to be fixed before the burn season.
• Chimneys should be inspected yearly. Deteriorating mortar and missing or broken bricks and missing, broken or cracked flue tiles should get replaced. A harmless looking hairline crack during a tile flue liner will open up under high temperatures. Escaping heat and flame could set your house on fire! Sweeps who video-scan flues can provide photos of injury or defects.
• Many chimneys got to be lined or relined. Damage from a chimney fire or the deterioration of the years may mandate that your flue be completely relined. High-quality rigid or flexible chrome steel liners are available for this purpose. Most professional sweeps are trained within the necessary installation techniques. Cast in-place liners also are available and may be an honest choice for a weakened , oversize chimney.
• If the date of a chimney fire are often determined, and there was a witness, homeowner’s insurance might buy relining the chimney. Many sweeps work with insurance companies on a
regular basis. they’re familiar with supplying documentation of the damage,as well as estimates for cleaning rebuilding, repairing or relining a chimney.