Five Chimney Chores You Shouldn’t Ignore

#1 Regularly check for obstructions

It doesn’t matter whether or not your chimney has a cap on it (which it should always have a cap…).

When you look up the flue, you should be able to see the sky peeking out of from the wire mesh. In case you find that you are not able to look at the sky, chances are, your flue is obstructed. 

In that case, you need to call a chimney sweep. 

Oftentimes, small animals, bird’s nests and other debris take shelter in an uncapped chimney. 

An obstructed chimney though can present to be quite the health hazard for you and your family as it prevents dangerous toxic fumes like carbon monoxide and other emissions from escaping the chimney in a burning fireplace. 

Carbon monoxide(CO) poisoning can severely affect your health. Thousands of people are treated for CO poisoning every year

#2 Empty the firebox

Many people keep a little ash in the firebox to be able to induce heat and make the process of starting a fire easier. 

The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) recommends leaving only an inch at the end of the firebox when your fireplace, fireplace insert, or wood-burning stove is regularly being used. 

However, don’t let soot and ashes collect in the firebox over time, it can predispose it to corrosion and rust. 

It could also result in the premature failure of the grate from an excess of heat. 

If you want to experience a well-lit fire, regularly clean any accumulated ash and soot from your firebox. 

Make it a routine to give your firebox a thorough cleaning at the end of every fireplace season. If you are prone to experiencing allergy symptoms easily, cleaning your fireplace’s firebox of any dust, soot and ash can help you manage your allergy symptoms.

Read More: 25 Things to Do With Your Chimney Ashes

#3 Examine your firebox for dampness, chips of masonry, and watermarks 

If the firebox of your fireplace contains any watermarks or dampness, it could mean that your chimney cap is cracked and it’s letting water in. 

Mortar chips and bricks could indicate the need for replacing the flue liner of your firebox. 

Chimney maintenance performs an exercise called “tuckpointing” to remove damaged mortar and replace it with new mortar to provide strength and stability to the chimney system. 

Sometimes the entire brickwork of your chimney might become damaged and warrant repairs. If you have the budget for it, you could obviously purchase a brand new chimney for yourself but this would be more expensive. 

If your chimney’s firebox exhibits these issues, try to have them repaired as early as possible. The more you allow these issues to develop, the more expensive the repairs will turn out.  

Also, making these repairs during the Spring and Summer seasons will enable you to use the fireplace when Fall and Winter season comes around.

#4 Keep a Check on Creosote Accumulation Inside the Chimney

Make it a practice to glance inside your chimney and inspect its walls visually at least once every month while your wood stove or fireplace is in use during the winter. 

You are likely to notice creosote and soot mixture along the walls. 

Soot is recognizable as a black powder. Whereas creosote is a brown/black tarry and sticky substance that is incredibly flammable and the leading cause of chimney fires.

Both are byproducts of burning wood that build up along the chimney’s flue walls. 

You can clear away any soot and creosote deposits from your chimney’s insides by utilizing a chimney brush. 

It is possible that you might forget cleaning creosote from within your chimney when you clean it otherwise. 

However, if you forget this crucial chimney chore and the creosote deposited inside your chimney gets too thick, you could face a chimney fire. 

After all, the burning embers along with the high heat conditions in your chimney are all it takes to fuel one. 

Creosote is highly combustible and fire sparked off by creosote can be quite destructive as it can really climb up in temperature. 

The best way to make sure your chimney is free from any creosote deposits is to pay for having it cleaned professionally by a chimney cleaning service or chimney sweep. 

Creosote is unhealthy to breathe in. It also necessitates the usage of harsh chemical cleaning agents for having it cleaned

#5 Scheduling for your chimney to be annually inspected by a professional

You can try to do a lot of things on your own, but cleaning your chimney should not be one of them. 

Always get a professional with experience in chimney cleaning to provide a thorough inspection and cleaning of your chimney. 

DIY chimney cleaning is not advised. It is not only dirty but also could prove dangerous if the person engaging in the activity does not have adequate equipment or knowledge. 

When you are able to properly maintain your chimney and fireplace, your chimney is able to provide you and your household with years of comfort and service. 

The National Fire Protection Association recommends that you have your chimney inspected and cleaned by a certified chimney sweep, at least a minimum of one time in a year. All the more so, during the winter fireplace season. 

Unlike you, a certified chimney sweep technician knows just what to look for and verify, to learn whether all your chimney’s components are functioning as desired or not. They also already possess the tools and equipment necessary for cleaning your chimney effectively. 

The different parts of your chimney have different roles to play. 

A chimney cap plays an integral role in protecting and maintaining the structural integrity of your chimney. 

You could end up with costly repair charges if you somehow missed out on detecting a cracked chimney cap. 

It could leak water into the masonry of your home and damage it. 

The flue liner of a chimney helps prevent fires from spreading to the house as it insulates combustible material within your home such as ceilings, walls, and insulation from the extremely warm temperature in the flue. 

An untrained eye would not be able to tell damage suffered by a flue liner that could turn it into a fire hazard.

Well, Now You Know

Now that you know which chimney chores need to be essentially performed periodically, you should not find any reason to not do them.

Finding excuses to put off cleaning your chimney will only harm your chimney’s health and overall use life. 

Cleaning and maintaining your chimney is a sure way of keeping it in optimal functioning order for years to come. 

You will not only be maintaining its use life, you will also be keeping yourself, your family and your house safe from accidental fire outbreaks. You should always be careful when dealing with fire as it holds a lot of potential for being dangerous and causing harm to others. 

Even if you plan to do the cleaning and maintenance tasks by yourself at home, chimney cleaning and maintenance is a task best left to professionals. 

You likely will not have the required tools and components that your chimney cleaning tasks will demand, but you can always count on a professional chimney technician to have them handy. 

Professional chimney cleaners will also have the knowledge required to effectively be able to clean out your chimney and all its individual components. When certain materials such as creosote accumulates inside your chimney, removing them can prove to be quite challenging. 

Strong chemical cleaning agents are needed to scrub these deposits off and the fumes from creosote can be extremely injurious when inhaled. 

For this reason, it is better to enlist professional help in cleaning your chimney than trying to do your chimney maintenance chores all by yourself.