Chimney Sweep Vancouver
Chimney cleaning is an important process that helps ensures the safety of your home – especially your kitchen. Cleaning your chimney helps you to reduce the possibility of a chimney fire.
For starters, chimney clean-up removes soot, blockages, and built-up creosote from strategic places in the kitchen such as the chimney liner, damper, firebox, and smoke chamber.
Did you know that just a minute accumulation of creosote can lead to chimney fire? Creosote is a dangerous substance – extremely flammable. The rate at which it builds up greatly depends on you. Unsafe burning or faulty cooking appliances increase creosote accumulation. Wood selection matters too. Pine, for example, adds to creosote accumulation.
Learn about what is going on inside your chimney flue! Our professional chimney sweep company will inspect and clean your chimney system, making it safe to use and free from dangerous debris and allergens.
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Chimney Inspection
The best way to manage chimney fire is to inspect your chimney regularly. Generally, homeowners opt to have an annual chimney inspection. These inspections cover areas such as the fireplace, heating venting systems, furnace flues, chimney, and stove systems. More importantly, chimney inspection helps you as a homeowner to decide when to clean your chimney. It's also a good way to expose smaller risks that require just a bit of chimney repair services before they escalate further.
When You Should Inspect Your Chimney
We have established the need for an annual chimney inspection. However, there are a few more occasions when you should check your chimney flue. These conditions include:
- Performance glitches in your chimney and the overall heating system
Whenever you observe performance issues in your heating system or observe a change from how everything used to operate, it is best to schedule a chimney inspection.
- A recently acquired home
No matter how neat and clean a home might appear on the outside, it is essential to inspect every aspect of your new property, including plumbing, electric, and HVAC (which includes your chimney and fireplace). Make sure your new home with the built-in electric, gas, or wood-burning fireplace and chimney are in safe, working condition.
- An upgraded heating system
In the case of an upgrade, addition, or reduction in the components of your heating system, a chimney inspection is recommended. It will ensure that your lining and venting systems are able to support the new changes.
- An abandoned fireplace
If you come across an abandoned fireplace, make sure you do a detailed observation of it. There are always chances that the fireplace now has pest infestation, rusted lining, or deterioration. The issue with an abandoned fireplace is that if you don't inspect them, chimney repair, chimney cleaning, and other services may cost you more as damages, clogs, and filth builds up over time.
Chimney Cleaning
According to the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), a fireplace is due for clean-up when there is a 1/8” soot build-up in its chimney and flue system. Nevertheless, if there is any observable glaze in the flue system, you must clean-up even if the soot build-up is lesser than 1/8”.
When To Clean Your Chimney
Ideally, both chimney inspection and chimney cleaning is best scheduled at the beginning of burning seasons in the spring, summer, and early fall. Simply put, your chimney should be inspected and cleaned if found with issues at the start of a new season. But, there are a few other conditions that will necessitate a chimney sweep. These conditions include:
- A damper in bad condition
Once you start noticing that your chimney damper is challenging to open or close, it may require a chimney repair company to repair. A fireplace damper is vital to the flow of air to your chimney so it should function adequately.
- Build up of smoke when burning wood
The build up of smoke is usually as a result of blockages in the chimney shaft. If left unattended, it will lead to creosote. And that is dangerous and unhealthy for you and your loved ones.
- Greasy black soot in your chimney
Greasy black soot and the eventual creosote are a result of smoke buildup. The grease, in particular, seems harmless when you touch or see it on your walls. However, if left unchecked, it develops to creosote which becomes a health hazard, causing breathing issues due to its chemical composition. Tackle the dangers of a chimney fire early when it is at the grease level.
- Perceiving a strong odor from your fireplace
Under normal conditions, your fireplace ought to have a pleasant smell. Whenever you notice a foul odor, it means there is an issue with your updraft system. In addition, a strong odor can be an indicator of an unhealthy level of poisonous gases in your fireplace. It is of utmost importance that you correct it.
- Poorly-burning fires
Have you started noticing that it is quite challenging to start a fire or keep it burning for several hours in your fireplace? If the answer is yes, then your chimney may need to be checked out. Poorly-burning fires in your fireplace usually only happen when the chimney shaft is faulty. Give us a call if you are experiencing any of the signs that your chimney is in need of inspection, cleaning, or maintenance.
What Happens When Your Chimney is Not Inspected and Cleaned?
- Chimney fire
Leaving the level of creosote unchecked in your fireplace creates an unsafe environment. At the slightest interference, your chimney could catch fire, costing you a great amount of money to repair and even risking your house starting fire.
- Difficulties in breathing
An unclean fireplace has its chimney shafts clogged. Not only that, there can be pest infestation or creosote too. That leads to difficulties in breathing (especially for creosote and chimney shafts) and a generally unhealthy fireplace.
- Risk of losing your properties
Leaving your fireplace unattended will damage the materials you have in there. For example, your stoves and heating systems may be damaged or destroyed. In the worst of cases, houses can burn down as a result of a chimney fire.
- Loss of money
Do you know that over 200 million dollars are wasted by US homeowners annually as a result of the continual use of unsafe heating systems? If you leave your fireplace unattended, you accumulate more cost for chimney services that you could have easily prevented with regular maintenance. In the end, the gains of maintaining your chimney are yours personally. It brings you better health, peace of mind, and more money in your pocket.
Contact Vancouver Chimney Sweep today for a free quote on chimney cleaning, fireplace repair, air duct cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, or any other service! Let us know how we can help!
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