How To Clean A Wood Stove Chimney From Roof

Meet the Chimney Maintenance Pros

Family Handyman

Jim Smart owns Smart Sweep Chimney Service. He and his son Jesse are certified professional chimney sweeps. Together, this father/son team audit, make clean and repair fireplace chimneys in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Jim likewise holds a document in forensic chimney fire analysis.

If you use your fireplace or woodstove regularly but tin can't call back the concluding fourth dimension your chimney was cleaned, it'south probably overdue. In many cases, you tin clean the chimney yourself and relieve a few hundred dollars.

Removing ordinary chimney soot is pretty simple. Merely if you have heavy creosote buildup, you'll take to call in a pro. Nosotros'll show you how to inspect yours to come across if it qualifies equally a DIY job. 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 showtime in the smoke chamber/smoke shelf area, so information technology's the near of import area to clean (Figure A). Since that surface area is hard to reach in some fireplaces, check yours to see if you tin reach into it and notwithstanding have room to maneuver a brush. If you lot can't reach it, this isn't a DIY project.

Figure A: Chimney Cutaway

Family Handyman

Side by side, see if you 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. Call a certified chimney sweep. If you decide you tin handle the heights, make sure to vesture a condom harness.

Chimney Fires Destroy Homes

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

Fifty-fifty if you clean your chimney regularly, you should all the same accept it inspected by a qualified chimney sweep one time a year. Certified chimney sweeps are trained to recognize chimney deterioration and venting problems and can assess your fireplace chimney's condition.

If you burn by and large green (wet) logs, accept your chimney cleaned or inspected every 50 burns. If y'all meet wet bubbles out the ends of the logs when they're called-for, the wood is wet. This green wood doesn't fire cleanly and sends a lot of unburned particles (fume) upwardly the chimney, where they build up every bit creosote and soot. Dry hardwoods, such as oak and birch, burn hotter and cleaner. With them, have your fireplace chimney cleaned or inspected every lxx burns.

Family Handyman

How To Tell If Your Fireplace Chimney Needs Cleaning

A quick fashion to tell if your chimney needs cleaning is to run the bespeak of your fireplace poker along the inside of your chimney liner. If you find a 1/8-in. or more layer of buildup (the thickness of a nickel), call a chimney sweep.

Chimney sweeps may meet xl to 50 chimney fires a yr, and more than than 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 oft take gaps between dirt liner sections where the mortar has fallen out.

When hiring a chimney sweep, look for someone who'south certified and insured and volition provide an upfront price estimate. (For a list of certified chimney sweeps, contact the Chimney Safety 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. And so open a door or window and wait a few minutes earlier opening the damper and then the pressures equalize. And so open the damper and expect a few more minutes for heat to ascent from the house.

Grab your brightest flashlight and a fireplace poker and lean into the firebox. Smooth your light into the smoke bedchamber and flue and employ the poker to scratch the surface. If the soot has a matte black end and the scratch is one/8 in. deep or less, information technology's a DIY job. Simply if the buildup is deeper or has a shiny, tar-like appearance, you have heavy creosote buildup. Stop using your fireplace immediately and call a professional chimney sweep.

ⓘ