One of the most effective ways of maintaining your chimney is sweeping it. Sweeping gets rid of all the carbon and other waste products that might have accumulated in your chimney putting your home at the risk of fire.
Chimney sweep professionals recommend that you should sweep your chimney at the beginning of autumn. This is a great time as the soot has had time to dry during summer and is hard and brittle. Hard soot is easy to remove.
Hiring a professional chimney sweep
While you can sweep your chimney, there are many benefits that come with hiring a professional chimney sweep. These benefits include:
Professional cleaning: chimney cleaners are highly trained and know how to not only clean the chimney, but also how to professionally sweep it. This means that you don’t have to worry when you hire a chimney sweeping technician as you are ensured of the best service.
Chimney repair: in addition to cleaning your chimney, the technicians are also able to identify any faults that might be on your chimney. For example, if there are any cracks in your brick chimney the technicians will identify and repair them at just a small extra charge.
If your chimney is old, they will help you in installing a chimney liner that will prevent your chimney from collapsing. There are many types of liners in the market that you can go with. The most common are:
Concrete: here the chimney professional will install an inflatable template within the full height of the chimney stack and then pours concrete around it. Once the concrete hardens, the technician removes the template leaving a smaller concrete flue that can’t collapse.
Ceramic and clay: it’s expensive to install the ceramic or clay liner as you have to remove sections of the old chimney to install the liner. While the liner is expensive, it’s long lasting.
Stainless steel: here the chimney repair technician installs the liner by dropping it down the existing chimney and capping it off at the top and bottom. To assist with the pull of smoke from the fire and keep the liner in place, the technician insulates around the liner. While this option is cost effective, it’s temporary as you have to reinstall the liner after 10-20 years.
Conclusion
Chimney sweeping is very important for your home. To ensure that it’s done properly you should hire a certified and experienced chimney cleaning expert.
