Chimney sweep for fireplaces and wood stoves in Beulah

Cleaning the damper and testing its movement

Soot and creosote build up on the damper plate, its frame and the pivot it swings on. A coated damper sticks, closes unevenly or leaves a gap. The Florida Building Code requires a masonry fireplace to have a ferrous metal damper that can be operated from the room containing the fireplace, and that only works if it moves freely.

Our technicians scrape and brush the plate and frame, clear the pivot points and then work the control from the room, open and closed, several times. They check that it opens fully and closes without binding, then test it once more at the very end, after the firebox is cleaned.

A warped plate, a broken handle or rust that has eaten through the metal is noted in writing and priced separately. You leave the visit knowing whether the damper works instead of guessing.

A cap screen choked with soot

The mesh screen on a chimney cap keeps animals out and stops sparks from leaving the flue. It also catches soot and creosote as smoke passes through it. A coated or clogged screen can hold back the draft and push smoke back toward the fireplace.

One chimney maker's instructions tell owners to check the spark arrestor screen for creosote or soot and to clean it when buildup is found, scrubbing it with a wire brush. On many caps the screen or the whole assembly comes off for cleaning and goes back on with the same fasteners.

Our technicians clean the cap screen on every sweep that goes to the roof. A screen that is torn, rusted through or pulling away from the cap is not something a brush fixes, so a replacement cap is quoted as a separate line.

The written record you keep after a sweep

Every sweep ends with a written record of what was cleaned. It notes the date, the fireplace or stove, which flue was swept, the kind of deposits found and the areas the brushes reached.

It also lists what was not done. Glazed sections left for a separate treatment, any part of the flue that could not be reached, and any repair item found during the visual check are written down with the reason. If a section was treated for glaze, the record notes that a follow-up sweep is still due.

Keep the record with your appliance manuals and past repair papers. It helps the next sweep, helps a buyer if you sell, and gives any later technician a starting point instead of a guess.

• Date and system cleaned
• Deposit type before cleaning
• Areas reached and areas not reached
• Findings left for a separate decision

A masonry chimney that now vents a gas appliance

Some masonry chimneys that once served wood fires now vent a gas fireplace or another gas appliance. The fuel has changed, but the flue can still collect debris, nests, fallen mortar or old wood-burning deposits that were never removed.

If you smell gas, do not light the appliance. Get everyone out of the home and call 911 or the gas company from outside.

Cleaning and servicing the gas appliance itself is gas fireplace work, handled under our gas fireplace service. What a sweep can do is clear the chimney above the appliance, remove a blockage and check the cap. On a converted fireplace in Beulah, the estimate keeps the two apart, with the flue work priced under the sweep and the appliance referred to the gas fireplace service as its own job.