Chimney sweep and soot removal for Conway homes

Dry, split, seasoned wood stored off the ground

Wet wood burns smoky, and EPA guidance links unseasoned wood directly to creosote buildup, since the fire spends its energy driving off water and makes more smoke doing it. The guidance is plain. Burn only dry, split, well-seasoned wood, and skip anything wet, rotted or moldy.

Seasoned wood is darker, weighs less and sounds hollow when two pieces are knocked together, according to the same guidance, which calls for seasoning wood at least six months. Stack it outdoors, off the ground, with only the top covered, because covering the sides traps moisture.

From the deposits, our technicians can often tell whether the wood has been wet, and they will say so.

• Split, dry and seasoned before it burns
• Stacked outdoors and off the ground
• Covered on top only
• Checked for mold or rot before use

Tile, shingle and metal roofs under a sweep

Each roof type asks for its own care on the way to the chimney. Tile, shingle and metal roofing differ in how they take a person's weight and how slick they get, so our technicians look the roof over before anyone steps onto it and choose their route with that in mind.

Low-slope sections beside a chimney can hold leaves and debris, which get cleared while the crew is up there. Soot knocked onto the roofing during a top-down sweep is brushed off before anyone climbs down.

Before the ladder comes down, our technicians look over the roofing around the chimney. A cracked tile, a lifted shingle or a loose flashing edge is pointed out to you and noted on the record, so you know its condition when the visit ends.

Cleaning is not sealing, coating or waterproofing

A sweep removes deposits. It does not seal the flue, coat the smoke chamber or waterproof the brick. Those are separate jobs with their own materials and prep, and several of them need a clean flue before they can start.

Resurfacing a smoke chamber with refractory mortar, sealing cracks in a clay lining, coating a crown or applying a water repellent to the outside of the chimney each begins where cleaning ends, but none is part of it. A rough smoke chamber that needs new parging, for example, is repair work.

If the sweep shows one of these is needed, our crew lists it on the estimate by name. You can have the cleaning done now and the sealing or waterproofing later, or have both done in sequence. The estimate also notes which of them must wait until the flue is clean.

Roofing debris that dropped into the flue

Roof work around a chimney can send debris down the flue. Shingle granules, nails, bits of underlayment, broken tile and mortar chips can fall past an open cap during tear-off or when flashing is replaced. Roof crews do not always cover the flue while they work.

That debris lands on the smoke shelf or the damper, where it can jam the damper or block part of the passage. Nails and metal bits are picked out by hand, since dragging them with a brush could scratch a liner.

If your roof was recently redone, a sweep before the next fire clears it out. Our crew in Conway also checks the cap and the flashing while on the roof and tells you if anything was disturbed by the roofing work, so you can raise it with the roofer while the job is fresh.