Chimney sweep service for homes in Corner Lake

Protecting your room while the flue is brushed

Soot is fine and travels easily, so protecting the room comes before the first brush stroke. Our technicians lay drop cloths from the door to the hearth, cover the floor and furniture closest to the opening, and seal off the fireplace opening while the flue is brushed.

Loosened soot is caught behind that cover and then collected at the hearth, instead of drifting across the room. The seal stays up until the brushing above is finished and the dust has settled.

Tell us about rugs, light fabrics or delicate finishes near the fireplace when you set up the visit. We protect those first and move nothing heavy without asking.

• Drop cloths along the path to the fireplace
• Floor and hearth covered before any cleaning
• Fireplace opening sealed while brushes run
• Work area cleaned before the crew leaves

Collecting the soot instead of moving it around

Brushing loosens deposits, but a sweep is only finished when they leave the house. Soot falls onto the smoke shelf, into the firebox, to the base of the flue and, on a stove, into the connector pipe. Each of those places gets emptied, including the ones you cannot see from the room.

The debris is bagged at the hearth, sealed and carried out through the same protected path the crew came in on. Nothing is swept into a corner of the firebox to deal with later.

The debris is also evidence. Pieces of tile, rust flakes or nesting material mixed in with the soot tell our technicians something about the flue above. They look through it before it is bagged and tell you about anything unusual before leaving the house.

Gentle cleaning around refractory panels

Many factory-built fireboxes are lined with refractory panels instead of firebrick. The panels are made to take the fire, but hard scraping or a knock from a tool can crack or chip them, and a sweep that treats them like brick can do damage.

Manufacturer manuals are written for each model. They describe how the panels are held in place and which parts are correct replacements. Our technicians clean these fireboxes with soft brushes and a vacuum, without scraping the panel faces, and work around the retainers instead of prying panels loose.

A cracked or broken panel is pointed out to you before the grate goes back in. Damaged panels are priced with the parts the maker lists for your model, and the sweep in your Corner Lake home goes ahead without waiting on that decision.

Tall chimneys on two-story homes

A chimney that rises past a second story means a longer flue, a longer ladder and a higher roof to work from. None of that changes the cleaning itself, but it changes the setup and the time the job takes.

Before anyone climbs, our technicians set the ladder and fall protection and bring enough rod length to reach the full flue from one end. On a very tall flue the brushing is often done in stages, with the smoke chamber and firebox finished from inside.

A tall chimney also has more exposed height for wind and rain. While the crew is up there, they look over the cap and the upper brick, and anything that needs work goes on the estimate by name. The sweep price itself is set in writing before the ladder goes up.