Chimney sweep and soot removal for Dover Shores West homes

The return visit after a glazed-deposit treatment

A glazed treatment is a two-part job. Once applied, it has to dry in the flue before anything else happens, and the label recommends keeping rain off it while it dries. Some of the dried material drops on its own onto the smoke shelf and into the firebox. The rest comes down with a normal sweep on the return visit.

Very heavy glazed deposits may need a second application before the flue is clean. The label also calls for the cleaned lining to be checked for cracked tile and damaged mortar joints before the fireplace goes back into use, since a thick coating can hide both.

Both visits are scheduled when you approve the work, and we ask you to leave the fireplace unused in between. After the final sweep you get the lining findings in writing.

The right brush for clay tile or stainless steel

Clay flue tile and stainless steel liners call for different brushes. Steel bristles are a common choice against deposits on clay tile. On stainless steel, one maker's instructions for its metal chimneys allow plastic, wood or steel brushes but warn against any brush that will scratch the stainless liner.

The point is to clean the liner without damaging the surface the maker built. Our technicians confirm the lining before picking a brush. A look from the top or up past the damper usually shows whether it is clay tile or metal, and a factory-built fireplace carries the label of its listing.

If you have a stainless liner in your Dover Shores West home and still have the paperwork from its installation, set it out for the visit. The liner maker's cleaning directions come first, and we follow them.

Chimney maintenance between professional visits

Chimney maintenance does not stop when the sweep leaves. Much of what keeps deposits down happens at the firebox, in the wood you burn and how you burn it.

Between visits, keep an eye on the chimney top from the yard. A leaning or missing cap, a nest poking out or dark stains spreading down the brick are worth a call. So are flakes or debris turning up in the firebox between fires.

The written record from each visit gives you a baseline, so changes stand out when the next one comes in. Our crew compares the two before recommending anything new.

• Burn dry, split, seasoned wood in hot, bright fires
• Open the damper fully before every fire
• Empty cooled ash into a covered metal container outside
• Watch for smoke at the opening, odors or falling debris

An older wood stove and the deposits it leaves

Older wood stoves were built before today's cleaner-burning designs. EPA guidance notes that newer stoves meeting its emission standards burn more efficiently and leave less creosote buildup in the chimney than older models.

That does not make an older stove unsafe by itself, but its chimney tends to collect deposits faster and deserves close attention. Hot fires and dry wood help any stove, old or new.

When our crew sweeps an older stove's chimney, the deposits and the connector pipe show how it is doing. A rusting pipe or worn door gaskets are noted as their own items, each with a plain description of what our crew saw. Replacing a stove is your call, and we do not push it. Either way, the sweep itself is the same careful job.