Chimney sweep and soot removal for Lake Fairview homes

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.

The look we take after the brushes finish

Every sweep ends with a visual check of what the brushes reached. With the deposits gone, the surfaces can be seen as they are, and that is when cracks, gaps and rust become visible.

This check is not a formal chimney inspection. It covers the surfaces the cleaning exposed, from the angles the crew can see them. Parts hidden behind walls or past a bend stay outside it, and the written record says so.

If our technicians see something in your Lake Fairview chimney that needs repair, they show you where it is and add it to the estimate as a separate item. Nothing found in that check is fixed or charged until you approve it.

• Flue walls and joints once the soot is gone
• Smoke chamber surface and smoke shelf
• Damper plate, frame and handle
• Firebox floor and walls

Pieces of flue tile in the debris

Most of what comes down a flue during a sweep is soot and creosote. When the debris also holds curved pieces of clay tile or chunks of mortar, the lining above has started to come apart.

The Florida Building Code describes clay flue lining laid in refractory mortar, with tight joints left smooth on the inside. A cracked or shifted tile, or a joint that has lost its mortar, breaks that smooth path, and no amount of brushing puts it back.

Any fragments found are set aside and shown to you, and the lining is looked at as far as it can be seen once it is clean. Flue repair or relining goes on the estimate for your Lake Fairview chimney as its own item, and the fireplace should stay unused until that decision is made.

Carbon monoxide alarms on every level

EPA guidance notes that smoke from wood that does not burn completely contains carbon monoxide, a gas you cannot see. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission wants a CO alarm, battery-operated or with battery backup, on each floor of the house and outside the bedrooms, and NFPA advice is to install them and keep them working. The same advice says all fuel-burning equipment should vent to the outside, which is the whole job of the flue.

If a CO alarm sounds, get everyone out of the house into fresh air and call 911. Do not go back inside to open the damper or put out the fire.

A clean flue helps combustion gases leave the house, but it does not replace an alarm. Test alarms the way their maker directs and replace them when they reach the end of their service life. Our technicians mention it if they see no alarm near the fireplace room.