Chimney sweep for fireplaces and wood stoves in Spring Isle

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

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 Spring Isle 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

Brushing the smoke chamber above the damper

Above the damper, the smoke chamber funnels smoke from the wide firebox into the narrower flue. Its walls slope inward, and deposits collect on those slopes where a straight flue brush passes them by. A factory-built fireplace has no masonry smoke chamber, and its metal transition above the firebox is cleaned the way its maker directs.

The Florida Building Code calls for the inside of a masonry smoke chamber to be parged smooth with refractory mortar. A smooth surface brushes clean. A rough or stepped surface, with brick edges showing, holds soot on every ledge and takes more work to clean.

Our technicians brush the smoke chamber from below with a brush shaped for its angled walls, then look at the parging once it is visible. Missing or crumbling parging becomes a separate repair item for your Spring Isle home, while the sweep still cleans what is there.

Chimney swifts mean the sweep waits

Chimney swifts are small birds that roost and raise young inside chimneys. The federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects them, so active nests, eggs and chicks are left undisturbed. If you hear birds in the flue, say so when you call.

If swifts are nesting, the sweep waits. Our technicians confirm what is in the flue, leave the nest alone and plan the cleaning for after the birds have gone. Keeping the damper closed in the meantime keeps noise and debris out of the room.

Once the flue is empty, it gets swept, the nest material comes out and a cap goes on so the birds nest somewhere else next time. The cap is quoted as its own item, and any wildlife work in Spring Isle runs through our animal removal service.