Chimney sweep for fireplaces and wood stoves in Stone Crest

Soot, flaky buildup and glazed coating compared

Not every deposit in a flue is the same material, and the difference decides the method. Light soot is dry and powdery. Flaky or crusty creosote is thicker but still breaks loose under a stiff brush. Glazed creosote is a hard, shiny coating stuck fast to the flue surface, and a brush mostly slides across it.

Before quoting, our crew identifies which type is in your flue. The standard sweep handles the first two. If part of the flue is glazed, that section is priced as glazed creosote removal on a line of its own, so you can see exactly what it adds and why.

• Powdery soot comes off with a standard sweep
• Crusty, flaky buildup comes off with extra brush passes
• A glazed coating needs its own removal treatment

Glazed creosote removal with a separate treatment

Third-degree glazed creosote is hard to remove with brushing alone. Removal products made for it are applied to the glazed section, where they soak into the deposit. As the treatment dries it loses its grip on the flue wall and falls away, and the rest comes out with a normal sweep.

One maker's product label describes how that works on clay flue tile and stainless liners. The treatment is brushed on where the surface is within reach, or loaded onto an applicator that a winch pulls up through the flue. The fireplace opening stays covered during application, and the crew wears the protective gear the label requires.

Any glazed creosote treatment used on a chimney in Stone Crest goes on the way its label directs. It is priced as its own job on the estimate, apart from the standard sweep, so you can see what it adds.

What should never go into the firebox

A fireplace is not a trash burner. EPA guidance lists materials that can release toxic or harmful chemicals when burned and may damage the appliance they burn in.

If any of these have gone into your fireplace, tell our technicians, since it helps them to know what is being cleaned out of the flue. EPA's list also calls out the colored ink on magazines, boxes and wrappers, so glossy paper stays out of the fire too.

The sweep clears what those fires left behind in your Stone Crest home, and the written record notes anything unusual in the deposits so the next cleaning has a point of comparison.

• Household trash, cardboard, plastics and foam
• Coated, painted or pressure-treated wood
• Ocean driftwood, plywood, particle board or glued wood
• Wet, rotted, diseased or moldy wood

Heavy smoke from the chimney top

Look at the top of the chimney once a fire is going well. EPA guidance says properly installed, correctly used wood-burning appliances should generate very little smoke. Thick smoke pouring from the chimney top well after startup usually points to a fire starved of air, wet wood or both.

That same smoke is where creosote comes from. Whatever does not burn in the firebox travels up the flue, and part of it condenses on the walls before it reaches the top. A chimney that smokes heavily every time it is used is building deposits every time too.

Our crew sees the result on the brushes. When a flue in Stone Crest shows the heavy, sooty buildup that goes with smoky fires, we explain what to change at the firebox before the next fire.