Chimney sweep service for homes in Tangelo Park

What a chimney sweep removes, and what it leaves

A chimney sweep is mechanical cleaning. Brushes and rods break loose the soot and flaky creosote stuck to the flue walls, the smoke chamber, the smoke shelf, the damper and the firebox, and the loosened material is collected and carried out of the house. Nothing is left on the hearth for you to clean up.

What brushing cannot do is repair anything. A cracked tile, an open mortar joint or a rusted damper plate is still there after the cleanest sweep. Hard, glossy deposits that a brush skates over also stay behind until they get a treatment of their own.

Before any brush goes up, our crew in Tangelo Park tells you which parts the brushes will reach and which conditions the sweep will not change. That second group is yours to decide on later, and none of it is folded into the cleaning price.

Setting the damper before you light

A damper left partly closed is one of the conditions EPA guidance links to faster creosote buildup, because it restricts the air that moves smoke up the chimney. It can also send smoke out the front of the opening.

Factory-built fireplaces follow their own manuals. One owner's manual for a factory-built model, for example, calls for its damper to be fully open whenever the fireplace is in use. For a masonry fireplace, move the handle to its fully open position and confirm it by looking up with a flashlight before the match is struck.

During the sweep, our crew shows you the open and closed positions of the control if they are not obvious. That small step helps you avoid a smoky start and a flue that coats faster than it should.

Tile, shingle and metal roofs under a sweep

Each roof type asks for its own care on the way to the chimney. Tile, shingle and metal roofing differ in how they take a person's weight and how slick they get, so our technicians look the roof over before anyone steps onto it and choose their route with that in mind.

Low-slope sections beside a chimney can hold leaves and debris, which get cleared while the crew is up there. Soot knocked onto the roofing during a top-down sweep is brushed off before anyone climbs down.

Before the ladder comes down, our technicians look over the roofing around the chimney. A cracked tile, a lifted shingle or a loose flashing edge is pointed out to you and noted on the record, so you know its condition when the visit ends.

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