Maintenance

Maintaining a chimney is necessary for efficient heating and lowering the danger of fire mishaps in one's house. Chimneys should be cleaned once a year and perhaps as frequently as twice a year if there is a lot of burning being done and also depending on the type of wood burned.

Maintenance consists of a professional chimney sweeper checking the chimney for leaks, cracks, missing bricks, metal or mortar. A chimney sweep will also inspect the inside of the chimney, up into the chimney itself, checking for flue damage, malfunctioning damper, and excess soot.

Tools for chimney maintenance are tall ladders to access roofs, an assortment of round, square and rectangular brushes that fit into chimneys to break loose existing debris and creosote and brush the flue clean, long poles to attach tools such as brushes to clean the length of the flue, chemicals for dissolving creosote and other caked on soot, and small hand held brushes for cleaning. Plastic sheets are used to minimize mess in the house through the fireplace and vacuums are used to clean up remaining soot.