Alert! Avoid These Chimney Cleaning Mistakes

A clean chimney is essential to maintain chimney safety, but many people make chimney cleaning mistakes to be avoided. The motivation for these inadvisable actions is often an attempt to cut the cost of professional services. Some people mistakenly believe that by using seasoned hardwoods, creosote is a minor problem. All things considered, qualified chimney sweeps are highly affordable for the necessary services they provide—services that can be relied upon to work. The following methods, on the other hand, are chimney cleaning mistakes you don’t want to make.

Procrastination

Depending on your age, time can move rapidly or like a speeding flash when you’re putting things off. A little bit of procrastination now can end up in a disaster down the line. Chimney cleaning and maintenance are important! Yet, many homeowners have chimneys in the “out of sight out of mind” category of home maintenance demands. This becomes evident every winter.

Thousands of home fires occur in the U.S. each year when homeowners light their fireplaces for the first time in the season without having first scheduled any type of chimney cleaning, inspection, or maintenance. Among heating appliance related fires, most occur because of a dirty chimney.

Trusting in Sweeping Logs

Some potentially misleading products are available to the public that are mistakenly believed to clean chimneys. They are called by various names, such as chimney sweep logs, creosote logs, and creosote sweeping logs. Some people even choose to burn these logs as a way of avoiding residue in the chimney flue. The understanding that other people have about these logs is that they loosen the creosote deposits left behind by wood fires.

Indeed, flammable, tar-like creosote is the reason chimneys get dirty and grungy and can endanger households. The dangers of creosote buildup include increasing the risk of a chimney fire and causing a chimney obstruction.

Although chimney sweeping logs cannot replace the need for chimney cleaning services, they can make the job of a chimney sweep easier. The logs basically loosen the creosote. Some believe that the chimney sweep logs make creosote less flammable, but that is debatable.

Warning: Do not use chimney sweep logs in wood-burning stoves. There is evidence that the sweeping logs can cause irreversible damage to these types of appliances.

DIY Chimney Cleaning

There are many home projects that are ideal do-it-yourself, money-saving solutions, but cleaning chimneys is not one of those projects. The following are among the reasons DIY chimney cleaning should be avoided:

• It’s highly dangerous to climb on a roof to work on a chimney.
• Professionals pull it off, but it is difficult for laypersons to protect their home interior from the mess that falls out of a chimney during the cleaning process.
• There are three types of creosote build-up, and only one
  kind can effectively be removed with only a professional chimney sweep brush.
• Creosote is a toxic substance that can be a threat to health.

Using Salts and Chemicals

Some homeowners use salt and chemicals as a do-it-yourself way to address a dirty chimney. The truth is that these substances can cause more harm than good. For instance, a chimney fire can be the result of loosened creosote that falls in the chimney as a fire is burning in the fireplace. Also, salt should never be used in a metal chimney because the acid can cause corrosion.

Contact Dubuque Fireplace & Patio Today

Experienced chimney sweeps at Dubuque Fireplace & Patio offer chimney inspections, chimney repair, chimney maintenance, heating appliance installations, and reliable chimney cleaning services. In the Highland WI area, contact our sister store, Chimney Specialists, Inc., at
(608) 929-4887. If you live in or around Dubuque IA, we encourage you to give us a call and avoid making chimney cleaning mistakes. Call Dubuque Fireplace & Patio at (563) 582-5156 today.