Having a fireplace in your home requires responsibility and safety precautions, especially if kids are in the house. While your fireplace isn’t dangerous when used correctly, it does have the potential to be deadly. Yearly inspections from Chimney Champions can help prevent most fireplace accidents and issues, but there’s still more you can do. To help keep you, your family, and your home safe, pass along these three fireplace safety tips to your kids.
Every spring, homeowners get the urge to clean out their homes and rid themselves of clutter and useless junk. They spring clean the windows, cabinets, attics, and garages. However, most of them completely forget about the fireplace and chimney sweeping. Thankfully, you’ve got the team at Chimney Champions to remind you why springtime is the perfect time for this chore. Today, we’ve giving you some helpful tips you can use to clean your fireplace this spring.
Your fireplace provided you with numerous cozy fires during the chilly winter nights. Now, the the weather is getting nicer and it’s time to clear out all the ash and soot in your chimney. Many homeowners think they can just burn a self-cleaning log and move on, but that’s just not the case. The best way to clean your chimney is to call in the professionals. Luckily, Chimney Champions makes chimney cleaning easy and hassle-free, clearing your stack of all the fire hazards that you could face the next time you light a log.
If you just happen to be in Italy between August 30th and September 2nd, don’t miss the International Meeting of the Sweeps! Chimney sweeps from around the World meet in the Vigezzo Valley to celebrate the past history and future of our profession. Although chimney sweeps have been around for centuries, this will be the 38th meeting in the Valley of the Chimney Sweep. Expect to see over one thousand sweeps throughout the meeting, some performing reenactments with historic tools! If you do find your way to Italy this time of year, make sure to say hi to Mike the Chimney Guy 🙂
This is a question that comes up a lot when talking to homeowners about fireplace maintenance. The first assumption would be to remove the ash between each fire, but the this is actually not the optimum timeframe. A one inch layer of ash on the floor during heating season is actually what is recommended by the Chimney Safety Institute of America. The layer of ash works with the hot coals and creates more heat to fuel the fire, helping in a cleaner burn. While around one inch is a good number to stick with, if the ash starts building up too much, it can trap hot coals between the fireplace grate and the ash, causing premature deterioration of the grate. It is also the important that if you have a ash dump that it has been inspected and is free of combustibles. Also, do not dump your ash until it … Continued
Daily and Long-Term Hazards Staying safe is a constant concern for a chimney sweep. Not only are we on roofs, in attics, and crawl spaces, we also have to worry about the hazardous long-term effects of creosote to our bodies and prevent inhalation and interaction as much as possible. Creosote is a natural byproduct of combustion but it comes with a nasty side effect for humans with long-term exposure to it, cancer. Skin cancer, lung cancer, and testicular cancer are the most common for a chimney Sweep to content with. Skin cancer from constant cleaning and repairing systems covered in creosote and let’s not forget clothing. Lung cancer from inhaling creosote while sweeping a system or even after the service with soot floating around in the work vehicle. Testicular cancer you would think would be the strange one but take into consideration the amount of creosote that can get trapped … Continued
One common issue I see is where flashing is replaced on a chimney with replacing the kickout flashing. In Florida we have to constantly battle water and considering the amount of water that runs off of a roofline, kickout flashing can divert thousands of gallons of water over time. Here a something that you might find very interesting. During a rain storm that dumps one inch of rain if your have 1,000 square foot of roof, over 600 gallons of water will run off! Jacksonville Florida receives over 50 inches of rain per year so that is over 30,000 gallons of water coming off of your roof per year! Let’s have a look at the long-term impact of forgetting this key element: The first two photos show a chimney chase that had developed large hole following the pathway of travel starting where the kickout flashing is missing. Here is another … Continued
Due to a collapsed top crown, here is a good look. This shows what eventually happens when deterioration wins the battle against a chimney crown. Once we reach this point massive amounts of water intrusion and further damage becomes priority. Please take care of your crown before it reaches the point of no return.
This is a interesting one that I always get pushback from both home owners and gas installers.. While gas starters may be allowed in masonry systems, they are not approved for factory built fireplaces and could lead to over firing of the system and insurance issues if a fire occurred. Factory built (pre fabricated) fireplaces are a UL listed appliances and only approved parts can be used in these systems. It may be a convenient way to start a fire but it is not worth the risk!
Already in 2019, I have inspected three homes where a 8″ chimney cap was “installed” into a 10″ flue termination. The obvious is that the person installing these chimney caps knows exactly what is going to happen eventually, along with the water intrusion damage that will occur when it does happen. What isn’t obvious is that a chimney cap was incorrectly installed and even the active water intrusion can be hard to spot until it progresses. This drone image shows a 8″ cap that was at one point installed into the 10″ flue termination. As you can see, the end result is wind removing the chimney cap, sometimes turning it into a giant metal frisbee (huge liability issue). When you are having your chimney cap replaced ask for proof of measurement. This issue could not be seen from ground level (it was blocked by the shroud) and the client was … Continued
