Common Chimney Cleaning Mistakes to Avoid
- Ineffective DIY Methods
- Unsuitable time
- Making Wrong Assumptions
- Hired the Wrong Chimney Sweep Company
As a homeowner, we should never ignore the importance of regularly cleaning your chimney or a troublesome chimney. To safeguard our family and property from the danger of carbon monoxide and chimney fires, we should have it checked as soon as we realise it isn’t functioning correctly. Chimney cleaning is essential enough that we, as professionals, recommend having your chimney cleaned and inspected twice annually.
In the long run, avoiding chimney cleaning mistakes and having the chimney cleaned regularly can make you and your family safer. Furthermore, it can save you thousands of euros in repairs.
We have listed below the common chimney cleaning mistakes you should keep in mind and avoid.
Ineffective DIY Methods
By trying to save money, plenty of homeowners try to avoid the costs of chimney cleaning services from a qualified chimney sweep company. Those costs of services provided by trained chimney professionals are actually reasonable, considering the impact on home safety.
Among the DIY methods popular with homeowners is to burn chimney sweep logs or creosote sweeping logs, which actually cannot replace professional chimney cleaning conducted by chimney cleaners.
Chimney sweep logs can help reduce the buildup of creosote, but they do not remove everything. Furthermore, it can cause massive sheets of creosote to loosen up and fall onto your smoke shelf, which can cause further damage to your chimneys.
Another mistake involves a homeowner utilising their own chimney sweep brush. To begin with, climbing onto a roof to perform work from that height is dangerous for inexperienced individuals.
As professional chimney cleaners, we are trained and experienced in dealing with heights and avoiding accidents. But being trained and experienced is just a part of it. Creosote comes in three different forms, a homeowner’s simple chimney sweep brush may not be sufficient to remove all of the creosote. With a chimney brush, just the superficial variety will come off. The other two are much more challenging to remove and call for specialised tools that are normally only owned by chimney cleaning contractors.
Unsuitable time
You now might have decided that hiring a chimney sweep contractor is necessary, but your timing may have been off. The truth is that most homeowners put off hiring chimney sweeps and wait until winter is almost here.
Due to the popularity of this concept, qualified chimney sweeps’ schedules become highly packed, and their services come at a premium. The best time to have your chimneys cleaned is usually during spring and summer, when there’s less need for chimney cleaning professionals.
Making Wrong Assumptions
Many facts are unclear to homeowners regarding the importance of chimney sweep services, mainly chimney cleaning. For example, fire always leaves creosote deposits regardless of the type of wood fuel (briquettes, wood chips, firewood or coal) you use. When creosote buildup reaches the third degree, it could cause the chimney flue to become blocked and might cause chimney fires.
Additionally, because poisonous gasses cannot leave through an obstructed chimney and reach the outside, you, your family and everyone in the house are in danger of carbon monoxide, which we all know can be a silent killer.
We can’t stress enough how cleaning your chimney regularly is necessary. So, if you suspect there’s something unusual going on in your chimney or you haven’t cleaned it in a while, call a skilled chimney sweep contractor like Touch of Glass to have it inspected or cleaned, and please avoid DIY approaches.
Hired the Wrong Chimney Sweep Company
Saving money is wise, but cutting back on something as crucial as chimney safety may be quite risky. Hire a chimney sweep only after completing some research to prevent paying for chimney cleaning services, repairs that aren’t made, or services done by unqualified people.
At Touch of Glass, we are fully Irish-managed, and all our staff are security cleared and vetted by the Gardai plus fully insured to ensure you complete peace of mind. They guarantee that we are capable and equipped to conduct chimney sweeps and inspections on any chimney, whether an open fire or a stove fireplace. Our team also undergo rigorous on-the-job training to ensure complete safety compliance.
Contact Chimney Cleaning experts at Touch of Glass
Without performing a comprehensive inspection, no homeowner should presume that their chimney is safe for use. If you are looking for a reliable chimney sweep service, we at Touch of Glass never disappoint. With the latest technology and experience gathered through our years of hard work, we can guarantee you a clean and safe chimney.
We also offer services such as CCTV chimney inspection, roof cleaning, gutter cleaning, window cleaning and chimney cowls installation.
To avoid making common chimney cleaning mistakes again, call us at (087) 772-5264
