Will a chimney sweep leave a mess in my house?

Chimneys are messy! Careful and professional chimney technicians are not. Chimney sweeps will do everything they can to keep your house clean. Ultimately, a chimney technician wants you to call him or her each year for this important annual maintenance, as a result he or she will do everything possible to earn your trust especially by taking care of your home.

Fires produce creosote, which is the mixture of water vapor and smoke that gets stuck to the inside of a flue. Creosote builds up each time you use the chimney. Creosote is dangerous because it is both corrosive and combustible. This means that it can eat away at the flue lining or potentially catch on fire. One of the many reasons why you have your chimney swept is to remove this creosote from the inside of your flue. It is a huge fire hazard to have creosote built up in the flue.

In order to remove all of this creosote, it is so important to have the right tools. Chimney technicians come prepared with all of the correct supplies. He or she also comes prepared with the knowledge to prevent a mess. There is no way to completely seal the flue while sweeping the chimney, however, chimney technicians know how to minimize the amount of particulates that escape into a customer’s home. They use high-powered vacuums and specialty tools to keep the mess on their own things.

I was speaking with the owner of a restoration company a while back. His company handles major home cleaning projects resulting from a system going wrong in the home. He told me that he was once called to a customer’s home because she hired a handyman to clean her chimney. In this case, the handyman used a vacuum the customer had around her house to clean out the firebox. The vacuum didn’t have the correct filter and soot was distributed all around the living room. When anyone took a step on the pristine white carpet an awful black foot print arose out of the fibers. This doesn’t even include the fine layer of soot on every other surface, including the walls. Needless to say, by trying to save a few dollars on a chimney sweep, the result was a few thousand dollar fix.

To avoid chimney fires, call a CSIA-certified chimney sweep once a year. To avoid a huge mess, call a CSIA-certified chimney sweep to handle a dirty chimney sweeping job.