How to Clean Your Fireplace and Chimney

Ah the frost is on the pumpkin and the leaves are falling in the back yard and the gutters are getting clogged. It’s that time of year again. Time to get your house ready for the long, cold winter ahead. One of my favorite activities on a cold winter’s night is to sit in front of a cozy fire with a favorite book and a warm drink. A few seasons ago, after laying in a good supply of seasoned wood, I decided to try and clean my fireplace chimney myself. The whole thing pretty much turned into a fiasco ending with the ladder falling and me stranded on the roof. Luckily I didn’t have to wait very long before a neighbor came home and heard me yelling.

I would recommend hiring a professional chimney sweep or at least an orphan who needs a good meal to clean your chimney. The orphans are a little hard to find nowadays, but the chimney sweeps can easily be located in the Yellow Pages. The cost is usually under $100 and they can also do a visual check for cracks that may allow noxious fumes to enter your home and cause you problems later down the road.

The experts recommend that you check and clean your fireplace and chimney at least once per year, more often if it gets heavy use. The reason for this is because a nasty substance called creosote can build up on the walls of your chimney and catch fire. And usually when your chimney catches fire, the rest of your house has a tendency to burn down and you don’t want that to happen.

There are a couple of things that you can check to see if you need a cleaning. If you notice that your fires burn poorly or dump a bunch of smoke into the room you probably need a cleaning. You can also look at your damper, which sits right over the firebox. If it is heavily caked with creosote, then you definitely need a cleaning.

You will need the following tools:

�· Ladder for climbing onto the roof.

�· Drop cloth or old sheet to cover fireplace opening, and additional drop cloths or sheets to cover any rugs or furniture in the area.

�· Duct tape or another product for attaching the drop cloth or sheet to the fireplace opening.

�· Vacuum cleaner with crevice attachment.

�· Chimney rod and brushes. You can buy these at some hardware and home stores. They range in price from about $12 to about $30.

�· Stiff-bristled cleaning brush. Buy one with a long handle for easier access to the damper.

�· Broom for sweeping up ash and other debris.

�· Eye protection, gloves, and a dust mask.

�· Old clothes.

After you have assembled all of your tools, everything from this point on is quite straightforward. Get up on the roof and start brushing away. Make sure you clean the flue pipe that runs between the fireplace and the chimney as well as the damper and the walls and floor of the fireplace itself. Use the vacuum to reach through the damper and vacuum the dust from the “smoke shelf’ that sits behind the damper. Then swear loudly because there is now soot all over the white living room carpet. Most household vacuums won’t filter out soot, so it’s best to get one specially made for that purpose.

Then you can look forward to next year when you are definitely going to hire a chimney sweep.