by sunshine | Dec 29, 2022 | Mercer County Chimney Sweep
Why It’s Important to Schedule Fireplace Sweeping is safety first and foremost. Fire prevention relies on adequate fireplace maintenance. A wood burning fireplace adds warmth and comfort to a chilly home, but it opens the chimney to fire hazards if it is not swept at least every one to three years.
Fireplace Sweeping in Mercer County
Fireplace Safety Check
Before the temperature starts to fall, there are several things you can do to make sure your wood-burning fireplace is safe and efficient. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends chimneys be swept at least once a year, at the beginning of winter, to remove soot and debris. You can find a certified chimney sweep at St John’s Chimney Sweeps. Additionally, make sure you’re familiar with how to work a fireplace before you attempt to start a fire.
Creosote
Creosote is a chemical mass of carbon formed when wood, tar or fossil fuels are burned. Creosote can linger in chimneys and is not visible from the outside. When creosote is not removed, it can become a thick coating of debris inside the flue and chimney. Most chimney fires start in the smoke chamber or smoke shelf area so it’s important to clean those areas.
Creosote ignites at 451 degrees Fahrenheit and once it starts burning, it expands like foam sealant and can build to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit in less than a minute. Call a chimney sweep who’s certified by the Chimney Safety Institute of America at St. John’s Chimney Sweeps.
Make sure the sweep you hire does more than just pushing a brush. A chimney sweep needs to be knowledgeable about building codes, trained to recognize venting problems, recognizes deterioration, and able to advise you regarding the chimney’s condition. The National Fire Protection Association recommends that chimneys, fireplaces and vents be inspected at least once per year for heavy use.
Creosote removal is vital to your safety. A chimney sweep log helps to prevent unwanted fires and helps to remove debris deposited along the flue. These sticky deposits are called creosote. Creosote deposited over a long period becomes highly flammable and it’s often the cause of chimney fires. Sweeping logs are popular because of their ease of use for creosote removal. All you have to do is unwrap the log from its package and place it in a lit wood burning fireplace. However, creosote is not the only reason you need St. John’s Chimney Sweeps.
Check Chimney for Cracks
Before that first fire of the winter season, check the chimney with binoculars. Look for the chimney structure for cracks, loose bricks or missing mortar. Moreover, you should check your chimney liner for signs of deterioration. Cracks and spalling on the chimney exterior indicate chimney deterioration, so check your chimney crown or have a professional take a look. St John’s Chimney Sweeps can inspect the chimney for cracks.
Cap It
Use a wire-mesh cap to cover the top of the chimney to keep birds, squirrels, rain and other debris from entering. The last thing you want while working your fireplace is to find some deceased animals coming down the flue. Caps can deteriorate over time, so be prepared to replace your rain cap if it’s corroded or been damaged by weather. Caps come in different sizes, so make sure it fits snuggly on the chimney top.
Damper
The damper is a movable plate that sits above the fireplace before the flue. Make sure the fireplace damper is working properly. There should be no debris preventing it from opening and closing. This is a critical step in understanding how to start a fire in a fireplace safely.
Trim Limbs
Make sure there are no overhanging tree limbs encroaching on the chimney, and if so, trim or prune those limbs. Limbs can present a fire hazard by restricting the proper draft airflow in your fireplace.
Ashes
Another important step to knowing how to work a fireplace is to make sure all ashes are cleaned out of the firebox before you start stacking wood for that first fire. Simply sweep the cold ashes and dispose of them outside. However, you may want to keep a few ashes around to help build a fire in your fireplace. Be aware that coals can remain hot for up to three days, which can become a fire hazard if they come in contact with flammable materials. Always use a fireplace screen to protect your home from ash splashes.
Fireplace Guard
To prevent hot embers from getting out, use a metal-mesh screen or glass fireplace doors. Don’t burn wood in your fireplace without a guard. Glass doors will need to be cleaned regularly too as they tend to get a bit dingy looking over time.
Alarms
Before starting a fire, make sure all of your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working. Check the battery monthly and change the battery twice a year when spring forward and fall back occurs (Daylight Savings Time).
Test Function
Test your fireplaces’ function by lighting a few small pieces of seasoned wood. Light the wood from the top down. If smoke doesn’t exit vertically from the fireplace into the chimney and instead enters the room, troubleshoot to correct any problems. This is key to help you understand how to properly work a fireplace. Problems can include creosote buildup, debris in the chimney such as birds or nests, or a closed or partially closed damper. Additionally, if your home is tightly sealed for energy conservation, the smoke may draft into the home. Simply open a window a little bit to provide the intake air needed to make the smoke goes up the chimney. Once the fire is burning brightly, you can close the window again.
Wood
Choose dense wood such as oak. Wood should be split and stored in a high and dry place for at least six months. Green woods, such as pine, are not recommended for a wood burning fireplace since they can produce more creosote.
Small Fire
Small fireplace fires generate less smoke and create less creosote buildup. When building a fire, put the logs toward the rear of the wood-burning fireplace and be sure to use kindling to start the fire. Never use flammable liquid to start a fire in the home.
Air
To get the most out of your fire, run ceiling fans clockwise on low speeds to redirect the warm air from the ceiling into the living space. Circulating the air keeps the entire room warm instead of pockets of warmth.
Fireplace Sweeping in Mercer County
Contact us
St John Chimney Sweeps Address 1613 Reed Rd D1, Pennington, NJ 08534
Website http://www.stjohnchimneysweeps.com/ Phone Number: (609) 737-0133
Email: stjohnchimneysweeps@verizon.net Proudly Serving Mercer County, Somerset County, Hunterdon County, & Surrounding Areas
Blog
by sunshine | Nov 6, 2022 | Mercer County Chimney Sweep, NJ Chimney Inspection, NJ Chimney Repair, NJ Chimney Sweep
The National Fire Prevention Association 211 codes state the “Chimneys must be inspected and cleaned annually as necessary by a certified chimney sweep”. Most homeowners assume that their furnace company includes chimney cleaning as part of their maintenance process, but that is not true.
Problem
Chimney neglect will cause significant damage and endangers your family from carbon monoxide poisoning. Oil and gas furnaces and hot water heaters rely on the chimney for proper venting of exhaust. Although gas and oil appliances do not create creosote that wood-burning appliances do, they still produce soot. Soot is a highly corrosive substance that can damage chimneys and increase carbon monoxide levels in your home.
Furnace Flues can become blocked which allows a blowback of soot into your home and poisonous carbon monoxide to seep into your living space. If the furnace is in the basement, the levels can build up to dangerous high levels undetected. Scheduling an annual chimney sweep inspection and placing a carbon monoxide detector in the basement will save lives.
Monitoring
During the winter months, the furnace can not be cleaned without turning off the heat. During the winter, long running cycles produce soot and harmful substances that cling to the inside of the chimney. The accumulation of these substances restricts the escape of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water vapor.
The furnace produces acidic condensate that will literally eat away at the flue lining in the chimney. If a clay liner begins to deteriorate, the broken bits can fall into the furnace damaging the operating mechanism. Chimney blockages will send the carbon monoxide straight into the basement, then the home living area.
The fumes are invisible, odorless, and tasteless. Carbon Monoxide can only be monitored by a detector designed for that purpose. A carbon monoxide detector is built into some brands of smoke detectors, and the battery should be changed twice a year when the clocks fall back and spring forward.
Cleaning
Fireplace flue cleaning and chimney sweeping refer to the same process. During the service, the technician generally uses a stiff-bristled brush or other chimney cleaning system to brush the inside of the flue to remove buildup from its walls.
Chimneys are havens for creatures and cause dangerous obstructions. Even if your chimney has a hood, creatures can access the funnel and flue. Smoky brown cockroaches are good flyers and can work their way down into the home where they like to live. They like flat roof areas and chimneys – this is how they enter structures. A chimney screen’s holes allow safe smoke ventilation, but nothing else can squeeze through it like fleas or cockroaches. One problem with screens is that pests can bite through them over time. To account for this issue, you could install both a chimney cap and a chimney screen with an annual chimney sweep inspection to ensure both layers of protection are intact.
If you have a chimney in New Jersey, chances are you’ll have Stink Bugs. The heat from buildings will escape from chimneys and vents and they will find their way in as they are attracted to warm areas in cold nights. Beetles and ants can crawl through the cracks of older fireplaces, especially if they’re built with brick. Wasps will nest in your chimney. Exterminating insects in the chimney by spraying will deter infestation. A more permanent solution is installing fine mesh screens, top sealing dampers, and by sealing cracks in your chimney’s exterior with mortar.
Raccoons, squirrels, birds, bats, and other larger pests can use the chimney itself as nesting spots. The chimney cap needs to be steel or copper lid with a mesh wire opening on its underside and installed at the mouth of your chimney. A professional Chimney sweep will remove the hood, replace it with a mesh wire cap, and remove the obstructions from the funnel and the flue.
Bees should not be exterminated; they should be preserved. Unlike wasps, bees are purely vegetarian in both the adult and larval stages. Bees gather nectar from flowers as a source of carbohydrates, as do many wasps. They fulfill their protein needs by collecting pollen. Most species of bees are valuable pollinators, and honeybees are an essential partner in the production of food crops for people.
More than 80% of U.S. food crops are pollinated by honeybees. In New Jersey, blueberries, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, soybeans, cucumbers, peaches, and apples are among the many crops that benefit from honeybee pollination. Although wild insect pollinators such as wasps and other bee species help in native plant reproduction, only honeybees live in managed colonies of sufficient numbers for effective pollination of commercial crops. Only honeybees can be transported to large areas of blooming crops for pollination services. The past two decades have seen dramatic declines in the number of honeybees, due to the introduction of parasitic mites, diseases, and habitat loss. Visit NJBeekeepers.org to find out about bee-friendly plants you can cultivate. If a beehive sets up home in the top of your chimney you need a professional chimney sweep and a bee wrangler to remove the entire hive. The New Jersey Bee Association lists bee wranglers who can help.
Venting
A crucial component to the safe operation of your furnace is the proper configurations and size of the entire venting system. Homeowners often forget that when they purchase a new HVAC or furnace system, they need chimney sweep professionals to assess their new system. Manufacturers requirements specifically indicate the proper flue size for the safe operation of their system. If the flue size is incorrect excessive moisture and combustion gases will build up. Moisture is a huge enemy to your ventilation system.
If the system is being converted from oil to gas, building codes require a chimney sweep assessment, cleaning, and inspection prior to installing and operating the new system.
Timing
Spring, summer, autumn are great times to have your chimney sweep service. An annual inspection and cleaning by a CSIA- certified company will ensure the ventilation system is adequate and chimney is safe. Their assessment will also check gaskets and joints are intact.
In winter, the heat will have to be stopped for the chimney sweep to complete his inspection and service. Snow does not stop chimney sweeps. Before any sweeping is done, a visual inspection is performed to determine if the flue needs to be swept. Roof access is not needed to make this determination. Additionally, sweepings are generally performed from the base, making outside weather conditions irrelevant when it comes to running our brushes.
References
https://njbeekeepers.org/swarmremoval/swarmremoval.html
