It pays to inspect your fireplace early

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Dirty fireplace before repair

It’s recommended that chimney’s are inspected every year. Almost everyone waits until the fall, so it’s difficult for the chimney sweep to service everyone well.

It really makes a lot more sense to do them at the end of the burning season in the event there are any repairs that need to be made before the unit may be put back into operation.

The last thing you want to hear the week before the big holiday party is that there are repairs needed to your fireplace before you can use it.

Buying a Home? Three Reasons to Insist on a Fireplace Inspection

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When choosing a home to purchase, today’s home buyers have many important decisions to make. When any home being considered has a fireplace, wood stove, or flue, insisting on a thorough inspection of these features is critical, especially when buyers intend to use these features as a supplemental or emergency heat source. If your are considering the purchase of a home with a fireplace, wood stove, or flue, here are three excellent reasons to get them professionally inspected by a certified inspector first.

1. Fire Safety

Because these features deal with heat and open flames, fire safety is the most important reason to insist upon a thorough inspection. Flues for wood stoves and fireplaces often have buildups of a substance called creosote.

Highly flammable, creosote results when there has been an incomplete combustion of the wood used to make a fire, and is a leading cause of chimney and flue fires. This can happen when the firewood has not been correctly seasoned before use, or when the fire has not received the proper amount of oxygen to allow it to burn hot enough to prevent creosote from forming.  Read more

Birds Nesting in Chimneys

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Do you have a problem with birds nesting in your chimney?

We can help you with that. Below is photos of birds nesting in a chimney that we covered the top of the chimney so they could not nest in there anymore. This is a safety hazard to have anything in your chimney and should be removed.

Give us a call to have your fireplace done or inspected today!

birds nesting in a chimney

Fireplace Brick Repair

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Here is a before, mid and after photo of a fireplace that had some cracked bricks that we replaced. Click photo to enlarge

Before and after fireplace repair

Fireplace Doors

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Here is a before and after of a fireplace where we added doors for safety.

Before

Before

After

After

Gas Fireplace Safety

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Gas fireplaces have become more and more popular in recent years because they eliminate the maintenance required with wood burning fireplaces.  With the convenience, there is the unfortunate liability that many gas fireplaces have fixed glass panels that can become dangerously hot, even exceeding 1000 degrees.  Even after the gas is turned off, the temperature can be dangerously high for an hour or more.  These temperatures can cause very bad burns especially to young children.

New gas appliances manufactured after  January 2015 are required to come with mesh safety screens.  However there are millions of gas fireplaces which were manufactured prior to 2015 which are not covered by this new law.  It is up to the business or homeowner to install a protective barrier.  Go to fireplacesafetytips.com for what you need or call Lucky Sully Chimney Sweep, your gas fireplace safety experts.

Fireplace Repair

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Check out these before and after photos of a fireplace repair we did.

fire-place-before-repair fire-place-repair-after

How can a sweep help me to maintain a safe home?

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Employing the services of a qualified chimney sweep is essential for maintaining the safety of your home. A professional chimney sweep not only cleans your flue, which can prevent the build-up of hazardous creosote as well as obstruction from nesting animals and debris, but he will inspect your chimney as well. A thorough inspection of your chimney is vital in order to prevent ghastly costs and safety issues that could result from untreated damages that might be lurking in your chimney. Failure to have your chimney swept and inspected by a qualified sweep can result in:chimney-sweeper-158077_640 Read more

What is Creosote?

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How does it get in the chimney and why is it dangerous?

When you burn wood in your fireplace or wood burning stove, it creates pollutants- often in the form of gases and small particles. The gases are expelled from the burning wood with the smoke. When the gases cool to a temperature that is below 250˚ F, they will begin to liquefy, combine and condense. When they combine and condense they create what is commonly referred to as creosote- a foul smelling corrosive that is extremely combustible. Read more

Things you should not burn in a fireplace

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These are things you should not burn in your fireplace. Watch this video to see why.