Friday, January 6, 2017

Ways On Doing A Proper Chimney Cleaning

By Susan Myers


Chimneys are considered to be very useful in homes. The purpose of these is to provide a proper ventilation for furnaces, hot flue gases, stove, smoke, or fireplaces to an outside atmosphere. Not only homes have been utilizing these but as well as the ships, buildings, and steam locomotives. These are often located on the higher altitudes for reducing the impact towards the surroundings.

When fires are burned in chimneys, the result would be the accumulation of soot and of creosote. These 2 are sticky and flammable substances which can possibly cause some fire if these are not immediately removed. Hiring a professional to do the chimney cleaning NJ might be expensive. Thus, it is recommended that you will be the one to perform the job using the appropriate materials. In New Jersey, NJ, there are a lot of hardware stores selling the necessary materials. So here are some useful methods for chimney cleaning.

Preparing for cleaning the chimney. Before starting the process, you need to determine first whether it would really need to be cleaned. Typically, it is recommended that it is cleaned once in a year. But if it is being used frequently, cleaning it must be done more often. Get a flashlight and see the flue and you may either make use of plastic knife or pencil for scraping off the creosote.

Check if there are some animals living in it such as critters, squirrels, raccoons, and birds. These animals may possibly nest there especially if your chimney has been used already for long. So better check on these before you start to clean. Use a flashlight so you can see clearly the fireplace, and if you find one, be sure to remove it directly.

The measurement of flue. The whole chimney parts can only be properly cleaned if you are using the tools with proper sizes. In the fireplace, measure all sides from bottom. Measure as well the sides on the top and use a ladder to reach the highest part. Make sure to determine the size and the shape of the flue. The height of chimney must also be determined.

Buy the necessary supplies. The supplies are surely available in all hardware stores. The necessary supplies include weighted rope or brush extension pipes, a drop cloth or a plastic tarp, dust pan, goggles, dust mask, a wire or a plastic brush, stiff wire brush, tall ladder, and broom. It is also important to dress up appropriately like wearing a bandanna, gloves, and old clothes because you are going to deal with messy soot.

Preparing the house for this process. Place a tarp or a drop cloth around your fireplace. The cloth is suggested to be extended to the living room. Use some other tarps or sheets in order to cover the furniture using a light fabric. Roll back your expensive rugs. Remove the damper of the chimney and locate its handle. Clean it using a smaller wire brush and detach it.

Cleaning from top to bottom. Climb up to the roof with the use of the ladder. But make sure that it is safe to stand into your roof. But if you are not sure of its quality, just clean it instead from the bottom. Assemble the pipe section and the brush and use them to scrub and clean the flue.

After performing all the processes, the flue entrance must be cleaned. Soot and creosote may possibly fell down when cleaned and there will surely be a collection as well of some debris at the fireplace. Make sure that you will be disposing properly all collections of dirt because these are flammable.




About the Author:



No comments: