Chill means season for sweeping has arrived
Fireplace owners should at least have chimneys inspected to reduce fire risk
The business of the chimney sweep is a lot like that of the firewood vendors: virtually dead until the arrival of cold weather. Then it can get really busy really fast. Richard Rice of Casey’s Top Hat Chimney Sweeps was busy earlier this month after the season’s first overnight freeze.
“We’ve had about 350 calls this morning,” he said. “And there are just five of us.”
Like other home maintenance, experts say it’s wise to keep up with your chimney, particularly as woodburning season approaches.
“If you burn 100 times a year or more, it should be done annually,” said Michael Salazar owner of Fair Sweeps. “But if you’re only burning on some weekends, maybe just 30 or 40 times a year, you can go two or three years between cleanings.
“The best thing to do is keep track of your burns.” Rice, whose business has been in operation for 41 years, charges about $140 for most chimney maintenance jobs in Santa Fe. He says there’s more than meets the eye in a professional inspection.
“If it’s clean, we don’t clean it. We give it a quick visual,” Rice said. “But to properly inspect a chimney, it has to be cleaned because when there’s creosote, you can’t see some of the fine cracks.
“One thing I really try to stress is there’s so much expansion and contraction, and a lot of flue tiles get cracked and broken and mortar falls out and that causes a lot of fires,” he added.
Once the flue is clear of fly ash, soot and creosote, the sweep will lower down a camera for close inspection of the flue.
At Fair Sweeps, inspections are $80 and brush cleanings range from $110 to $150 or so.
The Chimney Safety Institute of America says that even if you don’t burn very often, the flue may be blocked by a bird or squirrel nest.
For that reason, chimneys for gas stoves should be regularly checked.
If you see some kind of creosote-be-gone chemical in a store, you should think twice about buying it. The safety institute advises that using such a chemical as a shortcut can give the homeowner a false sense of security.
So is it true that we can burn out creosote with a big load of cottonwood?
“Actually, that causes a lot of chimney fires,” Rice said. “People hear that and they build a really hot fire with cottonwood or aspen, and that can be dangerous.”
Asked about the best kinds of wood to burn in a wood stove, Rice said oak is expensive, but it’s worth it.
“Oak burns the longest and cleanest, and you get a lot of heat,” he said.
Next on his list is juniper or cedar. The caveat is that juniper wood tends to pop a lot. We might love that sound, but it can be dangerous if you’re burning it in a fireplace — a good pop can send an ember flying out over the top of the screen.
Piñon is a good, dense firewood and smells divine, but it puts out a lot of creosote.