How to Clean a Chimney

Regularly cleaning your chimney is incredibly important to not only preserve the integrity and quality of the chimney but also to avert the risk of a creosote fire which can wreak havoc on your entire home. However, most people tend to neglect cleaning their chimney because they feel it’s too expensive, but you don’t really have to hire a professional to get the job done right.

With the right knowledge and tools, you can clean your own chimney and save yourself a ton of money in the process. Read on for helpful handyman services Chicago tips, including guidelines on how to inspect the chimney to better understand what you need to do.

Do an Inspection

It’s important to first inspect your chimney so that you can figure out the scope of work that needs to be done. This process involves checking if you’re able to reach the smoking chamber and still have room left to move a brush. If not, then you’ll have to call a professional to do it for you.

Get the Right Cleaning Tools

If you find that the smoking chamber is at an accessible height that makes it easy for you to sweep the inside with a brush, then you can start assembling the tools for a DIY handyman Chicago job. The tools you’ll need are a normal plastic bristle brush, another brush with metal bristles, several rods, a noodle brush, and a brush with a long handle.

Protect your Interior

Chimney sweeping is messy work, so to keep the dust from dirtying your floor, you’ll have to remove all furniture surrounding the fireplace and place canvas tarp on the floor starting from the hearth extending throughout the room. It’s also a good idea to cover the fireplace with poly sheeting that has been secured with duct tape and purchase extra vacuum hoses so that you can place the actual vacuum cleaner outside even though you’re using it to clean the chimney inside.

This is to prevent dirtying your floors with the resulting dust explosion that sometimes happens when a vacuum cleaner is unable to hold the fine soot that it collects from your fireplace. You should also have a flashlight and wear a dust mask and safety glasses to protect yourself from the dust.

The Cleaning Process

Start by switching your vacuum cleaner on and clean the top of the chimney first. It’s a long way down, so you’ll need to use the rods in order to extend your brush until you reach the smoke chamber. Once that’s done, you’ll then descend from the roof so that you can clean from the firebox interior. Open a small corner of the poly sheeting by peeling it back so that you can start cleaning the smoke chamber with the long handle brush.

Once that’s done, you can then vacuum clean the firebox in its entirety, making sure to reach the corners to remove dust from the entire surface. Afterwards, fold the poly sheeting and place it outside along with the canvas tarp. Be sure to give both layers a good shake so that you can recycle them for your next DIY Chicago handyman task.

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Sherarcon