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Posted on April 1, 2006 by Deon Melchior | Posted under Home Improvement
Care and cleaning instructions for the chimneys of wood-burning stoves and fireplaces
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Because regular cleaning of your wood-burning fireplace's chimney is the surest way to prevent dangerous chimney fires, it is crucial to keep the chimney cleaned on a regular basis. Chimney fires can be relatively harmless if they are very small, but a larger chimney fire is extremely difficult to control and can sometimes be almost impossible to extinguish. A best-case scenario for such a large fire is that it will merely damage the chimney or the liner of the chimney itself. All too often, however, such large chimney fires can spread to the roof of your house or even to the walls, causing a dangerous and potentially very costly fire. While there is always a small risk of chimney fire, especially with an older chimney and fireplace, this risk can be drastically reduced provided that the chimney is cleaned on a regular basis. Chimneys that are not cleaned on a regular basis are the ones that run the greatest risk of fire, since cleaning reduces the amount of creosote present in the chimney. A chimney that is not cleaned regularly will have the biggest problems with the buildup of creosote, the substance that will cause the chimney fire. Creosote is a substance formed naturally when the wood burns in the fireplace, and carried up into the chimney with the smoke where it will adhere to the chimney walls. Creosote is a dangerously flammable substance and regular cleaning of the chimney is the only way to be sure that creosote is kept to a minimum, which drastically decreases the risk of a fire catching in your chimney that could all too easily spread to the rest of the house. How do I minimize the buildup of creosote in my chimney? Believe it or not, burning a very hot fire in your fireplace is one way to keep creosote levels down. The worst creosote buildup occurs when small fires are burned for a short period of time. A hot fire burned for a long period of time will not produce the same degree of creosote and will actually reduce present levels by a small degree, meaning that regular and consistent use of your fireplace is one way to keep the chimney at least partially cleared. Cleaning your chimney annually can help reduce creosote also. However, there is no real substitute for the regular cleaning of your chimney; don't skimp on cost, either. While those “chimney-cleaning" logs can be partially effective, it's best to have a professional company come in at least once annually to do the thing properly. The yellow pages will offer the names of licensed companies that provide a full cleaning service, and may even entitle you to a deductible on your insurance. How often should I clean my chimney? At a minimum of once a year, certainly, but you should also check the local regulations. Believe it or not, many municipalities actually have laws that dictate how often a chimney must be cleaned; they have realized how many chimney fires can become deadly, and so have instated regulations. Even if your town doesn't have such regulations, though, your insurance company might; check all that fine print over carefully, and see if there are any stipulations about how often you have to clean your chimney in order to be eligible for coverage against fire. Otherwise, if the fire department were to determine a fire was caused by a poorly cleaned chimney, you might be out more than just a roof! About The Author: Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com |
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