Welcome Winter With A Clean Chimney And Fireplace

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The winter heating season is upon us and looks like it is going to be a long, cold one. Most of us take our chimneys for granted, but the fact is your chimney needs to be maintained just like the rest of your heating system. Do yourself a favor this year and let a professional chimney cleaning service take care of all of your chimney cleaning and repair needs. It's certainly not a job you want to tackle yourself.

A fireplace can be a fun and warm place for the family to gather. It sometimes serves as a romantic getaway for a weekend indoors. If properly cared for, a fireplace can safely be enjoyed for many years. However, if a chimney and fireplace are not in adequate working condition, many health and safety risks will arise. A dirty chimney might be a sign of a faulty chimney or fireplace.

Anytime you burn a fire in your fireplace, black particles collect to form a sticky and highly flammable tar called creosote. A buildup of creosote can easily result in a chimney fire which can quickly turn into a house fire. It is imperative to clean your chimney at least once a year to prevent this type of fire from occurring. While it's always a good idea to have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors installed in your home, having a clean chimney can prevent them from ever going off.

Before you use your fireplace, you should have the chimney inspected for cracks and to make sure that there are no animals such as birds or squirrels nesting inside. No matter how clean your fireplace is, there may be unseen damage that a repair service can detect and fix.

Though fireplaces serve as a wonderful asset to any home, many things can still go wrong. First of all, the chimney and the flue must be clean. All fireplaces require an adequate source of flowing air to feed the fire and a means to expel the smoke and fumes. The longer the smoke stays in the chimney, the more creosote builds up.

If these two things are not properly functioning, the fire may not burn well and will send smoke back into the room. The bricks and mortar surrounding the fireplace can also be damaged. The quickness of the buildup of creosote largely depends on factors such as how thick the smoke and fumes are from your fire, how hot the fire burns, and the temperature of the flue. Slow-burning fires and cooler temperatures actually cause more buildup.

Wood burning fires cause a creosote buildup at a faster rate than gas logs, but gas-burning fireplaces are not immune and should still be cleaned and well maintained. Burning other materials such as paper, boxes, or trash will cause damage to your chimney as well. Chemical cleaners can be used to reduce creosote as you burn each fire.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Nick Messe is president of Lead Frog LLC. Early Times Chimney Sweeps has steadily grown into the largest chimney company of its type in the United States. They provide a full spectrum of chimney services, including Chicago gutter replacement, Chicago chimney cleaning, Chicago chimney repair, DuPage County gutter replacement, DuPage County chimney cleaning and DuPage County chimney repair.

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