Chimney News & Information May 2016

Most homeowners ignore chimney inspections because they don’t think they use their fireplace enough to warrant it or because they have a gas fireplace and don’t think it’s necessary, but if you are using your chimney to heat parts of your home, it must be inspected and cleaned. The smallest thing could go wrong and cause serious harm to yourself and your home. Until you have a problem that is a result of a deteriorating chimney, you won’t realize that the cost of inspecting your chimney is far smaller than the expense that results from ignoring your chimney.

The Chimney Safety Institute of America has a standard recommendation for not only the frequency of chimney inspections, but also for the depth of the inspection that should be performed. Here is what is recommended and should be required of all chimney owners and users.

A level 1 inspection should be performed annually. This is the minimum requirement for a homeowner. This inspection will examine the readily accessible areas of your chimney such as the flue, the vents, the soundness of your chimney’s structure, the basic appliance connectors (in the case of gas fireplaces), and your damper. He will also check to see that your chimney is free of obstructions and creosote deposits which are combustible. This applies to wood-burning fireplaces and yellow and blue flame gas fireplaces.

A level 2 inspection is performed when you change anything within your system; fuel type, relining, addition of an appliance of a different rating efficiency. This inspection will also be required if a level 1 inspection suggests there may be a hazard that is hidden and requires special tools to provide access. Seismic events warrant this inspection, which addresses accessible areas of the chimney as well as attics, crawl spaces and basements. It also looks at the clearance of combustible materials.

A level 3 inspection is warranted by a level 2 inspection finding or a chimney fire. Don’t wait until you need one of these.

Post-winter Chimney Maintenance

A broken flue can be hazardous to your chimney

There are way too many people to count who take their chimney maintenance for granted. What they don’t understand is that your chimney is more than just a tower of bricks that funnel smoke from your home. There aren’t a lot of moving parts to a chimney, but each one is delicately designed and if one part stops moving because of negligence, it could end up costing you thousands in repairs.

What everyone seems to be most familiar with is the damper. The damper is what prevents the cold from entering your home when it’s closed and it lets the smoke out of your home when it’s open-it should only be open during cleaning or when running a fire. The other part you usually notice is the door in the firebox that allows the ash to flow down to the ash box.

Your chimney is what protects the inside of your home from fire, moisture, noxious fumes and smoke and all of those are seriouz hazards to you and your family.

So, what is the flue and where is it? The flue is what provides the passage of smoke and gasesfrom your fireplace or woodstove. It runs all the way to the top of your roof and rises above it. You call it a chimney but it is the flue. Flues can be lined or unlined, but unlined flues are extremely dangerous. There are a variety of linings for a flue but the most common are steel and ceramic.

The part of your chimney that extends beyond your roof is constantly exposed to the elements and living in the Boston area in the Northeast, they become exposed to snow and heat. All of this exposure has a detrimental effect on the liner of your flue. It can cause cracks, flaking and gaps in the masonry that can allow gases and moisture to migrate from the inside of your flue into your home.

The gaps and cracks that come from negligence and inefficient cleaning can cause your chimney bricks to loosen. It can cause your chimney to shift and to not stand straight, which could jeopardize your roof as well. It can also cause your chimney bricks to fall and if left alone to further deteriorate can eventually cause your chimney to fall apart resulting in roof damage, falling bricks and the worst case scenario, a falling chimney.