Maintenance Your Chimney to Maintain Your Health.
Having a properly maintained chimney can keep you and your family safe as well as happy on a cold winter night. Keeping up with your chimney’s maintenance is not only important for the aesthetic look, but it is paramount for your safety. An improperly maintained chimney can cause you all kinds of problems as well as hazardous situations. Chimneys should be maintained often but also whenever it is necessary for your health and wellbeing.
An often-neglected aspect of chimney maintenance is ensuring your fire damper is working correctly. You must ensure that while using your fireplace, that your dampers are fully opened, failing this aspect can lead to smoke being trapped in your house. Test your dampers regularly and have them fixed at any sign of malfunction. The general rule of thumb is to have your chimney maintenance at least once per year, but ensuring your safety doesn’t have a schedule, so check your chimney regularly.
Chimney stacks need regular cleanings and examinations to guarantee they are safe for usage. What happens when you regularly use a wood stove or wood burning fireplace is, creosote and soot gradually build and will cause malfunctions throughout your entire chimney. If you do not address a dirty build-up in your chimney, it will not only reduce your fireplace efficiency, but can increase the risk of a chimney fire. If you start to see any kind of build-up you should quickly act; chimneys accumulate creosote which is highly flammable and can even cause explosions.
Wear and tear on your chimney can happen quite frequently, it is important to always be checking for damage. The bricks and mortar of your chimney can become easily cracked and crumble. This can cause a multitude of problems such as excess build up and water damage to your home due to improper sealing.
How do you know when your chimney needs maintenance? Poor heating efficiency and odors are your number one sign. If you are encountering trouble not only starting a fire, but heating your home, this is a tell-tale sign that your fireplace is not getting the correct oxygen. This could be due to cracks, clogging, or large amounts of build-up. If you are encountering strong smells in your home, you must check for problems immediately, this could be a sign that toxic gases are being trapped inside. Cleaning your chimney and checking for build-up will prevent backfires of smoke being trapped in your house. Make sure you are also checking for signs of animals nesting inside your chimney as well as any strange looking oil spots, as these can also cause fires.
In order to prevent chimney fires and make sure your house stays warm throughout the year, make sure you are keen on all aspects of chimney maintenance. Neglecting even small things such as cleaning, can have a large impact on your safety. Always check for small signs of wear and tear and make sure to correct them before they turn into bigger problems. Remember not only is your comfort level at risk, but so is the health of you and your family.