Fire Prevention -January 2013- Chimney Cleaning
Owning a home comes with ample of responsibilities on your shoulders which includes the proper cleaning and maintenance of it. Starting from its maintenance to its cleaning, everything should be taken care of. One of the major tasks is to keep the house clean and safe. When you start off with the hideous task of cleaning, one of the biggest projects is to clean a chimney.However we will suggest you to take help of professional chimney cleaners for chimney cleaning as they have much more experience in this field and they know how to perform this task easily, without any safety hazards. Getting a chimney cleaned by a professional also requires some steps to be taken care of. Always make sure that the professionals are expert in this filed and have some experience in it. Also do a background check. See if they have ever taken any professional training for it as there are professional courses available for chimney cleaning.
But why to clean a chimney? What goes behind cleaning it with such intricate details? If we closely gaze into a chimney, while we burn the wood, many a times the residue is collected on the side walls. This residue is commonly known as creosote. This creosote is nothing but collection of unburned or semi burned wood particles which gets collected on the side inner walls of chimney, which not only reduces the space for the fresh smoke to pass through the chimney but also poses a lot of danger of catching fire in case it grows immensely in volume; there could also be a blast in the chimney which could cause a threat to the human life as well. So whenever you think of cleaning your chimney, always have a look into it; it's always good to allot an annual inspection of the chimney, which not only helps you to keep it clean but also renders your home safe from any major mis-haps. In case you have decided to clean the chimney yourself, always have full protective gear with you when you try to clean it; Right from gloves to eye protection everything must be taken care of.
As chimney is narrow somewhere, never try to reach the spot with additional sticks or jacks as it will only harm the chimney. Also, this would not aid in cleaning it completely either. While cleaning a chimney always use a chemical which is used to remove the creosote and is effective on it, as without it, removing creosote is not at all possible. Also make sure to use good and known chemicals, specially made for chimney cleaning. if you use any chemical and by chance it reacts with creosote in a harmful way, lethal gases may wreck your house and your health too. So, it becomes a necessity to clean your house's chimney, not only for yourself, but for the safety of your housemates and family members too.