Have you ever had a professional chimney sweep clean out your fireplace, and if so, was it a dusty mess or was the dust contained?
Asked by
jca2 (
16826
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May 22nd, 2022
I’ve lived in my house for about 20 years, and have never used the fireplace (mostly because I’m afraid of fire). I just painted the living room and had some furniture reupholstered, and this led me to look at the big elephant in the room, the fireplace. I noticed the surround was rusty, and so I bought rust remover and will put it on but am also going to have a chimney sweep come clean out the fireplace and talk to me about any issues going on with it. I want to be able to possibly use it in the future if I so desire, or am also considering having an electric fireplace installed in the space. Before I can do any of that, I figure first thing is to get the pro here and look at it and clean it out.
Have you ever had a fireplace swept out and if so, did it make a dusty mess? They told me on the phone that they use high powered vacuums and it won’t make a mess, but I don’t know if they’re just trying to be euphemistic about it, to get the business.
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11 Answers
The one I used 40 years ago; closed the opening in the fireplace with a cover, than worked from the rooftop, came inside with huge vacuum with extra filters and cleaned out the fireplace !
DON“T go with electric unless it is a video screen, most expensive way to heat is radiant electric heat.
Contained. The one we hired was professional.
I last had a chimney swept 25 years ago and it caused no mess at all. Daily usage of carrying coal and cleaning out the hearth caused more mess over time but we never minded as nothing is more cosy that a real coal fire burning on a cold winter’s night.
They will close the doors to the fireplace (IF you have any)...OR…they will seal the fireplace off so NOTHING escapes into the room. Then they scrub the inside of the chimney from the top down allowing the residue to fall into the fireplace. Once they are through scrubbing the chimney, they come inside, unseal the fireplace, & then vacuum up ALL the residue that fell. After that, they will check for any cracks or holes that need to be repaired so you won’t have a fire from that problem. Just be sure to hire a PROFESSIONAL & you shouldn’t have any type of mess when they’re finished!!!
I hired a professional and it was contained.
We did that years ago. The workers were very neat and professional.
Over the years we have had three different professional companies clean our chimney. None of them left any mess.
They use a powerful vacuum machines that causes an airflow such that no dust particles dislodged from sweeping the chimney can escape into the room. All dust and loose soot goes into the huge vacuum hose and trapped.
Also chimney sweeps wear clean foot covers and rug covers.
No mess, it’s a pretty straight forward job they do.
They taped a heavy sheet of plastic over the opening and worked from the top down. No mess.
We had our air-tight stove installed after that. Now I just close the door and air inlets and run a brush through. There is no mess.
The messiest part of the operation is carrying wood into the house and emptying the ash.
It was a common thing when I was young and many people had coal fires. Not having your chimney regularly swept could cause accumulated soot to fall down into the fire (a soot-fall), or even ignite causing a chimney fire. The old-fashioned way was for the sweep to push the brush up the chimney while we kids stood outside to watch for the brush emerging from the chimney-pot. The sweep would put a sack in the fireplace and pull the brush back down, catching the soot in the bag. I don’t remember there being any great mess left behind by an experienced sweep. The sweep took the bag of soot away with him, to do what with I had no idea.
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