4 Reasons It’s Important to Clean Your Chimney Regularly

4 Reasons It's Important to Clean Your Chimney Regularly

Almost every house in Canada depends on fireplaces, wood stoves, and other wood-burning and fossil-fueled heating appliances to keep their homes warm and cozy, especially during winter. These heating systems produce hot air inside the house, keeping you and your family warm.

However, most homeowners forget or neglect to clean their chimneys because, mainly, they do not see the importance of it at that time. They possibly do not know that dirty chimneys can be damaging and increase health risks.

If you have a chimney in your home, here are four reasons why you should have it professionally cleaned regularly:

1. It is energy-efficient

When you use your fireplace often, plenty of additional creosote is deposited in your chimney. Creosote is an oil distilled from coal tar coming from your fireplace. When it accumulates up to the airway of your chimney, the efficiency of your fireplace will decrease, requiring you to burn more wood.

Cleaning your chimney will improve the efficiency of your fireplace and other heating systems and appliances, allowing you to enjoy a more pleasant environment in your home.

2. It is cost-effective

Wood-burning fireplaces can reach a high temperature of 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit or more. This leads to the piling of ash, soot, bits of wood, and other by-products in certain areas of your chimney such as the smoke shelf, flue liner, damper, and masonry.

Replacing these parts after years of usage is time-consuming and expensive. To reduce wear and tear, you should get masonry services regularly. Doing so will help you assess the health of your chimney as well as spot any masonry issues.

3. It keeps your home safe from fires

When you regularly use fossil-fueled appliances in your home, creosote and soot builds up and thickens in the chimney flue and masonry. These by-products can trigger a fire once it is exposed to the heat of burning embers.

They can also pose a hazard to your health by contaminating the air you breathe in. When these particles enter your body, they act as toxins that can severely hamper your wellbeing. As such, cleaning your chimney will allow you to maintain a safe and healthy environment.

4. It keeps your family safe from toxic fumes

In case you didn’t know, insects, rodents, and even small birds can clod your chimney flue, preventing toxic fumes from escaping the chimney. The unsuccessful escape of toxic fumes can increase the risk of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, sometimes called the “silent killer.”

Carbon monoxide poisoning caused by toxic fumes can cause severe infection or, worse, death. By keeping your chimney clean, you’re helping keep the health of your family protected.

Conclusion

Your home chimney is an important part of your home heating system and your house as a whole. This affects the environment of your home as well as the health of your family. As a homeowner, you should have your chimney cleaned regularly to prevent house fires and carbon monoxide poisoning. Aside from that, cleaning your chimney is also cost-effective and energy-efficient since it can address issues that may lead to further damage.

If you need chimney repair services in Toronto, get in touch with us today. We are recognized as one of the best masonry companies in the Greater Toronto Area as we give the best quality and trusted service!

How to Spot Common Chimney Problems – Our Guide

How to Spot Common Chimney Problems - Our Guide

Chimney problems are serious issues. You must resolve them quickly, or they can lead to hazardous situations. Since chimneys exhaust the smoke from the fireplace, having a faulty chimney is essentially a fire hazard. As such, you want to understand how to spot these issues immediately.

In certain conditions, some problems are only detectable with a professional around. You may not be knowledgeable about chimney systems, so it can be easy to miss the signs that yours needs repairing. Even so, there are some signs you can observe to help you determine whether you need to contact the pros right away.

Here are some ways you can spot common problems with your chimney:

1. Check if the damper is difficult to use

If your chimney’s damper becomes tricky to use or if sealing it is starting to get challenging, it’s likely due to rust build-up. Because moisture can accumulate in the chimney, the damper may start to rust. Normally, you would check for rust to see if a piece of metal is rusting. With dampers, the indication may come earlier than the actual visual cues.

Too much rust can cause the flue lining to crack and break. If it does, a fire can break out, which is why it’s important to replace the damper early on. Additionally, identifying cracks in the flue lining requires a more in-depth inspection of the chimney using a special camera.

2. Check for white stains

If there’s too much moisture in the masonry, your chimney will get covered in white stains, which is known as efflorescence. While these stains are fairly easy to clean, addressing the problem will require more than that. As such, you will need to get the moisture in the masonry controlled, or the stains can cause the chimney to deteriorate. When that happens, the chimney can start becoming ineffective, potentially leading to hazardous situations.

3. Check for tiny pieces of the chimney in the fireplace

When the chimney’s flue lining gets damaged, the cracks will worsen over time, causing tiny pieces of the chimney to fall off. Also known as shaling, these tiny pieces will eventually accumulate in the fireplace, making it dangerous to use.

As mentioned before, a proper inspection will be needed to determine if the flue lining is damaged. For that reason, you want to have the pros check your chimney regularly. However, if you start to see cracks and crumbling in the fireplace, it’s important to call your local chimney repair company to prevent serious damage.

4. Check if the chimney crown is cracked

When you start seeing water or ice seeping through the chimney, it could mean that the chimney crown is cracked. This mechanism protects the chimney and prevents rain or snow from entering. If the crown’s crack worsens, more water can get through the chimney, moisture can accumulate, and as a result, shaling can escalate. When you spot cracks on the chimney crown, you want to get them weatherproofed immediately.

Conclusion

Chimney problems, while they are common, can be difficult to detect. Even with the indications, special tools and equipment may be required to assess the issue properly. That means calling the chimney repair professionals is critical to ensure that your chimney is in top condition.

At Red Robin Masonry, we provide excellent masonry services in Toronto. If you need waterproofing and chimney repair for your home get in touch with us!