Thirty years of the same questions from Chester County homeowners, answered properly. If yours is not here, call and ask.
Nothing on this page is a sales pitch. Ask us anything on the phone too.
It depends on the time of year. Late summer through autumn is our busiest stretch and the calendar fills quickly, so August and September bookings get the best choice of dates. Outside that window we can usually be with you within the week.
Our pricing is published rather than quoted on your doorstep, which is unusual in this trade and deliberate. You can see current pricing on our homepage, or call the office and we will tell you over the phone.
No. Estimates are free, quoted up front and carry no obligation. If you want to take our written findings elsewhere, that is entirely your call.
Payment is due at the time of service. We accept cash, check and card.
Yes, fully licensed and insured in Pennsylvania, and members of the Chimney Sweep Guild. We are happy to send certificates over before we come out.
We cover Chester County top to bottom. If you are not sure whether we reach you, call and ask. There is no trip charge inside our service area.
The NFPA 211 standard calls for chimneys to be inspected every year and cleaned as the inspection dictates. If you burn most weekends through the winter, expect an annual sweep. If you light three fires a year you may go longer, but the annual look is what catches a cracked tile or a failing crown while it is still cheap.
Creosote is what condenses out of wood smoke onto the walls of a cooler flue, and it is fuel. Once enough has built up, a hot fire or a stray ember can ignite it inside the chimney, where it burns hot enough to crack clay tile and reach the framing behind the masonry.
A common industry threshold is around an eighth of an inch. At a quarter inch the flue should not be used until it has been swept. Glazed creosote, the shiny tar that has run and hardened onto the tile, is treated as unsafe at any thickness because of how readily it ignites.
No. Drop cloths go down before anything else and the HEPA vacuum runs the whole time we are working at the firebox. It is the thing our reviews mention most often.
Yes, for different reasons. Gas flues do not build creosote, but they collect debris, corrode from acidic condensate, and are a favourite nesting spot for birds and squirrels. A blocked gas flue is a carbon monoxide problem.
Those logs can loosen light deposits and they are not useless, but they remove nothing from the chimney. Whatever they break loose still has to be swept out, and they do nothing about a blockage, a nest or a cracked liner. A supplement to a sweep, not a substitute.
Seasoned hardwood, split and stacked under cover for a year or more, ideally two. Wood at twenty percent moisture or below burns hot and clean. Green or wet wood produces far more creosote, and a moisture meter costs very little.
A cleaning removes deposits. An inspection evaluates the condition and safety of the whole system and produces a record of it. A chimney can be spotlessly clean and still unsafe to use.
Level 1 is a visual inspection of readily accessible parts, appropriate for an annual check on a system that has not changed. Level 2 adds accessible attic, crawl space and basement runs plus a video scan of the flue, and is what applies to a property sale, an appliance change, or after a chimney fire. Level 3 involves removing parts of the structure and is only used when a serious hazard is suspected.
Partly, and rarely to the depth a chimney needs. General home inspectors are not required to scan the flue internally and most do not carry the camera. Their scope sits closer to a Level 1, while a property transfer calls for a Level 2.
Yes, with a written report and photographs, and we schedule around inspection contingency deadlines. Tell us the date you are working to when you call.
The usual signs are pieces of clay tile appearing on the smoke shelf, visible cracks or open joints on a camera scan, a flue that was never lined at all, or damage following a chimney fire. Converting to gas or adding a stove also normally requires a correctly sized liner.
Quality stainless liners installed correctly carry long manufacturer warranties, and many are lifetime warranted for the original homeowner when used with the fuel they are rated for. Burning the wrong fuel through a liner voids that faster than anything else.
Yes, and it is the cheapest useful thing you can do to a chimney. A cap keeps rain and snow out of the flue, stops birds and animals nesting, contains sparks leaving the flue, and protects the crown from direct rainfall.
Six usual causes: no cap or the wrong cap, a cracked or flat crown, failed flashing at the roof line, porous masonry, open mortar joints, or condensation inside an oversized flue. The stain inside is rarely directly below the failure, which is why these get chased with the wrong repair for years.
Not until the entry point is found. Sealing a chimney that has open joints or a cracked crown traps the water already inside it and makes the damage worse. Any sealer used should also be vapour permeable, not a film-forming coating.
Masonry needs temperatures above freezing to cure, so the working window in Chester County runs spring through late autumn. We do not lay in freezing weather regardless of how the schedule looks.
Once a year for a typical household. Large families, long duct runs and rooftop terminations should be done more often. If drying times have crept up, that is your signal regardless of the calendar.
If clothes need a second cycle, the machine runs hot to the touch, the laundry room gets humid, or you smell burning during a cycle, the duct is the first suspect. A new machine with the same symptom points at the duct even more strongly.
For a short straight run through an exterior wall, a consumer kit will get some of it. For a long run, multiple elbows or a roof termination they generally cannot reach and cannot capture what they dislodge. There is also a real risk of pulling a joint apart inside a wall cavity without knowing.
Yes, and it is what most of our customers do. One trip, one call, and cheaper than booking the two separately.
Loud cracking or popping from the chimney, a low roaring sound, dense smoke or a strong hot smell, and afterwards flakes of creosote or tile on the roof or in the gutters. Many chimney fires are quiet and the first evidence is what an inspection turns up later.
Have working carbon monoxide alarms on every level of the house and replace them when they reach the end of their service life, because the sensors expire. Alarms are not a substitute for having the flue that serves your furnace or water heater checked, but they are the layer that protects you between inspections.
Open the damper fully before lighting, keep the area in front of the fireplace clear so air can circulate, and burn seasoned wood. If it still smokes into the room, the cause is usually flue sizing, a blockage, or a smoke chamber that needs parging.
A blockage stops combustion gases leaving the house, which pushes smoke and carbon monoxide back into the living space. Blockages come from nests, leaves, fallen brick or tile, and heavy creosote.
If your question is not answered here, call the office. We would rather explain it than have you guess.