Alabaster, Alabama

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Chimney Masonry

Sootaway’s Expert Chimney and Fireplace Services

Chimney Sweep Alabaster, Alabama

Sootaway chimney sweep Alabaster knows that fireplaces and chimneys are very important to maintain. As one of the riskiest areas of the home, when not properly maintained, fireplaces can become very dangerous. With that being said, if you own a fireplace, you should consider getting your chimney cleaned by a professional chimney sweep team. Professional chimney sweeps can help minimize the risks of owning a fireplace and ensure your chimney is properly maintained. The SootAway team consists of experienced chimney sweeps serving Alabaster, Alabama. We help our clients feel secure with their fireplace so they can enjoy it anytime they want. Before discussing the benefits of our services, let’s cover what chimney sweeps do.

What is a Chimney Sweep?

A chimney sweep is a professional chimney technician who ensures homes are safe to use their fireplaces. Since the 1700s, fireplace owners have known cleaning their chimneys is a risky task. Homeowners would seek the help of young boys who would climb up their chimney to clean each brick and tile in the interior. Thankfully, commercial-grade equipment has taken that job away from children. Despite people knowing for over 300 years that chimney cleaning is very important, many people neglect to do this task, or they attempt to do it themselves.

Chimney sweeps are highly trained workers who have the proper equipment to clean chimneys thoroughly. Most homeowners do not have the necessary tools to get up and inside the chimney. To reach the entire chimney a pro needs the proper tools. A professional chimney sweep will use extendable brushes, specialized cleaning agents, and even cameras to ensure your chimney is completely clean. With that being said, hiring professional chimney sweeps in Alabaster, such as those at SootAway, has a multitude of benefits.

Benefits of Hiring Professional Chimney Sweeps Alabaster

If you are considering hiring a chimney sweep to clean your chimney, you want to know the benefits you will receive when you hire one. The truth is, benefits differ by the type of property. If you would like to know the specific benefits you will experience with hiring a chimney sweep, please contact us. Our team members would love to discuss what you will enjoy about our services and give you a quote. For now, let’s discuss the three main benefits we guarantee with our services.

Protect Your Home

The most important benefit of hiring a professional chimney sweep is safety. One of the primary functions of a chimney sweep is providing their customers with safety when using their fireplace. This is one of the primary reasons homeowners prefer to hire a chimney sweep rather than cleaning their chimney themselves. They will make any necessary chimney repairs, and they will make sure your chimney functions properly. Additionally, they will clean out any flammable, sooty buildup to prevent your chimney from catching on fire. This is, as you likely know, very important as a chimney fire can lead to severe damage.

When you hire a chimney sweep to inspect your home annually, the primary purpose is to ensure there is no soot or creosote buildup present. We recommend you get your chimney cleaned when even just 1/8 of an inch of buildup is present. If your chimney has any thicker of a buildup, it is at risk for catching on fire. When you hire a chimney sweep, they will use a special camera to film the interior of your chimney. While doing this, they will be looking for any signs of buildup that could lead to a fire. If they do spot a sooty buildup, they will remove it so you can safely use your fireplace.

Save Yourself Time

Cleaning a chimney takes some time. To clean a one-story building’s chimney thoroughly, it can take up to two hours. So, if your home or commercial building is more than one story tall, it can take at least three hours. This is not including the time it takes to remove thick sooty buildups. With that being said, it can take inexperienced homeowners a great deal of time to clean their own chimney. The equipment used by professional chimney sweeps helps them to save time and effort when cleaning. If you do not have the equipment, it can take you an entire weekend afternoon to properly clean your chimney. So, it is encouraged you hire a chimney sweep if you have a very busy schedule.

Breathe Better Air

Any blockage in your chimney will affect the air quality in your home or building. When there is no place for the smoke from the fire to escape, it will fill the home quickly. As you know, this is very unhealthy to breathe in. Sooty buildups are not the only blockages that can cause this to happen. Birds’ nests, leaves, and critters can also cause a blockage for the smoke. Sootaway Chimney Sweep Alabaster Teams have experience and training for humane animal removal and for all degrees of chimney cleaning.

Contact Our Professional Chimney Sweep Alabaster!

We hope you now have a good understanding of why you should hire a chimney sweep to clean your fireplace. The role of the professional chimney sweeps has existed for good reason: keeping people safe. If you want to know you and your family are safe when using your fireplace and chimney, it is highly encouraged you contact a professional chimney sweep company.

Are you looking for a chimney sweep Alabaster team? Please feel free to visit our website to contact us. We would love to help you get your chimney in perfect condition so you can use your fireplace with a piece of mind. Our team brings great experience and guarantees you will be satisfied with our work. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Use Proper Fuel

Make sure the wood is seasoned and when choosing a type of wood, go for a hardwood like oak, maple, or ash. A few logs of greenwood can build creosote thick enough to start a chimney fire.

Proper Installation

Your wood stove or furnace must be installed properly and by a professional. This is to ensure there is proper distance between the flammable parts and the non-combustible parts of the heating system. A wood stove’s chimney must be brick-made (masonry) and factory-built. A single bricked chimney with no liner must never be used for a wood stove.

Chimney Cleaning

Get a professional chimney sweep to inspect your chimney at least annually. This should be even more frequent if the fireplace is lit regularly.

Ensure There is Less or no Creosote Buildup

Creosote is highly flammable and when it is ignited, and it burns with vigor. Creosote is formed when vapor from wet wood mixes with gases and condenses. Chimney professionals state that a ¼in thickness of creosote means your chimney can burst into flames any minute and thus should be removed. In the same breath, do not ignore soot buildup.

Use Smoke Detectors

With the help of smoke detectors, troubleshoot and take action immediately any time smoke is detected indoors. The smoke is most likely a result of a dirty chimney full of debris like dead leaves, twigs, soot, or creosote buildup that have resulted in chimney flue blockage. Other causes include soft or wet wood that has not burned completely or a damper that is not fully opened.

Proper Ventilation is Important

Ventilation is one of the most important parts of your home’s heating system. A huge percentage of chimney fires, safe to say 90%, is caused by faults within the venting system. Take note that the venting system is not the same as the chimney system.

Chimney Fire Prevention Tips

Your home, your family, and yourself are the top priority when it comes to safety. Chimney fires are no exception on this. If you are going to use your fireplace and chimney, then you need to be aware of some chimney fire prevention tips that could save you and those you love. Below are some helpful tips.

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Chimney Flue Operational Tips

A chimney with a flue is a significant advantage for any home. It takes into consideration the comfortable solace of a warm hearth and fire for most homes. If you are a homeowner with a flue, count yourself lucky for good reasons. The delight of a working chimney with loved ones is best in class.

WHAT’S A CHIMNEY FLUE?

Think about a chimney flue as an exhaust pipe that transports smoke and ignition items securely outside. Fumes drafts up your smokestack since it is warm and light, completing it up and off your fireplace utilizing the head of the stack impact.

DRAFTING

Although many people do not understand it, the air climbing your smokestack works under similar arrangement of physical standards as water streaming in a hose or line. At the point when a chimney smokestack is full of hot air, it gets air through the firebox. This pulling impact is called draft and it compares to the measure of weight in a water hose – the main contrast is that the pneumatic force is negative and the water pressure is positive (consider utilizing a straw to drink with rather than to blow bubbles). Hence, stacks are negative weight frameworks.

Expanding the draft in your chimney resembles opening the fixture more extensive on the hose. The easiest method to expand the draft in your smokestack is to burn the fire hotter – more hot air is lighter, so it has more force. Another approach to get more draft is to expand the stature of your fireplace. Given a similar measure of weight, a bigger line can convey a more prominent volume of water than a littler one. The equivalent is valid for stacks – with a similar measure of draft (pressure) a bigger vent will deplete more smoke from your chimney than a littler one.

Poor flow in a chimney can result from: exorbitant creosote stores, shut or stopped dampers, improper construction, basic harm or even a grimy smokestack top. Indeed, having a stopped-up stack top toward the finish of your fireplace resembles having a shut spout toward the finish of a hose – forestalling wind current through the smokestack.

FLUE LINERS

Your flue liner (situated inside your smokestack) is the vertical passageway that moves the waste gas to the outside. Vent liners additionally increment a smokestack’s productivity and execution. A suitably measured vent ought to be one inch wide for each 10 square crawls of chimney opening. This 10:1 proportion empowers air to go at the ideal speed through the pipe.

In the event that the flue is too large for the chimney, an excess of air will leave the smokestack and you will lose heat. If the vent is excessively little, at that point air cannot leave the smokestack. Without the drawing of ignition air into the firebox, lighting a fire in ovens or chimneys would be unimaginable. Your home, stack, and chimney smokestack liner cooperate to give important ignition air to your chimney while venting the side-effect exhaust out of mischief’s way.

Our committed group is here to assist you with your chimney and flue. To guarantee your stack vent works appropriately, you need your yearly chimney sweep and inspection, and a quality pipe liner. SootAway offers dependable, reasonable smokestack administrations. To become familiar with our stack administrations or to plan your arrangement, contact SootAway today.

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Happy Customers

“I chose Sootaway because the office lady answered my call instead of getting an automated recording. The two guys showed up on time and were careful to clean up after sweeping my chimney.”

“I like Sootaway a lot. Had a downdraft problem and they fixed it by installing a damper on top of my chimney. He said it would keep out animals as well and rain. Really seems like something every one should have. Thanks sootaway!”

“Thank you for your review, Sootaway of Montgomery is open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for fireplace and chimney cleanings and repairs.”