Know Anything About Sweeping A Chimney?

spacey2012

The fire service will respond to any fire in property as priority call, many a house has gone up due to a chimney fire, even during the strike.

Despite local urban myths the Fire service do not charge to attend chimney fires.

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spacey2012 wrote: »

The fire service will respond to any fire in property as priority call, many a house has gone up due to a chimney fire, even during the strike.

Despite local urban myths the Fire service do not charge to attend chimney fires.

Well thanks for the re-assurance however it will not be lit until I know it is 100% right :cool:

[Deleted User]

Make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector too.

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Deleted_User wrote: »

Make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector too.

Yes good idea I really should have one of these already, off to Amazon now

tired_dad

IMHO the cost of a sweep is cheap enough to not even ever consider DIY. In addition you get it certified with a HETAS or equiv certificate that the insurance company will want to see when you put in a claim for part of the house burning down. God forbid.

A._Badger

tired_dad wrote: »

IMHO the cost of a sweep is cheap enough to not even ever consider DIY. In addition you get it certified with a HETAS or equiv certificate that the insurance company will want to see when you put in a claim for part of the house burning down. God forbid.

Urban myth alert! It is wrong to assume that insurance companies demand some sort of 'certificate' for chimney sweeping. Some might but check your individual policy.

muckybutt

I SO hate nests in chimneys !

I did an old farmhouse a couple of months back - 6 chimneys three of them blocked with nests - took 9 hours to clear them all, then the last one I swept the mid feathers came crashing down ! - tell ya that makes you jump back out of the way pretty damn sharpish !

I have retrieved a few brushes as well in my time as a sweep and come across the reminents of brushes in flues as well :eek:

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What are mid feathers?

Right, got the camera up there this afternoon and thankfully it was twigs what seems like thousands of twigs! I got a hook end that came with the drain rods so I have the camera attached behind this and am slowly but surely bringing them down, it is though blocked solid and after venturing a little further up there is another blockage higher up as well! Going to take a while to clear I think.

I know I shouldn't but now I have the camera I am back to thinking there is no reason why I cannot clean myself, after all I can shove the camera up there to make sure it is clean never come across a chimney sweep that does that...............


Oh forgot to add, got the brush back

Greenfires

Stick at it then! Worst one I ever had was solid from about three feet above the fire to the pot itself. The birds tend to return to the same chimney if they've had a successful nest in it, and then they build on top of what's already there. Might seem tedious but spare a thought for the birds that carried the stuff there one twig at a time!

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Greenfires wrote: »

Stick at it then! Worst one I ever had was solid from about three feet above the fire to the pot itself. The birds tend to return to the same chimney if they've had a successful nest in it, and then they build on top of what's already there. Might seem tedious but spare a thought for the birds that carried the stuff there one twig at a time!

Thanks Greenfires :beer:

Absolute nightmare, not completely cleared the middle blockage and still the one near the top to tackle, have given up for today kids moaning at me to "move from the TV" grrrrrrrrr!

Picture below, I have had 2 piles like this today and then a black bag full yesterday, not a great pic lighting not so clever, sill at least all this again and more I think! Tomorrow is a new day, back to electric heating for tonight :cool: