Spring is an excellent time for deep cleaning and freshening your home. A place that you should remember during the spring-cleaning season is the chimney and fireplace. Fireplace and chimney cleaning help to maintain cleanliness and safely use these structures year after year. In this blog post, we discuss why it’s essential to spring-clean your chimney and fireplace and what steps you should take.
Reasons to Spring-clean Your Chimney and Fireplace
When small critters or birds build nests in a chimney over the summer, it becomes a serious safety hazard and can cause structural damage. To prevent fires, you must regularly remove the creosote and soot buildup from the inside of your chimney. If you do not clean these away twice yearly, they become an extreme fire hazard due to how quickly they accumulate. Other unpleasant odors may also come from neglected fireplaces requiring regular cleaning.
Steps to Spring-Clean Your Chimney and Fireplace
When it comes to spring-cleaning your chimney and fireplace, the best thing you can do is hire a professional chimney sweep. With their tools and expertise, they can get into all those hard-to-reach places in your chimney and clean it better than you could.
Gather Supplies
Prepare items like shop vacs, stiff brooms with long handles, plastic bags for debris disposal, wire brushes (coarse), gloves, and face mask/respirator before you begin.
Put on Safety Gear
Ensure that any safety gear, such as dust masks or goggles, is donned properly before attempting anything else.
Remove Debris From the Fireplace
Begin cleaning by sweeping up all ashes from within the fireplace and applying a generous amount of grease.
Clean the Firebox
After removing ashes, brush off the remaining soot buildup with a wet sponge, then take care when disposing of it.
Vacuum the Chimney
Use a specialized vacuum cleaner for this job and work thoroughly, covering every square inch of inside space.
Inspect the Chimney and Fireplace
When finished, ensure there are no hindrances, like bird nests, left behind. Spring cleaning is essential to maintaining your home’s aesthetic appeal and safety. Regularly deep cleaning your chimney and fireplace keeps them looking great and prevents fires or structural damage caused by animal intruders or hazardous buildups.
Need a professional sweep to come out for chimney repair or inspection? Batts’ Chimney Services in Birmingham, AL, is ready to provide you with quality services. Contact us at (205) 956-8207 (Greater Birmingham Area) or (256) 660-1338 (Northern Alabama). You can also fill out our online form to request a quote.
