Posted by Having a wood burning stove can add both warmth and ambiance to your home on chilly evenings. The hearth is a good place to gather for family activities and a great way to make s’mores when it is too cold outside for camping. Owning a fireplace, however, means that you need to perform routine maintenance on the chimney to keep your home and family safer.
What Does It Entail?
Chimney maintenance entails an annual inspection and cleaning to make sure that there are no cracks or leaks along both the outside and inside as well as to keep harmful buildup from falling into the fire during use. You can hire a professional chimney service to come and do this during the spring, summer or fall and even purchase service plans that include a reminder of what needs to be done and when.
How Often Should You Do It?
You should schedule an inspection on your chimney for at least once a year, twice if you have had an especially long cold season, to determine how often it needs to be cleaned. When your fireplace and all its components are well-matched, you can get away with cleaning the chimney fewer times and may even be able to clean it every other year. It is still important to get an inspection done, however, to better ensure your safety.
Who Should Do It?
Some home maintenance jobs can be done by yourself, others, such as chimney inspections and maintenance, are best left to the professionals. Not only will a professional service have qualified and knowledgeable inspectors to look at the soundness of your chimney and whether it needs to have deposits removed, but they will also have experience working on rooftops and the right equipment for the job.
Routine chimney inspections and maintenance can keep your home safer for longer while you enjoy the warmth and coziness of a wood fireplace. You can hire professionals to inspect your chimney once or twice a year to check for sturdiness as well as for harmful buildup which will need to be cleaned.