You Might Have a Chimney Blockage
While we all love a fire in the fireplace, no one wants a fire in his or her chimney. Unfortunately, according to the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), chimney fires are more common than you may think, and sometimes you do not even know they have occurred. Dirty chimneys are the most likely cause of all chimney fires, and usually the same blockages are the culprits in these possibly deadly accidents. The good news is chimney fires are completely preventable with proper maintenance care like regular chimney sweeping and inspections from CSIA-certified professionals like our chimney sweeps at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service. We would like to share with you what the common chimney blockages are, which can also help you prevent these things from entering your chimney in the first place.
Animals
Stray animals looking for a dry, warm place to call home may come across your chimney to set up house during the cold months of winter. From nesting birds to raccoons to squirrels, these animals not only block your chimney and lead to dangerous fires, but they can become stuck, die, and create horrible, putrid smells that will invade your home. For your own personal safety, we strongly recommend you call a professional animal removal service to remove any animals and nests from of your chimney.
Debris
During the course of the year, leaves, trash, tree foliage, and other settlement work their way down into your chimney and accumulate. While this may not sound like too big of a deal, all of this debris adds up and can cause blockages. This puts your chimney at risk for incomplete combustion and negative air pressure to happen, which can force smoke into your house. Settlement buildup will also cause cracks in your flue, and these cracks allow dangerous carbon monoxide to escape into your home.
Creosote
The most hazardous and common of the chimney blockages, creosote is the by-product of burning wood, and it develops naturally from the residue of smoke, gases, water vapor, hydrocarbon, unburned wood particles, and other assorted minerals as they leave the fireplace and go out the cooler upper chimney. Sticking to the inner walls of the chimney as deposits, creosote is brown or black in appearance and can be flaky, crusty, tar-like, sticky, gummy, shiny, or hardened — even all of the above. Extremely flammable and highly combustible, creosote can quickly build up, and if the internal flue temperature is high enough, you have a chimney fire waiting to happen that could possibly burn down your entire house. Even worse, certain conditions allow creosote to form large deposits more quickly. Conditions that accelerate creosote buildup include restricted air supply from closing the glass doors or not opening the damper wide enough and burning unseasoned wood because the smoke is so much cooler due to the energy being used to burn off the water trapped in the cells of the logs. You can also get a heavier amount of creosote buildup if you overload the firebox in a wood stove in an attempt to get a longer burn. A large fire also increases your risk of the creosote igniting a fire in your chimney.
To ensure your chimney is blockage-free and prevent a chimney fire, contact Santa’s Friend Chimney Service today. A clean chimney is your best prevention against a chimney fire.