Santa's Friend Chimney Service Blog

Maintaining the Bird Screens on Your Chimney Cap

If you have ever heard the sounds of chirping coming from your chimney, you know what a pain it can be to have birds living in the flue. Not only can they be noisy, but they can also bring germs and diseases into your home. Even when they leave, you will still have their nesting materials inside your chimney, which can block your flue and force carbon monoxide back into your home. The straw and other debris from birds’ nests also creates a dangerous fire hazard as these materials are extremely flammable. The best way to deal with birds and other wild animals and your chimney is to prevent them from being able to get into your chimney at all. At Santa’s Friend Chimney Service, we sell and install bird screens that we can add to your existing chimney cap to give it even more protection from animal and bird invasions. We would like to tell you a bit more about keeping birds out of your chimney as well as maintaining the screens to work at the highest efficiency level.

WATCH OUT FOR CHIMNEY SWIFTS

You may not know that it can be illegal to have a certain kind of bird removed from your chimney if you have one living inside. According to The Humane Society of the United States, chimney swifts and other migratory birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Anybody who knowingly destroys these types of birds or nests that could contain eggs or baby birds can be either penalized or fined, or even both. If you do find a family of chimney swifts living in your chimney, you will have to be patient and wait until the spring when they will leave on their own. Santa’s Friend Chimney Service can then check out the inside of your chimney and remove any nesting left behind. We can then add bird screens to your chimney cap to keep these birds from returning in the fall or winter.

KEEP YOUR SCREENS CLEAN

You need to be sure your bird screens are clean and not clogged to keep your chimney working efficiently and safely. Leaves and other debris can get blown into the screens and get stuck. Another thing that can clog up your bird screens is creosote. This substance is a natural residue produced during the combustion process of burning wood, but you can slow down its development by only burning seasoned firewood that has been dried for at least six months. If you burn wet wood, you will definitely have a problem with an abundance of creosote and soot accumulating in your bird screens because wet wood creates a lot of smoke and other byproducts of combustion. You also have cooler fires, which provides the perfect temperature for the rapid development of creosote. If you notice that your bird screens look as if they are clogged with a black or brown substance, give us a call at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to schedule an appointment for our chimney sweeps to clean your screens. When your screens are clogged, you will have draft problems, like not being able to get a fire started or smoke filling your home when you do get the fire started. You will also be at a higher risk for a carbon monoxide leak because this toxic gas will be forced back into your home if it cannot exit through the screen. We can help you keep everything working smoothly.

Keep birds and other wild animals out of your chimney all year long. Contact us at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to talk to our staff about our bird screen installation and maintenance services.

Chimney Relining

Your chimney system consists of several components that are necessary for it to function properly and safely. Included in these components is your chimney liner, which has several important purposes, such as protecting your home from the extremely high temperatures that are produced within your chimney. Unfortunately, chimney liners do not last forever and can suffer damage over the years that can cause your chimney to be unsafe to use. If you live in an older home with a masonry chimney, your liner may not be in the best condition and could be in need of repair. At Santa’s Friend Chimney Service, we offer a couple of chimney relining options that will restore the safety and efficiency of your chimney. We would like to tell you more about our chimney relining services by answering some frequently asked questions we have received from our customers.

Why is a chimney liner so important?

According to the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), chimney liners serve three crucial functions. They prevent your home from catching on fire from the high temperatures produced when a fire is burning. They protect the masonry materials of your chimney from the corrosive byproducts of combustion. They also allow your chimney to function efficiently and safely by providing a correctly sized flue for your heating appliance.

What kind of chimney liner do I have?

There are three main types of chimney liners: clay tile, stainless steel, and cast-in-place. If you have a masonry chimney, you most likely have a clay tile liner, but it is possible to have another type. Our CSIA-certified chimney technicians can inspect your chimney to find out exactly what type of liner you have as well as to examine its condition.

What chimney relining services does Santa’s Friend Chimney Service offer?

To reline clay tile liners, we offer HeatShield, which is economical, reliable, and much less time-intensive than constructing a new clay tile liner. Also known as a cast-in-place liner, HeatShield is a specially formulated sealant that restores the integrity of your clay tile liner by filling in the cracks and gaps. Our chimney technicians have been trained on how to apply HeatShield and know exactly how to apply the cerfractory sealant to repair your liner and make your chimney safe to use again. You can trust us to restore your clay tile liner with HeatShield, which comes with a 20-year material warranty.

If you do not have a clay tile liner, we can reline your chimney with a durable stainless steel liner, which has a lifetime warranty. Durable and strong, a stainless steel liner is guaranteed to protect you from hazardous situations, including chimney fires and carbon monoxide leaks. This type of liner also allows us to create a correctly sized flue if you are converting your old fireplace to a new insert. Santa’s Friend Chimney Service has years of experience with installing stainless steel chimney liners, and we will ensure your chimney will function efficiently and safely.

Want to know more about our chimney relining services? Contact us at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to talk to our staff about your options.

Beat the Rush This Fall with a Summer Chimney Cleaning

The last thing on your mind during the lazy days of summer is your fireplace, but time has a way of getting away from us and fall will be here before we know it. National fire safety organizations like Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) all recommend that you have your fireplace and your chimney professionally swept and inspected before you light the first fire of the year to be sure the system functions properly and safely. Santa’s Friend Chimney Service strongly suggests to our customers making the appointment for this annual chimney maintenance service in the late summer to avoid the fall rush. The busiest time of the year for our CSIA-certified chimney sweeps begins in September and continues until the following January, so trying to schedule a chimney sweeping and inspection after the summer is over can be challenging and frustrating. You will most likely have to wait for several weeks before we can visit your home. We would like to tell you a bit more about these two maintenance services and what you can expect from a chimney cleaning and inspection from Santa’s Friend Chimney Service.

Chimney Sweeping

Our staff has noticed that the greatest concern of our first-time customers before we sweep their chimneys is about the possible mess involved. We would like to assure you that our chimney sweeps take great care to keep your home clean. The first thing our sweeps will do is cover your hearth with tarps to protect the floor and area around your fireplace from soot and debris. A dust collector, a vacuum equipped with a HEPA filter, is set up to keep soot from escaping into the home and will be on the entire time our sweeps are brushing and sweeping the firebox and the interior walls of the flue to control dust. You can trust Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to remove all of the accumulated creosote that has built up on the walls of your chimney. Removing the creosote will keep your chimney from being a fire hazard since creosote is highly flammable and dangerous. Our sweeps will also clean and adjust the damper and assembly. After your chimney has been swept, you will have a 100% guarantee that your home will be as clean or cleaner than it was when our chimney sweeps arrived to your house.

Chimney Inspection

After your chimney has been cleaned and swept, our CSIA-certified chimney sweeps will conduct a visual inspection of the interior and exterior of your chimney. Our experts will check out the bricks, mortar, and other components of your chimney to look for any damage or deterioration. The interior of your chimney will be inspected for damage and for blockages that can create hazardous situations like a chimney fire or carbon monoxide leaks. If problems are found during this inspection, you will receive a written evaluation (including photos of the damage) and an estimate of needed repair work. You can trust our chimney sweeps to provide the appropriate level of inspection for your chimney as they have been trained on all three levels of the NFPA chimney inspection guidelines during their CSIA certification process.

Want to beat the fall rush? Contact Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to schedule your annual chimney sweeping and inspection to be prepared for the coming fireplace season.

Why Is My Chimney So Smelly?

Every summer, Santa’s Friend Chimney Service receives many calls from our customers about stinky chimneys. A few things can cause chimney odors, and the heat and humidity of summer can intensify these unpleasant smells that can enter your home through the chimney and fireplace system. Our chimney technicians have years of experience of dealing with stinky chimneys and fireplaces and know how to get rid of any bad odors from your hearth. We would like to tell you more about what causes chimneys that are smelly enough to affect the living spaces of your home.

Image by Kimbar under the Creative Commons license.

Negative Air Pressure

The reason why unpleasant odors enter your home through the fireplace and chimney has to do with negative air pressure. Sealing up a home too tightly when you weatherize for the summer to keep the cold air inside your home causes smoky air to enter your home from the fireplace instead of exiting out the chimney. Santa’s Friend Chimney Service can solve negative air pressure problems by installing a top-sealing damper to promote proper air circulation.

Creosote

According to the Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA), creosote forms naturally as a result of the combustion and condensation processes that occur when burning wood. Consisting of amorphous carbon, creosote sticks to the interior walls of your chimney and can accumulate into large deposits. Not only are these deposits extremely flammable, but they also emit a sour odor that is made worse by heat and humidity. The CSIA-certified chimney sweeps from Santa’s Friend Chimney Service can remove all of the creosote deposits that have built up inside your chimney during a professional chimney sweep, which will alleviate odor problems.

Other Causes

Water leaking into your chimney from rain and melted snow can create musty odors. To keep moisture from entering your chimney and causing unpleasant smells, Santa’s Friend Chimney Service can install a chimney cap on the top of your chimney. A chimney cap can also prevent another cause of unpleasant chimney odors: birds and animals. Without a chimney cap, birds and animals can easily get inside your chimney to nest. Debris from their nesting materials can smell badly, and even worse, a bird or animal could become trapped inside your chimney and possibly die. This worst case scenario can result in extremely unpleasant odors within your chimney that could affect the living spaces in your home.

If you have a smelly chimney, contact Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to allow us to improve the situation by dealing with what is causing the unpleasant odors.

The Importance of Online Reviews of Service Companies

The staff at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service loves to get feedback from our customers about our services as a chimney company. Whether the review is positive or negative, we learn a lot from customer feedback about how we can best serve our customers. We always sincerely appreciate our customers who have taken the time to write a review of our chimney services. Online review websites like Yelp are not only helpful to businesses like us, but you can use these resources to research companies for a service you need. The ability to read other people’s first-hand experiences with a company can be a powerful tool for consumers. When you hire a chimney sweep or other home service technician for the first time, you want to be sure of his or her credentials before placing the safety of yourself, your family, and your home in the hands of this person. Reading online reviews can be a great way to find out more about the business you would like to employ in your home.

Of course, many of the online reviews you will find are negative, and this illustrates human nature. People are more inspired to tell other people about their bad experiences than their good ones. While no business is perfect, some service companies do respond to their negative online reviews in attempts to make the situation better and please that customer. This shows a business eager to do right by its customers, which can go a long way to a consumer. Everyone makes mistakes, but those who admit these mistakes and try to correct them deserve a second chance. Whenever our staff at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service receives a customer complaint or reads a disgruntled online review of our services, we use these opportunities as learning experiences to provide even better services. Sometimes it can be difficult to know what you are doing wrong if you do not get any feedback.

When you are looking for a qualified chimney sweep to thoroughly clean your chimney, you want to hire someone who is both skilled and trustworthy. You definitely want a chimney sweep who is trained and certified within the chimney industry so that you can be sure your fireplace and chimney system will work properly and safely after the cleaning. Since the chimney sweep must also come into your home, knowing more about the sweep’s work background can help you to breathe easier. You would not want to hire a chimney sweep who has been suspected of theft. Researching technicians who will be working in your home by reading online reviews is an excellent way to find out exactly who you should hire.

Santa’s Friend Chimney Service always strives to serve our customers better than any other chimney company in the Central Mississippi area. Contact us to set up an appointment with one of our certified chimney technicians for whatever chimney needs you may have.

Common Masonry Repairs for Your Chimney

Whether you have an old, historical home or a modern house with a masonry chimney, you will most likely need to have masonry restoration work done at some point. The most common cause of masonry repair is water damage as water can leak into masonry joints and wear them down, causing deterioration. Other causes of masonry repair are weathering, earthquake damage, poor workmanship, and negligence. If you need masonry repair work done, it is important to find a company experienced in the different types of masonry restoration, like Santa’s Friend Chimney Service. Our masons know how to do each type of this repair work, and we would like to tell you more about the most common masonry repairs.

Tuck Pointing

One of the most common types of masonry restoration, tuck pointing is the process of removing damaged and deteriorating mortar in masonry joints, and then restoring those joints with new materials. A painstaking process, tuck pointing is made even more complicated when an older house is involved. Today’s mortar materials differ greatly in terms of hardness and permeability when compared to the bricks and mortars of years’ past. Experienced masons like the ones at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service know to think about the original materials when dealing with an older home because if they used modern materials, the chimney structure will be unsound as the new and old materials will not work together properly. Our technicians make sure the repairs are invisible and strong enough to last for years.

Chimney Crown Restoration

Since your chimney crown sits atop your chimney to protect it from the elements and animals, it is completely exposed to rain and snow, which causes water erosion damage. The sun causes more damage from the constant heat exposure. After years of these types of damage, your chimney crown starts to crack and spalling begins to occur. When this happens, repair is a top priority because you do not want water leaking into your chimney and penetrating into your masonry joints, which can cause even more problems. Santa’s Friend Chimney Service has experience working with chimney crown restoration, and we can recommend a couple of different approaches, depending on the condition of your crown. If you have minimal damage, our technicians can apply a crown coat repair, a flexible sealant which covers the entire crown, that will seal all cracks and create a waterproof barrier. If the damage is more expensive, we will most likely have to construct a new chimney crown for you; however, with our years of experience, we can build a crown to last a lifetime as well as coat the new crown with a waterproof sealant to protect it from rain and snow.

For more information about the different types of masonry repairs we provide, contact Santa’s Friend Chimney Service. Our expert staff is happy to answer any questions you may have.