Santa's Friend Chimney Service Blog

Keep it Safe, Keep it Warm

Helpful Tips in Maintaining a Safe and Efficient Fireplace and Chimney

Experts in chimney maintenance always say that prevention is better than cure. This is very true. You can’t just wait for the actual accident to happen before you start ‘preventing’ it in the first place. As the homeowner, you need to do your part to keep your fireplace and chimney intact, safe and useful all year round and especially during the winter season. There are many aspects to consider. That’s why professionals are still needed in its overall maintenance. If chimneys are taken for granted, they will crash and burn and cause bigger problems that even experts can no longer repair.

At least once a year you need a certified sweep to come and clean your chimney. You will also need an annual inspection.

Chimney damage may threaten your property, health and lifestyle. These are five simple tips in using your fireplace and chimney that can be done to avert any future problems.

1. Make sure that your chimney is checked and inspected on an annual basis by professionals that are certified by the Chimney Safety Institute of America. There is a rich database in the Internet to look for top of the game companies in this field.
2. Before even thinking of starting a fire, check and double check that the flue in your chimney is open. Also check if there is enough flow of air up in your chimney.
3. When starting the fire, manufactured fire logs are the better choice instead of plain wood. They burn up to 80% cleaner than typical wood fire. Garbage and plastics are prohibited.
4. If there are no fire logs around, wood can be used provided that they are dry and seasoned to up to six months to leave only 20% moisture or less.
5. When the fire dies down after burning, let it cool and remove the ashes to maintain proper airflow for future use. The ashes should be sealed in a metal container and put outside the house. Some tiny pieces of coal may still be able to cause fire if allowed to be in contact with flammable materials.

These are all easy steps you can take in doing your part as a homeowner. However at one point or another in your chimney’s life, there comes a time when you need to call for professional help so you can enjoy your chimney for many more holidays to come.  This is where an outstanding company like Santa’s Friend Chimney Service comes into the picture because they live by the highest standards of Ethics and Business Practices.  For 24 years now at the heart of Mississippi, they have provided the best service for cleaning chimneys. No wonder they are certified by numerous organizations. Yes, they are the ones to call for guaranteed high quality services at low prices.

Stop the Mold!

Clear The Air: Keep Mold Out Of Your Chimney

We hate having to give clients the news that their chimney is leaking. We double hate having to tell anyone that a chimney leak has created a mold issue. Water damage can be frustrating and costly, and mold growth is smelly, dirty and really tough to get rid of on top of that. Plus, if someone in your home suffers from respiratory issues like asthma, mold is more than just an annoyance; it’s a really serious hazard.

Anytime moisture gets into your chimney, there is a perfect breeding ground for mold. This can cause respiratory problems.

If you’re worried about moisture and mold problems, Santa’s Friend Chimney Service is just a phone call away — our experienced technicians can inspect your chimney. to find the source or sources of moisture problems, determine whether you have mold growth and get you on a path to being rid of both of those problems.

Do I Have Mold?

If you notice discoloration (often green, brown or black) around water-damaged areas in your home or chimney, and/or smell the tell-tale musty odor, there’s a good chance you have mold growth. And when water intrusion leads to mold, there’s reason to be concerned about it. Moisture issues can lead to toxic black mold, and — this is something you’ve probably heard a time or 20 — black mold has been shown to contribute to a variety of health and respiratory issues, including everything from coughs and flu-like symptoms to upper respiratory problems and increased asthma symptoms.

Where’s The Mold Coming From?

We say it all the time: water is your chimney’s worst enemy. And it’s a tenacious enemy, too — it’s determined to find a way into your flue and into your home, however it can. Sometimes water intrusion is the result of damage — a cracked chimney crown or torn flashing. Other times eroded masonry starts to wick so much water in through its surface that moisture pulls straight through to the inside and starts providing a welcoming home for mold. Our first step, after determining whether or not you have a mold problem, is determining where the moisture is coming from and recommending the best way to remedy it.

Removing Mold, And Keeping It Away

Safely and thoroughly remediating mold growth is important, and Santa’s Friend can help. But the key thing to really getting this problem out of your hair is preventing it from happening again. Our techs can make any necessary repairs to get your chimney back to successfully fighting off water intrusion, whether that’s applying CrownSeal sealant to your damaged crown, replacing your flashing or tuckpointing damaged mortar joints. We can also protect the chimney masonry itself by applying a specially formulated waterproofing sealant that allows your chimney to shed water but still properly vent vapors from the inside of the flue.

Santa’s Friend wants to help keep your home and chimney dry and mold-free — if you have a moisture or mold issue, give us a call!

Yes, You Need a Chimney Cap

Using Chimney Caps to Protect Your Home, Neighbors and Wildlife

Many people install chimney caps on their chimneys because they think it improves the look and line of their roof. Although this is true, there are many more important reasons to make sure that the chimney has a cap. In addition to looking nice, these simple pieces can help protect the home, local wildlife, and even the homes of neighbors. As simple as it looks, it is actually very important to get the right size chimney cap and to have it installed properly.

One of the primary reasons for installing a chimney cap is that it keeps wildlife from building nests inside of the chimney. It is common to find chimney swifts, a species of bird that can only perch vertically, in a chimney. However, many people also find that rodents of all sizes have set up homes in their chimneys. This is not only dangerous for the animals themselves, but it can cause significant damage to the structure of the chimney. In addition, the presence of animals may put the family at risk for a host of diseases.

A chimney caps keeps out both critters and moisture, ensuring proper draft.

In addition to keeping animals out of the chimney, a chimney cap protects against excess moisture. If rain or snow is allowed to get into the chimney, it can cause the clay or brick interior to weaken and flake away. This compromises the integrity of the structure and makes it more likely that there could be a collapse. This would impact the entire foundation of the home and cause a serious safety risk for the entire family.

Even simple materials such as leaves and twigs getting into the chimney can be dangerous. If the chimney becomes clogged, it will not properly vent. Instead of leaving the home through the chimney, smoke will remain in the fireplace and eventually enter the home. Clearly, this can pose a significant health risk, especially if there is a member of the family who suffers from asthma.

In addition to keeping things out of the chimney, a chimney cap protects the home and homes around it by keeping things in. The cap will make sure that all hot embers stay safely inside the flue and the fireplace, where they belong. Hot embers often remain warm enough to ignite for many days. If they pop out onto the roof, they can start a dangerous roof fire. This will not only impact the home with the fireplace in question, but these fires have been known to jump to the roofs of neighbors, causing fires in their homes as well.

Since there are so many ways that a chimney cap can help protect a home, it may seem as if it would be a complicated or expensive structure. In fact, these small pieces are relatively inexpensive and simple to install. Any chimney maintenance professional can quickly install one. They are also an excellent resource in terms of deciding what type of chimney cap will work best with the particular chimney.

Anyone who has a fireplace in their home should make sure that they have a chimney cap installed. These simple structures prevent animals from making their homes in the chimney as well as keeping other debris out. They ensure that the chimney vents properly but they also keep dangerously hot embers inside the structure to prevent external fires. This not only protects the home with the chimney, but surrounding homes. They are simple and inexpensive, and can be quickly installed by any chimney professional.

What Is Wrong With My Fire?

Draft Problems

It can be frustrating when you build a fire and the smoke pours out into your living room instead of up the chimney. The heart of chimney design is to keep the smoke from entering your home and leaving in a safe manner to the outside. Smoke inside the house can set off smoke detectors and breathing in smoke is detrimental to your health. If you can smell wood burning inside your home, it is an indication that you have a draft problem. It important to remedy drafts in the chimney, but what causes these drafts is not always an easy answer.

If your fire is hard to start or produces a lot of smoke, it may be time to have a certified sweep take a look.

If you have encountered draft problems in your chimney where smoke is entering your home, due to the variable nature of home and chimney design, an inspection will likely have to be done by a certified chimney professional to properly address any draft or down draft issues.

Chimney Design

Before understanding why down or back drafts occur, we must look at how chimneys work. The main principle behind the smoke going up the chimney is based upon hot air rising. As the hot air rises from the fire, it is gently pushed into the narrow opening into the flue. These angles and placements of design are critical for proper function. There is a delicate balance between heat and air pressures inside the home and the outside air pressure. Negative air pressure in the room (when air pressure in a room is lower than outside air pressure) prevents the smoke from leaving and causes the back draft and smoke enters the room instead of the chimney flue. Why this occurs can be a variety of factors including blockage, improper firebox design, improper flue design, structural damage, blockage, or other external factors.

Blockage

Blockage of the chimney can be anything from an improper functioning damper to animals that are stuck. The damper might also be too small for the opening needed. Animals can also leave nests behind inside or on top of your chimney that is creating a serious air obstruction. Creosote build-up is dangerous due to fire hazards, but there can be enough in the flue to cause this air pressure balance to sway the other direction. A proper and non-evasive inspection can reveal most of these blockage issues.

Improper Firebox and Chimney Design

In building a house, sometimes the look and design comes before function. An improper size firebox can easily throw off the ratio needed to pull smoke through the flue. The firebox must be in proper ratio of size to the chimney; a bigger firebox needs a taller chimney flue. Sometimes the chimney can be raised, or the firebox can be altered. Fire should also be at the very back of the firebox, and a firebox may be too shallow to function properly.

External Factors

Fire needs oxygen, pure and simple. A fire will pull the oxygen from a room quickly, and many modern day houses are tightly sealed and air pressure inside drops. It can drop so much so quickly, that the pressure inside is now lower than outside and a back draft is created. One remedy is opening a window in the house to equalize the pressure outside, but that defeats the purpose if you are trying to heat your home. An exhaust fan might be needed to properly vent the smoke out of your house and pull enough oxygen into the fire for the fire and chimney to work properly.

Tips

Here are some helpful tips to use in trying to prevent draft problems in your chimney

• Have your chimney inspected by professional on a regular basis to ensure proper function and address any key issues.
• Always burn properly dry seasoned firewood. Freshly cut wood is too moist and creates more smoke than fire.
• Avoid using other air vents in the same room while the fireplace is in operation.
• Always build the fire in the very back of the firebox to ensure proper smoke flow.
• Never use a fireplace that has continual draft problems. Wood smoke is dangerous to your health and toxic.

If still unable to remedy the draft problem yourself, consult a chimney professional.

Teach Fire Safety to Your Kids

Teaching kids fire safety

It’s fun to foster a love of your fireplace in your kids, making s’mores, sitting by the fire with a mug of cocoa, hanging Christmas stockings, talking about Santa’s arrival. But since kids are naturally curious, it’s important to put some time aside for the serious aspects of owning and using a fireplace or stove, too: fire safety. It can feel like a hard topic to broach, but preparing kids to safely interact with a heating appliance — and to understand how dangerous that appliance and the fire in it can be — can make all the difference in keeping them safe from injury or harm.

Develop an escape plan for your home and practice it.

Fireplace Safety Starts With You

There’s a lot you can do to make your fireplace and the area around it safer for kids, including having a safety screen installed. Making sure you never leave children alone with the fireplace — even if you’ve just put it out or turned it off — is key. It can take 45 minutes for gas fireplace doors to cool down (and they can get as hot as 200º F or hotter, very quickly), and smoldering embers can cause serious burns.

It’s helpful to bolster talking about boundaries — staying a safe distance away from the fireplace — with clear information about fire: how fast it can move, how dangerous it is, and how important it is to be careful around it.

Safety Around The Fireplace Is Just A Start

Teaching your kids how to be safe while enjoying the fires you build in the fireplace is just part of the equation. That natural curiosity leads a lot of children to light fires on their own, finding matches or lighters and playing with them in secret. Keeping those tools safely confined away from little hands is one step. Talking with kids about those tools, their safe use and the danger that comes along with fire is a key second step.

Creating An Action Plan, And Practicing

Keeping up with the regular maintenance of your fireplace and chimney, of course, reduces the chance of a chimney fire. But fire is always a danger, and one that we can’t predict, so being prepared is worthwhile for both adults and kids. The U.S. Fire Administration recommends practicing an escape plan with your kids, and it makes sense: Having a plan helps your whole family react quickly when you need to, and since kids often learn best by doing, practicing will be particularly valuable for them.

That learning process should including hearing what the fire alarm sounds like, and knowing what it means. You can also talk to kids about firemen: what they look like, what they do and why we shouldn’t be afraid of them. Knowing how to react if their clothes were to catch fire — the stop, drop and roll method — is important too, as is developing several escape routes and meeting places, and practicing all of it.

An escape plan is a serious thing, and fire safety is a serious topic, but practicing can be fun — and that definitely helps kids learn, and remember.

Does Your Chimney Need Repair?

Signs That Your Chimney Is In Need of Repair

One of the best features of many homes is a chimney and fireplace to enjoy a fire on a cold winter night. However, if the chimney is not in excellent working condition, it could actually be a source of peril rather than enjoyment. There are a few signs that any homeowner can look out for that would indicate a problem with their chimney. It is important to take these warning signs seriously because many of them can snowball into much more serious and dangerous situations.

One problem that can quickly lead to other problems is damage to the mortar joints. This is the place where the pieces of chimney masonry come together. It may be necessary to get up on the roof to see this damage, but it is well worth checking out. During your annual inspection, a certified sweep can take a look at your mortar joints for you, so that you don’t have to get up on the roof. If there is damage to the mortar joints, then too much moisture will be able to enter the chimney. Not only does moisture lead to many other problems with the chimney but, if it is not corrected, this could lead to a total collapse of the chimney.

Water in your chimney can cause many problems, including a collapse of your chimney.

Another issue that is best found from the chimney is a cracked or otherwise damaged chimney crown. The crown is the part of the chimney that keeps material out which should not be in the chimney. This helps prevent moisture in the chimney but also keeps things such as leaves and animals out. This may not seem important but allowing these foreign materials into the chimney can lead to much more serious issues.

If there is too much moisture in the chimney, one of the most obvious signs will be the development of rust. In particular, the damper and the firebox itself will have rust in the presence of excess moisture. When there is rust in the chimney, it can cause the flue to crack, which allows too much heat to enter the home when there is a fire in the fireplace. If this happens, the home is at an increased risk for a dangerous house fire.

Taking a good look at the firebox another good way to tell if there is too much moisture in the chimney. One obvious problem will be that the bricks on the chimney will begin to pop out, peel, or flake. Eventually, if it is not fixed, huge chunks of the firebox will start to break off. This could compromise the integrity of the entire structure, causing it to crumble completely.

If there are pieces of tile gathering at the bottom of the fireplace, it is important to consider where they are coming from. In most cases, they are coming from the flue liner, which is damaged. It is important to know that the fireplace should never be used if the flue liner is not intact. This is an extremely dangerous situation and should be remedied immediately. Many people in this situation choose to replace their tile liners with stainless steel, which is less likely to fall apart over time.

There are many different issues that may arise with a chimney and many of them can lead to other problems if they are not fixed in a timely manner. One of the most important things to look out for is excess water in the chimney. This can lead to deterioration that could eventually cause the entire structure to fall apart. If there is any sign that the structure of the chimney has been compromised, it is important to have it inspected immediately.