NOW is the best time to get a chimney sweep Houston preformed on your home!
Have you used your fireplace and chimney this past winter? With the ever changing weather here in Texas, there is a good chance that you have. Now that the season is starting to change have you stopped burning for the year? We highly suggest getting your Houston chimney sweep done at the end of the season for more than one reason.
If you or anyone in your house has issues with allergies or is on breathing treatments, on oxygen or have any other respiratory problems, getting the remaining creosote out of your chimney and home will help to cut down on the dust and allergens in your home during the time that you are not burning. This will also give you the peace of mind that there is nothing lurking inside of your chimney that you are unaware of.
Animals; raccoons, squirrels and especially birds are looking for homes!
Getting your Houston chimney sweep completed now, at the end of the burning season will help to ensure your chimney and flue are in proper order and do not have any damage that would allow animals like raccoons, squirrels and especially birds into your chimney (and home) to nest during the busy breeding season. Most people want to wait until just before the next burning season to get their chimney swept but normally by that time the chimney companies are booked out for weeks. Not to mention if anything needs repairing, you will then be waiting longer.
Having your chimney inspected and cleaned following the completion of a successful burning season will also ensure that any repairs needed before its next use are able to be followed up on and handled before you are knee deep in snow and ice and have no way to safely burn in your fireplace. This will allow your family additional heat and the ability to cozy up to the fireplace on a cold Texas night.
Masters Services, (713) 723-4854, is the best Houston chimney sweep to work on your home!
If you are in the Houston metro area and have not had your chimney swept, we highly recommend it! There can sometimes be a nest inside that a bird has built or just plain old clogs. These are things that are hard to see from the outside of the chimney. Not to mention when soot builds up in your fireplace, it creates a hazardous atmosphere that can cause house fires. Having a chimney sweep will lower the risk of this happening as well as clearing out any clogs or nest (as long as it’s within the legal parameters for removal). Making your fireplace safer to use.
Once you’ve used your fireplace for the last time, we recommend you call and make an appointment. Not cleaning you fireplace and having all the soot left in there can cause allergens to sit in your chimney in the off season. This will also cause the soot to settle in and make it harder for your flue to be cleaned. The other time we recommend that you clean your chimney is after 20 cords of wood. A cord of wood measures 8 ft long x 4 ft height x 4 ft wide. Or two ‘ricks’ of wood, which is a half of a cord. This may be pretty hard to measure unless you have a huge rack of wood in your backyard.
When it comes to hiring a chimney sweep for your home, you want to be careful. This is your home that we are speaking of! You want to make sure the company is certified to do the work. And yes, keep in mind that a certified chimney sweeper may cost a little more that someone who is not but the extra cost is worth it. You also want to check their reviews. Not just their rating with entities like the BBB and others but from actually customers who’ve had employees from that company service their homes. That is frontline information! Usually with these types of reviews, people are very, very honest.
Although most companies will schedule you for a window of time when setting an appointment, an actually chimney cleaning only takes around 30-60 minutes, depending on the technician. They take their time to make ensure a no mess process.
They only thing you need to do to prepare for a cleaning is to not burn wood the night before. Although it may not seem like it, the embers are still really hot the next day. Sometimes, when necessary, the technician has actually get into the firebox and roasted technician in not on the menu!
Having issues with your chimney that you can’t pin down?
If you have had smoke coming back into your home, had an odd smell when not burning, water getting into your fireplace from your flue, these and more are all able to be addressed by a Certified Chimney Professional when doing your Houston chimney sweep. All of these and more are common problems when the chimney is dirty or has something that needs repair. Getting it looked at as soon as you notice something can at times, save you hundreds to thousands of dollars in repairs that can potentially be caught before they get out of control.
Your chimney is no place for water!
Already this year, we have seen a number of full chase rebuilds and repairs that are needed due to extreme water damage. There are many ways that water can get into your chimney and fireplace, if you are in search of a solution to water getting into your chimney and fireplace the best route to take is to get a full water leak inspection preformed so everything can be caught. But, some of the most common problems are a chimney cap either not installed or improperly installed, missing or damaged mortar crown, missing or spalding bricks, damaged siding or wood, flash and seal damaged or incorrectly sealed and the list goes on. This is why I cannot stress more the importance of the full inspection. When more than one piece of the puzzle is not working and you can only easily see or repair one part, the whole thing, while it may now be masked by a more current repair will still continue to perform incorrectly.
Water damage in your chimney can also lead to other costly repairs inside of your home, like damage to your walls, insulation, flooring (carpets, tile and wood), mantel damage and so forth. Don’t wait!
Storms are coming!
With the spring comes storms and with storms often come high winds and lightening. Both of which can wreak havoc on a chimney and chimney cap. It is a good idea after each heavy storm this year to look up and ensure your chimney cap is still fully intact and there are no tree branches overlaying your chimney in any way. These two things can not only cause more damage but branches especially can lead to roof fires if not cleared off prior to your next fire.
