Professional Chimney Cleaning or DIY?

Hi all,

I've "cleaned" my chimney a few times, and although I've tried to be as thorough as I can, (and its a heck of a twisiting and turning job) I never seem to get what I would consider to be an awful lot of soot. Maybe 3 or 4 dust pans of soot will end up in the fire place after 6 months or so.

I use the rods and a brush head that has plenty of life in it.

Should I be getting my chimney "professionally" cleaned, or can I achieve "nearly" as good a job as them using what I have?

I'm aware that ideally that a chimney should be swept from top to bottom (?) , but most of the locally advertised chimney sweeps that I know just use the same rods as me and a vacum.

Thanks

my3cents

I don't really see what you have to gain by a "professional" clean, except I would expect less mess.

I've done my own chimneys for years and never had a chimney fire.

I would normally sweep more than once a year (at least twice) and always try and do it on a warm chimney. imo you get more tar and soot down if the chimney is warm rather than stone cold.

I've also watched the professionals at work and they do the sweeping exactly the say way you or I do.

@My3cents

@My3cents. Many thanks for that. I was thinking the same. And thanks for the extra advice. Much appreciated.

antiskeptic

I got my chimney swept professionally by a guy whose business name makes him sound like a medical professional.

A few months later: chimney fire. The problem was a build up of hard deposits high in the chimney - the result of vapors condensing as they got high up in the flue and cooled. Granted, the fire was started by my two year old throwing plastic bags on the fire (past 2 fire guards). The resulting flames shooting up the chimney set fire to those deposits and up the whole thing went.

Point is: unless you know otherwise (i.e. start with a fresh flue and clean it regularly) you won't know if you've deposits up there. When I moved home, as part of the check out, I got up on the roof and had a look, and sure enough, that chimney diameter was halved by the build up of deposits a few feet below the top.

A power sweep - which bashes off the deposits is the only way to go. After than, the recommendation was only for coal. Wood leaves deposits due to the sap condensing on the flue apparently.

Get it done by a power sweeper at least once and then fire away yourself from there.

@antiskeptic

@antiskeptic. Great advice there, many thanks.

slystallone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/111187136#Comment_111187136

How does the power sweeper work?

slystallone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/111187136#Comment_111187136

Are they charging much to get it done? I mean just a regular sweep.