There are hardly any better ways to spend the winter and the holiday season than to sit in front of your fireplace with your friends and family. This is made possible by the chimney releasing all the smoke created due to burning wood in the fireplace to the outside of the house. But these chimneys can easily get clogged or dirty, which means you should get your chimney cleaned. But why?
There are quite a few benefits of chimney cleaning that you should consider. First, it reduces the risk of fire damage. Second, it improves the air quality and the efficiency of your home. Next, cleaning chimneys will get rid of vermin and birds nesting in them. Finally, chimney cleaning is cost-effective.
Let’s take a detailed look at our list of various advantages of chimney cleaning.
Importance of chimney cleaning
Chimneys are a mainstay in most houses in the USA. They come in really handy during winter when families gather around the fireplace to enjoy its warmth.
But these same chimneys can cause huge damage, such as house fires. This is caused when they are clogged and need cleaning.
Here are a few reasons why you should clean your chimney regularly.
1. Keeping the house safe
The biggest reason you should clean your chimneys is to keep your home safe. Chimneys collect creosote over time, due to the fire burning in the fireplace below them. This creosote is a highly flammable substance. When they are not cleaned, and the internal temperature of the chimneys gets high, the theory can catch fire quickly, causing devastation.
Chimney cleaning will ensure you won’t have to live in fear of house fires every day.
2. Improving air quality
Creosote isn’t the only thing that is deposited inside an unclean chimney. There are also soot, ash, and other debris that keep collecting inside the chimney if it’s left unclean for too long. When that happens, this debris can get inside the house, which lowers the air quality. This polluted air can also cause various respiratory diseases.
If you clean and inspect chimneys regularly, it will improve the air quality inside your home, making it safer to breathe.
3. Increasing efficiency
If the chimneys are clogged, it makes your home inefficient, as your heating doesn’t work properly. Since the airflow inside your home isn’t proper, your appliances have to work extra hard to improve the airflow and air quality inside your home. This causes an increase in energy consumption, and bills.
As you clean your chimney, you also improve the efficiency of your home.
4. Getting rid of pests
Since chimneys are always warm, birds and other animals such as rats enter these chimneys to take refuge from the cold winter. Once they enter the chimneys, they build nests there, which clogs the way for smoke and ash to be released. This not only reduces the efficiency of your chimney but also makes the air of your home polluted.
Chimney cleaning services ensure that your chimneys have no such blockages which might also include twigs, leaves, or branches from a tree nearby.
5. Increasing the lifespan of the chimneys
The creosote, soot, and other debris deposited inside the chimney walls can seriously reduce the lifespans of chimneys. But if you clean them, the chimneys will not be harmed by these substances, which will increase their lifespans of them. This will ensure you won’t have to repair your chimneys too often, saving a lot of money.
6. Being cost-effective
Investing in chimney cleaning can be one of the most cost-effective choices you will make. Not only will your heating appliances work better when you clean your chimneys, but it will also save you from spending a lot of money down the line. For example, you won’t have to go through rigorous repair procedures if you keep your chimney regularly clean. You also won’t have to pay increased medical or energy bills by cleaning your chimneys regularly.
7. Complying with safety standards
In some places, local laws require you to clean your chimney on a regular basis. Additionally, it is required by some insurance policies to have your chimneys cleaned regularly. By cleaning your chimneys, you can comply with local rules and regulations as well as insurance policies.
Final Words
No matter what benefits of chimney cleaning lead you to clean your chimneys, you should refrain from cleaning your chimneys yourself. Since chimney cleaning requires special skills, tools, and necessary experience, it should always be done by professionals. If you want a professional chimney sweep Austin, Texas, call us now!
FAQ
1. How often do you need to clean a chimney?
On average, you will need to clean your chimney once per year. But if you see that your chimney is smelling bad, or you are having trouble starting a fire, then you should get it cleaned as soon as possible.
2. What are the signs your chimney needs to be cleaned?
Even though we suggest you clean your chimney once per yeast, there are signs that will tell you to clean your chimney as soon as possible. These signs are:
- Too much creosote
- The room is full of smoke
- The house is full of foul smell
- The airflow is reduced
- Starting a fire becomes difficult
- You can feel the presence of pests inside the chimneys, etc.
3. What happens if you don’t clean your chimney?
If you don’t clean your chimney, you will face the following disadvantages:
- Chimney fires
- Unclean homes
- Sickness due to inhaling smoke and ash
- Decreased efficiency of the fireplace and the heating appliances
