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All You Need to Know about Glazed Creosote Removal

If you have a wood or oil-burning furnace or fireplace, you may have heard about glazed creosote. Information online, in the hardware store, and from well-meaning friends or loved ones may be confusing.

Chief Chimney Services has all the information you need to keep your home or business safe from glazed creosote.

What is it?

Creosote is a highly flammable, tar-like substance created when fuel is burned at high temperatures. This powdery residue can remain on the walls of a smoke box or chimney and compound over time in several layers. A professional will sometimes call this buildup glazed creosote, or level three creosote. At this level of buildup the creosote bubbles and boils when high-temperature fires burn in the furnace, then cools into a solid, very flammable, mass.

This hardened buildup can become a hazard as it begins to obstruct the chimney, causing the heat, smoke, and gases to slow, and begin to heat the flammable substance.

CSIA-Certified Chimney Technicians

At Chief Chimney Services, we are qualified, licensed, and insured to clean and repair damage caused by glazed creosote. Our licensed chimney sweeps are the difference in chimney maintenance. Using the proper tools we can transform the glazed creosote into a more pliable substance to be easily removed.

What We Do

The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) recommends regular chimney cleaning and inspections, and urges consumers to not depend only on chemical cleaning products like those found in hardware stores. A licensed and experienced chimney sweep provides fast service, inspections, and offers expert advice.

The way our chimney sweeps remove the creosote will depend on the consistency of the buildup. If it is gummy or moist we may use a chemical designed to transform the creosote to a powdery substance. This allows our sweeps to brush it out. These chemicals are safe for your home or business, and our chimney sweeps are qualified and experienced in their use. If a chemical remover isn’t needed, we use tools and brushes to detach the creosote from the chimney walls. After the creosote is properly removed, the chimney returns to safe function.

What You Can Do

As a home or business owner you can regularly check your firebox and chimney for signs of creosote buildup. Burning a high-temperature fire, with plenty of oxygen to the flames, helps the fuel burn completely. Also, burning proper fuel can help prevent creosote buildup. Proper wood should be cut and set aside to dry. This process could take as little as six months, or up to two years for denser types of wood.

Creosote is caused primarily when wood isn’t completely burned. So using improperly seasoned wood raises the risk of buildup.

In addition to burning proper fuel, home and business owners should not skip an annual cleaning and inspection. A regular cleaning should remove creosote before it reaches level three buildup.

Call or set up an appointment online and let Chief Chimney Services make the difference for your home or business today.

Let the Chief Tell You Why Your Chimney Needs a Cap!

Whether you have a brick-and-mortar chimney, a new or aging insert, or a simple stove pipe, you may wonder about a chimney cap. A lot of home owners may have a policy of “out of sight, out of mind”, but although the chimney stack is outside, it can cause major issues inside without a proper cap.

The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) describes the chimney cap as “an important chimney safety and damage prevention component.”

Keep the Outside Out

Although chimney caps can be found at your local home improvement stores at an affordable price, some home owners don’t find them important. Although we at Chief Chimney Services are happy to service all chimneys, we recommend the use of a chimney cap for safety as well as prevention.

Wood-burning furnaces are designed to heat the inside of the home, the chimney designed to release gases and equalize pressure in the home, and the chimney cap designed to keep certain things outside the home.

Weather

Chief Chimney Services will clean, maintain, and inspect chimneys to make sure the path is clear for gases to escape, but rain, snow, and ice can cause flue obstructions if allowed into the chimney. We recommend using chimney caps to keep the path clear!

Since chimneys have to allow large amounts of pressure and gas to escape, there are sometimes multiple openings at the top, called flues. If moisture is allowed into the openings it can run directly into the chimney itself, causing minor problems like bothersome odors in the home, and more serious damage like rusted damper assemblies, deteriorated firebox assemblies, rot, clogged heating and clean-out systems, stained chimneys, decayed mortar, cracked or damaged flue lining, collapsed hearth support, and tilted or collapsed chimney structure.

Wildlife

If a chimney cap is damaged, improperly installed, or nonexistent you essentially have a hole in your roof that animals can access. Any animal that can climb onto your roof can also climb into your home. A chimney is a warm and safe place for animals to shelter their own families, so if they have the opportunity, expect them to take advantage!

If an animal finds a way into you chimney it can definitely cause obstruction, and could even suffocate, causing a foul odor in the home, and need removal.

Keeping the Inside Out

At Chief Chimney Services, we recommend chimney caps to prevent sparks from escaping the chimney. A hot fire has the power to push hot sparks up the chimney along with the smoke and gases. These hot sparks can damage the roof around the chimney, and can cause accidental environmental fires.

It’s our responsibility as home and business owners to be responsible for our homes and buildings. We strive to give our customers the best opportunity for success, and we are readily available to help you with your chimney.

When to Call a Professional

If you are ready to install a chimney cap, or have concerns there is a problem with your existing chimney cap, notice a smoke or draft problem in your fireplace, furnace, or chimney system call a Chief Chimney Services professional today, or click here to schedule an appointment online.