Our Company Blog

The Importance of Reviewing Your Chimney Sweep

When it comes to hiring a professional for any service, you want the best. The best professionals stand out and are easy to find because of their certifications, policies, reviews and, warranty.

Unfortunately, homeowners find a very good service provider, but because of poor reviews. This causes homeowners to not to visit their webpage to find out about about warranties, certifications, referral programs, and more. For this reason it is vitally important that you review your chimney sweep company. Good or bad, you’re review will help us be a better business and help other homeowners in Suffolk County find us.

Why Your Review Matters

1. Your positive review raises our score with sites such Angie’s List, Yelp!, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) which uses specific criteria to create an overall score, including your customer reviews!
2. Your review, positive or negative helps us to adjust our practices and reflect on our pricing, services, and community image. We want to be the best chimney sweep and masonry repair company in Suffolk County, and your reviews help us improve everyday.
3. Your review lets us connect with you—not just on a personal level with your field technician, but with our owners, trainers, and office staff. Making connections with customers and community members is invaluable.
4. Your review lets us know we are appreciated. We love to get a smile and a handshake when we complete a job, but an online review, or a recommendation to a friend or neighbor is the best way to show us we’re appreciated and valued for our services and professionalism.
5. When you “like” us or leave a review on a social media site like Facebook, you are helping a new audience find out about our services. We Want Your Review.

Choose Us!

At Chief Chimney Services we’ve been sweeping Long Island’s chimneys since 1986. We’ve been nationally recognized as a chimney safety authority since 1994, and we wouldn’t be either without our customers. It’s our neighbors in Suffolk County that keep us in business. Their word-of-mouth to their neighbors, showing off their new fireplaces, and bragging about their last home sale. We depend upon reviews to always be better than yesterday. You can help.

Leave an honest review recalling all the details from your interaction with Chief Chimney Services—the good and bad. This will help us improve where there’s a need, and let us know what we’re doing well. We appreciate all criticisms. We also love to share success stories.

You can be a part of the Chief Chimney community today. Call 631-863-2460 now!

Tips for Starting a Cold Fireplace

It shouldn’t be a big deal to light a fire in a cold fireplace, but it’s more than you think. Your chimney works by using the draft that hot air provides to push byproducts up the chimney. These vapors include smoke, tar, chemical gases, water vapors, and microscopic particles. These gases can affect the air quality in your home. Your health could be harmed if the gases are allowed into the living area. The best way to prevent a smoky fireplace is to make sure that updraft in the flue is present. If the chimney is cold, the cold air in the flue will not only block the warm air from rising, but will fall into your house. The temperature has to rise in the chimney before it will work properly.

Priming the Chimney

The process of bringing the flue’s temperature up is called priming. The easiest way to prime a cold chimney is to light a newspaper roll and allow it to burn at the base of the chimney. This is usually possible with a fireplace as well as a stove once you locate the opening. When the newspaper roll is burned completely the chimney should be warm enough to support the updraft needed for an efficient burn.

Lighting a Fire in a Cold Chimney

A cold chimney pushes smoke into your house, but it can make the process of fire-building long and bothersome. To make it easier on yourself and your chimney, you can hone your fire-building skills. This means burning only properly seasoned wood, and building a fire that will make some heat. This is because the chimney needs enough heat to create an updraft. After you have primed your chimney, you want to build the best fire possible.

Introducing the Top-Down Burn

The Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) recommends the top-down burn to build the best fire possible. The top-down burn contradicts everything we think we know about fire-building, but the industry’s top professionals know its worth. Traditionally you would build a fire with kindling and paper at the base, with bigger sticks, medium logs, and finally the largest logs on top. The top-down burn is built the opposite way, with the larger fuel at the bottom, up to the kindling and small bits of lighting paper at the top. This way the fire and embers burn and fall onto the other fuel. The fire burns more efficiently and fuel burns more completely, decreasing smoke and particulate pollution. It also creates a better-burn faster, which drives the exhaust up the chimney.

There is a lot that goes into an efficient chimney system. Be sure your fire is primed before lighting it, otherwise you may ruin your night with a smoky living room. Your chimney is more likely to be cold if its on the exterior, even if central heat is your main heat source. Don’t let the cold air from your chimney fall into your warm house!

Call a professional if you have bigger concerns about your system.