Our Company Blog

Have Your Heating System Inspected After Cold Weather

Spring has sprung in Suffolk County! While you are busy breaking out your shorts and sandals and prepping your home for outdoor entertaining with family and friends, make sure your spring cleaning checklist includes having your chimney and heating system inspected. We had a long, cold winter this year and the type of weather we endured can take its toll on your chimney. At Chief Chimney Services we are happy to come to your home and do a thorough chimney inspection.

Why Have Your Chimney Inspected After Winter?

During winter a lot of things are happening outside that can affect what happens to your chimney on the inside. For example, when the weather freezes and thaws, this can cause the mortar in your chimney to expand and contract. The result of expanding mortar is often cracked and broken bricks inside your chimney.

A lot of simple masonry damage can remedied with some tuckpointing once the weather breaks. A professional chimney company can come to your home and tuckpoint, or force fresh mortar into the joints of your bricks in order to preserve the integrity of the chimney and prevent further breakage.

Another way winter weather can take its toll on your chimney is by water damage. If your chimney has not been properly capped, or if your chimney cap is broken then you may notice some water damage inside your chimney. Water can cause creosote build-up and can cause your fireplace or woodstove to work ineffectively. Having your chimney inspected after the long winter months can make sure any water damage is not extensive and can also remedy the problem before it becomes too serious.

During winter months, critters like birds and squirrels look for any place warm and dry to call home. Your chimney may have become home to these types of pests when the cold weather was here, and a professional chimney inspection and sweeping can remove these critters so they don’t wreak havoc on your chimney.

Hiring A Certified Chimney Sweep

The best way to prevent chimney damage is to have a professional, certified chimney sweeping company come to your home and take a look at your chimney. CSIA certified chimney sweeps are held to the highest educational standards in order to offer premium chimney sweeping services. Our certified chimney sweeps will come to your home and provide a thorough inspection and sweeping of your chimney just in time for the warm weather. Some things our technicians look for include:

• Rusting components such as dampers and flues
• Sticks, leaves and other debris
• Bird and squirrel nests
• Brick and mortar damage
• Shifting chimney structures

Contact Chief Chimney Services in Suffolk County today for more information about how we can inspect your chimney and fireplace as part of your spring cleaning. Tackling chimney care as part of your home maintenance can keep the integrity of your chimney intact, which can make starting fires in your wood-burning heating appliance that much easier next winter. Call the professionals and have your chimney inspected and swept by the best in the business today.

How Winter Weather Affects Your Chimney

Weather experts have forecasted a winter just as frigid as last year’s, which has everyone thinking about ways to stay warm. For some, that means turning on the heat in the house or lighting a toasty fire in the fireplace. To help the fireplace and chimney continue keeping us warm, they need regular care themselves, particularly before the winter weather sets in. In fact, winter weather does more damage to the chimney than any other season.

Many people believe chimneys are built to endure the winter elements and only need the occasional sweep to function properly. Chimneys do hold up remarkably well to the weather, considering they experience it 24 hours a day, but they cannot survive indefinitely without a little help. The main concern for chimneys in the winter actually comes from water damage, which often surprises people.

Masonry chimneys, in particular, can suffer extensive and costly damage as a result of water exposure in the winter. Materials such as brick, concrete, and mortar are used to build a masonry chimney and they all have a porous texture. This means these materials readily absorb any water that settles on its surface. Although water alone does relatively little damage, when winter weather drags temperatures below freezing, the trouble starts. In sub-freezing temperatures, water undergoes a freeze and thaw cycle in which it continuously contracts and expands. The water inside the masonry materials also goes through this cycle and expands the bricks and concrete right along with it. Water can cause severe and costly damage to a chimney, particularly during to masonry chimneys. After several seasons of this constant motion, the materials start to degrade and lose strength. The damage can even extend to cracking or collapse.

If water has a chance to seep inside the chimney, it will happily cause damage there, as well. A metal flue lining can rust after repeated water exposure, and this leads to cracks and holes in the lining. Damaged flue lining does not effectively protect the house from the heat of the fire and the water leaking into the chimney. Eventually, this can lead to an unintentional house fire or to further water damage in the house. Water damage may come in the form of a rusted damper, which inhibits the proper ventilation of the smoke, or may even appear as ugly water stains on the walls or ceiling around the fireplace.

Fortunately, some simple and cost effective fixes can prevent all of this expensive damage. At the next chimney sweep and inspection, ask the chimney specialist about the application of a special sealant to the outside of the chimney. A chimney cap or chimney crown repair or replacement can help keep water out of the chimney and house, too. The chimney specialist can provide and install these fixtures for you upon request. With winter closing in, the roof is going to start icing up, soon making it too dangerous for the chimney specialist to access the chimney, cap and crown. Therefore, you should call now to schedule an appointment to have your chimney protected this winter. If you live in the area of Suffolk County on Long Island, contact Chief Chimney Services, Inc. for a professional consultation.