DIVORCEDDADFRUGALDAD.COM: Sweeping a Chimney (Part 2)

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DIVORCEDDADFRUGALDAD.COM: Sweeping a Chimney (Part 2)

Sweeping a Chimney (Part 2)

Home heating season is upon us. We heat with oil, but offset our oil usage by running nightly woodstove fires. In an earlier post, Sweeping a Chimney (Part 1), I discussed the "outside" work of chimney sweeping-- here is the "inside" work (this is the easy part).

First, a quick review . . .

Chimney sweeping is important for two reasons:

Efficiency-- I like good, hot burns and that requires good airflow
Safety-- Burning wood releases chemicals and those create creosote buildup in the chimney. Too much build up leads to chimney fires

I sweep three times:

Before season
Mid season
After season

The good news is chimney sweeping is a relatively easy DIY project and requires a low time investment. Here is what is involved:

Setup-- It takes about 10 minutes to get the ladder and tools in place
Sweeping-- approximately about 10 minutes to visually inspect, sweep, and reinspect
Cleanup-- Cleanup is vacuuming the "Crumbs" in the woodstove and pipe and put everything away

Now, let's finish the chimney sweep . . .

So here's what you need for the inside work:

Flashlight
Dust mask
Glasses or goggles
Screwdriver
Vacuum

What to do:

Use the screwdriver to remove insert border plates
Perform a visual inspection with the flashlight-- what needs to be vacuumed up
Disconnect the stove pipe
Tap the stove pipe to get debris to loosen and fall
Vacuum cob webs, leaves, and "crumbs"
Replace stove pipe and insert plates and you are done

This part of the process takes about 10 minutes from setup to cleanup. Enjoy your first fire . . .

This post originally appeared on Self-Reliance-Exchange.com, here is the link to the original post: Sweeping a Chimney (Part 2).

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