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2013 Fall Home Improvement September 25, 2013
Special edition of LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
among us doesn’t enjoy the comfort and coziness a lit fireplace can bring on a
chilly day? But one thing to remember is to prepare your fireplace for the coming
season with safety in mind. Oftentimes this needs to be done by a professional.
by Roy Logan
READY
Getting your fireplace
WHO
The U.S. Fire Administration rec-
ommends that you have your chim-
ney inspected at least once a year.
Tar buildup inside the chimney can
cause the chimney, roof and the
whole house to go up in flames.
A trained chimney sweep, Rodney
Kneller, owner of Klein’s Chimney
Sweep in Springfield, shed a lot
of light on the proper maintenance
that a professional can bring to
keeping your home and family
safe.
What does a chimney sweep look
at during inspection?
Kneller explained that it’s a top-to-
bottom, inside-and-outside inspec-
tion of the entire system.
While inside looking at the firebox,
he checks the integrity of the metal
liner, checking for any seams that
may have come apart due to an
extra-hot fire. In masonry fire-
boxes, he checks for loose bricks
and looks at all the mortar joints,
making sure there are no loose
stones or joints that need tuck-
pointed. Then, looking up the flue,
he examines for signs of creosote
and checks that all the joints of the
sections are properly sealed.
External inspection involves
removing the cap with bird screen
and a look-down in a similar evalu-
ation of what might need to be
addressed. Not only does Kneller
look for debris and creosote, but
oftentimes there are spider webs.
Those just take a quick sweep and
you are good to go for another
year.
Maybe you don’t have a fireplace
yet. In that case, there are a number
of choices in types of fireplaces,
and each one has its own mainte-
nance regimen. There are the
traditional wood-burning, wood-
burning converted to gas logs,
and gas only. Newer to the market
are the hybrid fireplaces. Hybrid
fireplaces provide a gas source to
ignite the kindling, and then the
homeowner uses wood to continue
the burning process.
The wood-burning fireplace is
evaluated for buildup of creosote.
Creosote is a natural byproduct of
combustion. It is a tar-like sub-
stance that collects on the walls
of the flue and is very flammable.
Creosote is evaluated on a scale of 1
to 3, with 3 being the most critical.
