Chimney cleaning in Shady Banks, hearth and room protected

The written record after your chimney cleaning

Once the cleaning is finished, we hand you a written record of the work. It lists the openings and flues cleaned, the areas the brushes reached and any part that could not be reached. Findings from the visual check are listed apart from the completed work.

Keep the record with the fireplace manual. It helps whoever works on the chimney next and gives you a baseline for comparing deposits after the next stretch of fires. If a repair was recommended, the record shows what was seen so the estimate still makes sense later.

Chimney cleaning words you may hear

A few terms come up often when a chimney is cleaned. Knowing them makes the estimate and the written record easier to follow.

Ask us to point to each part during the visit. Seeing where the smoke chamber ends and the flue begins helps when a finding mentions one of them.

• The flue carries smoke up and out of the house
• The smoke chamber is the sloped space between damper and flue
• The damper opens for a fire and closes when the fireplace rests
• The cap screen stops sparks and keeps animals out

When earlier advice differs from ours

You may have been told something different by someone who looked at the chimney before. That happens, and it is worth talking through. Conditions change, and different visits can see different parts.

Show us the earlier findings if you have them. We explain what we saw, where we could see it and why our view may differ. The aim is to give you enough to decide, not to argue with another opinion. If the difference affects safe use, we say which parts we are confident about and which need a closer look.

Soft soot, hard crust and what each needs

Soft, powdery soot brushes out easily and is what most cleanings remove. A hard crust clings more firmly and may need extra passes. The two can sit in the same flue, often at different heights.

We tell you which kinds we found and whether all of it came away. If some crust remained, we say where and whether it matters for use. Anything that needs a different method is explained and priced before we try it. A crust that stays behind is written down with its location.