Neighbor News
The Importance of an Annual Chimney Sweep.
The importance on maintaining your fireplace and cleaning your chimney before using this fall or winter
With the fall kicking in, and the evenings starting to get noticeably cooler, you might be tempted to light a fire rather then kick the furnace on. Are you sure your chimney is safe and ready to light?
We at ST. Louis Chimney Co. want to make sure your fireplace is safe, so we recommend an annual chimney sweep to maintain the life of your chimney and prevent a flue fire in your home.
There are 2 main type of fireplaces in most homes in St. Charles and St. Louis areas.
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1. Masonry Chimney - This type of fireplace to made completely out of bricks. This type of fireplace is general a bigger opening with 3 main components. The firebox, this is the area you load your wood in and enjoy your fireplace. The smoke chamber, this area is between the damper and the flue. This area transitions the smoke from the firebox the the third main component. The chimney flue. This area is generally made out of clay flue tiles and go up the entire stack of the chimney and extends past the top of the chimney stack. A masonry fireplace can take a lot of heat and provide great warmth to a room making for a cozy evening.
2. Prefabricated or Prefab Chimney - This type of chimney actually has no bricks at all. This is a metal firebox with a thin refractory brick type material in the firebox made to give a brick look. Connecting to the metal firebox you have a metal flue going through the chimney stack. From the outside these stacks are normally wrapped in siding or a brick type material. This type of fireplace is more for the ambiance of a room and not made to heat a room.
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With both type of chimneys you want to make sure there are no visible cracks on the walls of the fireplace, your damper is in proper working order, and check to make sure your flue has a rain cap installed to keep rodents & the weather out of your home.
Ready for a sweep or would like a ST. Louis Chimney technician come and inspect your chimney please give us a call 314. 492.4040 (Mention this patch article and save $10 off your 2016 chimney sweep.)
Book Online @ StlChimney.com