Thursday 16 September 2010

Eco-refurbishment - sweeping the chimney

The work is progressing on refurbishing our house to have a lower energy demand. We already had the cavity walls insulated, and now work to install a wood-burning stove with a boiler is in progress.

Before a stove and flue liner can be installed, the chimney has to be swept, as once the liner is in then whatever is still in the old chimney is stuck there. I'd wondered whether I should sweep the chimney myself in future, but after seeing all the kit that the sweep brought with him, I think it's best to leave it to the professionals! The sweep also gives you a certificate to prove the chimney has been swept, which is important for house insurance in the event of a fire.

Our stove installer recommend a chimney sweep for us to use, Mark from Chim Chiminey Sweeps.

The first thing he did was lay down protective sheets and get his industrial-sized vacuum cleaner ready, then he threaded the pole attached to a brush through a protective cloth:

This cloth was then taped round the fireplace:

and Mark fed the poles in to push the brush up the chimney, attaching more as he went:


After a few minutes, the brush appeared out the top of the chimney...

and the job was done! Apparently our chimney was pretty straightforward - some aren't so easy.

After the brush was removed there was some soot to collect, but not too much:

A quick final clean with the vacuum was the last bit:

When he comes back in a year, he'll do it differently, as the brush will be smaller, and will need to go through the stove to get into the flue.

Mike

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