Hazards of a Dirty Chimney

In one of our previous blog posts, we stressed the urgency of having your chimney regularly cleaned and maintained for health and safety purposes. If you haven’t been convinced on the importance of the matter, we thought it might be a good idea to take you deeper into the hazards you might face if you don’t take care of your fireplace and chimney.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide is a hazardous gas that can work its way into your home after you’ve been burning a fire. This is such a dangerous gas because it has no odor, color or taste, so it’s almost completely impossible to detect on your own. If you’re breathing in small amounts of carbon monoxide, your body could present itself with flu-like symptoms which include nausea, confusion, headaches, chills, etc. Larger amounts, however, can be extremely detrimental to your health. Breathing in carbon monoxide over an extended period of time can lead to heart and brain problems, and even death. 

To help combat the potential issue of a buildup in your home, have a carbon monoxide detector installed in your home. It looks just like a regular smoke detector; many homes these days are even being built with them from the start.

Soot Inhalation

Soot is probably one of the most obvious reasons people will feel like they need to get their chimneys cleaned. Soot is a powdery dust that sticks to your chimney when you burn wood, and if inhaled can be bad for your health. 

Since soot is so light and fine, it has a tendency to fly into the air, out of your chimney and into your home, where you could breathe it right in. Breathing in soot can irritate your lung and even cause lung disease in the long run. Along the same lines, breathing the dust in can also create respiratory infections, making it hard to breathe. 

The good thing about soot in your fireplace/chimney growth is that you can see it as it’s happening, so if you notice a buildup, you know it’s time to call in a professional for a cleaning.

Exposure to Creosote

As we mentioned in our last chimney cleaning post, creosote is a substance that can build up in your chimney flue if wood doesn’t burn exactly the way it’s supposed to. It’s a black, oily consistency, and something you definitely don’t want to breathe into your body. 

Not only will it cause lung damage like soot does, but creosote can cause seizures and confusion if inhaled over a long period of time. And unlike soot, which is harmless to the touch, physical contact with creosote is dangerous and can cause major skin rashes and burn your eyes.

None of these things are factors that we want to expose ourselves or our families to, so make sure you take your annual fireplace and chimney cleaning seriously. And don’t be fooled; cleaning your chimney isn’t like cleaning the rest of your house. As professionals, we are prepared to clean your chimney and fireplace in the most effective and safe way possible.

If you have a hard time remembering if you’ve gotten your yearly inspection, schedule it for the same time each year, like the beginning of fall, when the summer months are ending and you’re gearing up to light some cozy fires for the holidays. 

Call us if you have any questions or to schedule your annual inspection/cleaning today!

The Importance of a Chimney Sweep

Living in Arizona, we often aren’t clamoring to our fireplaces in order to keep warm. However, if you do have a fireplace, it’s important that you have it inspected and cleaned on a regular basis for a number of reasons, even if you don’t use it that much.

When it comes to your family, nothing is more important than health, and you want your home to be as healthy as possible. A clean out of your chimney will help keep your home free of allergens that can have an effect on you and your family’s health. 

Another health-related reason to keep your chimney clean is that regular maintenance will prevent water from rain storms from entering your home and causing damage to your chimney. If you chimney is damaged and cracked, it can let smoke and foul odors into your home. 

Dirt and grime can also block the flue, which causes the common problem of smoke buildup in your home. You may have forgotten to open the flue when lighting a fire in your fireplace a time or two, resulting in a smoky room that needs to be aired out. Smoke inhalation can be dangerous and incredibly unhealthy to breathe in.

Besides the obvious health reasons, it’s incredibly important to have your chimney inspected and cleaned for safety purposes. Even if you don’t use your fireplace that much (and we’re guessing in Arizona you probably don’t), cleaning can get rid of nests that could be potentially have been built by animals in the flue, which is very important to keep clean.

Also affecting your family’s safety are things like dirt and creosote, which is a chemical product, obtained by distilling tar. Excessive buildup of creosote is a fire hazard can actually ignite and cause a fire in your chimney, leading right into your home.


Now that you know why it’s so important to have your chimney cleaned and inspected regularly, we’ll tell you how often and when we think the best times are to do so.

The national Fire Protection Association recommends an annual inspection of your chimney, so start with the NFPA. They’ll come out and check your chimney to make sure it’s all in working order. If you don’t know the best time of year to do this, pick a time in early to mid-October, right before you really start firing up the, well, fireplace.

Once it’s been inspected for structural soundness, call a professional to clean your chimney once or twice a year, depending on how often you use it. We’re incredibly knowledgeable and careful when it comes to taking care of your chimney, so if you haven’t had it done in a while, call us today for a quote at (623) 203-4698.