A good chimney has been a staple of the American home for centuries now, and whether it’s used as a utility or a luxury, a chimney is an important feature that needs to be taken care of. However, as long as the chimney has been cherished, there comes many myths and wives’ tales that many have fallen weary to. To keep your chimney in a good state and enjoy it for years to come, it’s important to realize a handful of particular truths about your chimney.
Leave It to the Professionals
Children used to clean chimneys in Victorian England, but that doesn’t make you qualified to do the job now. The myth of cleaning your own chimney is that it is much more than meets the eye. A common misconception with projects like these is that cleaning is cleaning. Many people think that like any other part of their home, the chimney can just as well be cleaned. However, the chimney is not like any other part of your home. The following reasons are why your cleaning skills are probably no match for those of masonry repair and inspection.
Messy Mistakes: The sheer amount of soot and creosote in your chimney is enough to ensure that one wrong move can make a much bigger mess outside of your chimney.
Hazardous Liability: With mess making also comes a high risk of respiratory problems when improperly dealing with so much soot.
There’s More Than Meets the Eye: Beyond cleaning, you are most likely going to miss structural issues only an expert of masonry repair in Alpharetta, GA, could see.
Just Stay out of It
If that wasn’t enough to keep you from cleaning your own chimney, the truth is that you should really just stay out of it in general. No matter how many tales or stories you may hear about people fitting through chimneys, it will surely come as a rude awakening to find out that you probably won’t fit. It doesn’t depend on your size either because while it’s been established that children used to do the job. These days, chimneys come a lot narrower than you would expect.
Liners Are Liners and Wood Is Wood
Many chimney myths surround the specific type of liner used in your chimney or the type of wood you chose to burn. The truth of the matter is that no matter what type of liner you use or what type of wood you burn, all chimneys come with some guaranteed similarities. All chimneys build up soot after use, and even if you rarely use your chimney, it still runs the possibility of being obstructed. No liner is free of containing soot just like no wood is free of producing it. Regardless of what makes you and your chimney unique, it’s always necessary to get an annual inspection.
Overall, your chimney is meant to be enjoyed, and while many might tell you otherwise, you shouldn’t feel held back by what you hear. By overcoming these common myths, you can not only prolong the lifetime of your chimney, but you can also use it and enjoy it beyond its age-old potential.