by Dave O'Shea | May 19, 2016 | Chimney Sweeps, Inspections
Do you think chimney sweeping and inspection is guesswork? Do you wonder what your sweep is looking for when he stares up into your flue? Do you ask what you’re paying for when you ask someone to inspect your chimney? NFPA211 (our standard for fireplaces and...
by Dave O'Shea | Mar 19, 2016 | Did You Know?, Liners
What is a liner, and why do I need one? That’s a common question I hear. Briefly, a liner is placed within a chimney to guide the noxious and caustic by-products of combustion out of your home as smoothly as possible without interacting with the brickwork of the...
by Dave O'Shea | Feb 19, 2016 | Did You Know?, Efficiency, Fireplace, Heat, Wood Burning Inserts
Some hard truths here, folks. Your fireplace is not a heat source. In fact, your fireplace costs you money every time you use it. An open, masonry fireplace consumes 200-600 cubic feet of air per minute to function. Over the course of an evening, it may use all the...
by Dave O'Shea | Apr 22, 2015 | Inspections
“Aren’t you just looking at it?” That’s what I hear from customers when I tell them I have a small fee for my initial inspection. Well, the short answer is yes. When I’m performing a Level One inspection, I am ‘just looking at it’. That’s NFPA211’s definition of a...
by Dave O'Shea | Apr 29, 2014 | Chimney Sweeps
That’s a trickier question than you think it is. NFPA211, the standard for our industry, says that all flues should be inspected annually and cleaned* as needed. That’s a great idea and fantastic job security for chimney sweeps, but not always realistic for everyone....
