Your typical chimney cleaning company has a staggering variety of specialized tools that they bring to any job. Actually, depending on how you look at it, you could say that they only have two or three, but that’s kind of like saying that a professional chef has “knives” and leaving it at that. In order to understand the tools, you have to start with an understanding of why the tools exist.

Creosote is a nasty substance that builds up on the inside of your chimney flue. It can slow down the flow of air through the chimney, making your fireplace smoky — and it can also light on fire itself, causing massive wear on the chimney and possible a house fire! Experts recommending getting the creosote building professionally removed from your chimney once a year.

The primary tool used to accomplish that goal is the chimney brush, which looks very much like a very long and very wiry (and very large) cotton swab. But unlike your typical Q-Tip, a chimney brush has a removable head and comes with a myriad of various brushes. Some are circular, some are square, some are ovoid — and each shape comes in a variety of sizes. That’s because a brush that’s too large won’t fit in the chimney, while a brush that’s too small or the wrong shape won’t eliminate the buildup effectively. Chimney brushes have very stiff bristles, long extension rods, and are universally used from the top of the chimney.

For cleaning out the fireplace itself, another variety of smaller, handheld wire brushes come into ply. Among them is a scout brush, a two foot long brush designed for cleaning the smoke chamber; a wire duster brush that can get into all of the minute cracks and crevices in your fireplace and get the soot out; and a Millbury brush that is carefully designed to maximize it’s ability to get the ashes and soot off of hearth itself.

All of these brushes don’t even start to get into the tools that a chimney repair company might bring if you’ve got evidence that your chimney needs repair or repointing. With everything that they have at their disposal, it’s no surprise that these companies get the job done right!

It’s not something that you hear very much about — but there are some things about chimney repointing needs to know about. Chimney repointing (also called brick repointing) is critical to both the appearance and integrity of any home.

Bricks are the material used most frequently in Long Island chimneys, and for good reason. They look beautiful, they are quite stable even when extended upward for multiple stories, and they endure the heat of a wood fire quite easily. Of course, over time, the mortar can wear down, especially on the corners — and once the mortar is gone, the once-crisp edges and corners of the brick become vulnerable to the erosive effects of weather and the hot-cold cycle of wintertime wood burning.

Chimney repointing is the art of repairing the worn and broken ends of the bricks in your chimney. Obviously, the best repair being prevention, the ‘zeroth’ thing to know about repointing is that you should do whatever you can to keep water and ice out of the joints between bricks in the first place. Suffice it to say, that’s a very challenging prospect when you’re talking about a chimney, so it’s kind of ill-fated advice to give a typical homeowner.

It’s Slow Work A single well-practiced individual with all of the relevant tools can repoint an area of about twenty square feet of brick surface per day. If you’ve got one of those chimneys that is mostly enclosed by the house and only has a small nubbin sticking up out of the roof, you can expect to have your repointing done in a day, but if your chimney stretches down the outside of the house, it’ll take any chimney repair business a small team of people to get it done in a single afternoon.

It Takes Very Special Tools Not may typical Long Island homeowners have the tools they need to do any significant brick repointing on their own. Beyond the normal hammer, broom, and safety gear, brick repointing requires the use of an angle grinder with a diameter about half that of the thickness of the mortar being ground. You’ll also need the right new mortar to put everything back in place once you’ve cleaned out the old stuff.

It Takes Very Special Knowledge Of course, the mortar itself is complex stuff — too brittle, and it will need to be repointed again next season. Too fluid, and it won’t set correctly. Fill in the joints improperly, and you’ll create a haven for water and ice to get between the bricks and mess things up again. Work when it’s too cold out, and the mortar will set too quickly to work with.

In short, what Long Island needs to know about chimney repointing is that there are professionals out there who can — and should — get the job done for you.

Chimney repair in Suffolk County can vary quite widely in price, and not necessarily because of a big difference in quality. The extent of the damage and the materials that the chimney is built with have a profound impact on the cost, of course, but there are also many companies — some of them merely individuals with a few tools who claim to be companies — that won’t hesitate to nickel and dime you into the poorhouse if you let them.

A quality sweeping might not cost a terrible amount, but a building or renovation of an existing chimney is going to cost quite a bit more. If you’ve got bricks that are cracked and need to be replaced, the cost is different depending on whether the new bricks can be grafted in with the old ones or the repairman has to tear down to the broken brick and build back up. Cleaning a chimney is just a matter of man hours — labor costs, in auto mechanics’ terms. But a repair has ‘parts’ involved as well, and that’s where a lot of the expense comes from.

If the chimney in question is falling apart, you’ll end up being charged for a contractor to get up on your roof, investigate the nature and scope of the problem. Realistically, you should have someone go up and look at your chimney every five years or so. If you haven’t had an inspection in longer than that, you can virtually count on a repair job that will cost a bit more than your typical cleaning.

In general, depending on who you hire to do the job, a chimney cleaning will run you in the $60-$75 dollar range, with specials running as low as $50. Be aware, however, that any job less than $200 doesn’t require a chimney sweep’s license according to New York State law, so you should be particularly aware of scammers at this level.

Chimney maintenance in Suffolk County, however, is generally significantly more expensive — well above the $200 mark. That means you can generally count on your repairman having a license, fortunately. But the actual cost of chimney repair can vary quite a bit based on everything from what your actual chimney is made of — non-brick chimneys tend to be pricier — to what kind of flue liner you have. If you’re still using terra cotta, consider investing in a steel liner. The benefits are incalculable.

There are a lot of chimney cleaning companies to go around — but it seems like your average Nassau resident isn’t exactly chomping at the bit to talk to them and get their fireplaces straightened up. But there are actual dangers out there for people who hire the wrong chimney sweeps.

In New York State, there’s a dangerous loophole in the laws — anyone who does chimney cleaning jobs for less than $200 doesn’t have to be licensed and isn’t subject to the rigorous requirements that a licensed chimney sweep is. (Of course, you could get around this by only hiring a company that costs more than $200, but that’s a bit extreme.) Here’s a few easy ways to make sure that the company you hire to do your flue cleaning or chimney reline is actually a legitimate company that will do the job right.

When To Hire A Chimney Sweep: Before we get into the how, let’s take a quick look at when and why. If it’s been more than a year since anyone has looked at your chimney, you need a chimney cleaner. If there’s been a strong windstorm, or you have any other reason to believe that something might have fallen into your chimney, it’s time to hire a sweep.

Choosing, Part 1: Experience: The first thing you should look at is the chimney cleaner’s business license. First, it’ll tell you that they HAVE a license, which is critical — but it will also tell you how long they’ve been cleaning chimneys. This is a competitive business, and if you’ve been doing it for several years, you’re good at your job.

Choosing, Part 2: References: A good company will keep up-to-date references that you can call and talk to in order to get information about the job they’ve been doing. Also, the Better Business Bureau will often keep records of complaints against a business; chatting with them can be very revealing.

Choosing, Part 3: Insurance: In addition to a business license, a businessman that means business will have insurance to cover any possible incidents that happen during the cleaning — both to his workers and to your home!

When it comes to chimney maintenance, Suffolk County isn’t always on the top of it’s game. It’s too easy to take your home’s cute little brick smokestack for granted, especially if you’ve never lived through the pain of watching a chimney fire incinerate your shingles — or your whole home. Here’s a short checklist of the things that people from Huntington to Montauk need to keep in mind when it comes to keeping their chimneys working right.

Flues

The chemicals that a wood fire puts out can — and do — eat away the flue lining in your fireplace. At least once a year, check your flue to make sure that it’s still fully functional. If it’s not, those same dangerous gasses could be ventilating right into your living space! In the worst case scenario, hot sparks or gasses could get through a damaged flue and cause a fire inside your home. In addition to simply making sure your flue isn’t broken, you also need to remove any creosote or soot deposits on the flue as well — they are the leading cause of chimney fires.

Chimney Caps and Crowns

The cap and/or crown on your chimney sit between the flue and the outside of the chimney. As these weather over time, they can crack and drop small bits into the flue. Always check the condition of your cap and/or crown; if they are severely cracked or missing, you could end up with some foreign object like a tree or an animal lodged in your chimney. There’s little worse then trying to deal with that kind of blockage removal.

Every chimney repair Long Island company has it’s own personality and quirks, but the one thing that they all share is a basic jargon — some terms that they all use that might not make sense to the untrained ear. Here are some things you can expect any Long Island chimney company to say, and what they mean:

BTU: British Thermal Unit — the amount of heat required to raise a pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit and sea level.

Cabinet: A wooden finishing that allows a fireplace to be installed on the floor and vent through the wall, rather than through a traditional chimney.

Catalytic Combustor: A device that reduces the temperature at which smoke ignites; allows the woodstove to burn more of it’s smoke (and thus release less into the air.) Allows wood to burn at lower temperatures for longer periods of time. Requires more maintenance than a traditional (non-catalytic) woodstove.

Chase: The structure built around the chimney, sometimes including the fireplace.

Clearance: The distance that is required by code between the fireplace and chimney and any combustible materials such as curtains or carpets.

EPA Regs: The regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency set forth, specifically that no wood burning appliance built after July of 1992 emit more than 7.5 grams of smoke per hour — or 4.1 if it’s got a catalytic combustor.

 Firebox: The part of a fireplace where the wood burns.

Hearth: The floor of the firebox; often used colloquially to refer to the entire fireplace as well.

Mantel: A frame, usually wooden, marble, or stone, around the fireplace. Mantels do not encase a fireplace, they merely frame it.

ODS or CO2 Detector — Oxygen Depletion Sensor or Carbon Monoxide Detector; a device that detects an excess of carbon monoxide, a byproduct of wood burning that is undetectable by humans, but can be lethal in large amounts.

Surround: A marble or tile frame that is put between a fireplace and a wooden mantel in order to protect the wood.

It’s a fact that no one likes to face, but it’s true: every Long Island chimney needs to be cleaned. Too many of us have gotten lazy or, more likely, simply forgotten this chore — one that used to be an integral part of household life. It’s not even that uncommon to hear people bragging about it, saying “I’ve been burning wood for thirty years now and I’ve never cleaned a damn thing!” It’s true that such things happen, just like for a hundred years, people drove their entire lives without wearing a seatbelt without getting hurt in a car wreck — but is it worth the risk? To paraphrase a famous bear, the house you save may be your own.

Of course, chimneys, flues, and stoves vary across the island and even from one house to its neighbors. Most chimneys can be cleaned using a single, common methods, but the sweeping part of chimney cleaning is only the beginning. For example, traditional brick chimneys may not have a chimney liner the way that modern ones do, and that changes the way they get cleaned. As building codes have changed over time, so have the the precise processes required to clean the chimneys in those homes. 

No matter what kind of heating your home uses, if you have and use any contraption with a chimney on it, you’d be a fool not to get it inspected regularly. As time goes by and a home gets older, every passing year adds to the chance that something — whether it’s degrading mortar or warping aluminum or rusting stainless — will happen to make your chimneys unsafe.

As your chimney expands when you have a fireplace making it hot and then contracts as it returns to the usually-much-colder ambient temperatures outside, that tiny bit of movement can cause large problems with your chimney in the long run. That kind of thing makes mortar brittle, which can lead to a complete collapse of a brick or stone chimney if it’s not inspected and reinforced regularly!

At the same time, because the gasses from a fire cool rapidly as they go up your chimney, part of those gasses essentially condense like water onto the inside of your chimney — except the condensation of wood smoke is called creosote, and it’s highly flammable. Regularly chimney inspections and cleanings by one of the many chimney sweeps Long Island has to offer are the only way to make sure that a dangerous chimney fire doesn’t threaten your home and your lives.