The fire service recommend that, in normal use, chimneys should be swept as follows (unless your insurance company or stove manufacturer declares otherwise): Chimneys with solid fuel appliances: Smokeless fuels at least once a year / Domestic bituminous coal at least twice a year / Wood burning every three months when in use. Chimneys with gas appliances: once a year and should be checked by a Gas Safe technician. Chimneys with oil appliances once a year and should be checked by an OFTEC technician.
If it has been used but not been swept within the past 12 months, for safety it should be swept as soon as possible. If it has not been used since it was last swept, and the problem of birds nesting can be ruled out (if there is a cage or cowl on the chimney), it could be due to the cold or weather conditions. Please call us and we may be able to give advice on the appropriate action to be taken. If you think there is a blockage in your chimney, please advise us, or call to discuss the problem. We can remove most blockages and can establish what has happened and advise on how to prevent it happening again. Since there may be eggs or even hatched baby birds in a nest (which are protected) we will not remove nests during the breeding season (May & June) to ensure that the young have left the nest.
It usually takes approximately half an hour to sweep each chimney. Occasionally this may take a little longer. Blockages (e.g. a bird’s nest) take more time to clear because of the amount of debris that has to be removed. Where we know, or our customer suspects, there is a blockage we try to schedule this at the end of our working day to ensure there is time to do the work in full and any potential delay does not inconvenience other customers.
Our service is as clean as we can make it. We provide sheets that cover the fireplace opening and the area to the front of the fireplace, and we also use a commercial vacuum to keep dust to an absolute minimum. When we remove a nest, however, we recommend that your furniture, television, near-by curtains and carpets are covered. We will do our best to contain the debris but, until we start removing the nest, we cannot be sure of how big it is. The action of removing the nest means it is impossible to fully seal the fireplace and therefore further precautions need to be taken by the householder.
As standard, customers pay directly to the sweep at the end of their visit. We can provide details for a bank transfer if preferred, and many of our team accept card payment where there is reasonable a mobile signal!
Any questions we haven't answered? Just give us a call we are always happy to talk you through anything.