A Comfortable Stay

Posted on: 25 July 2017

Having access to a functional fireplace can provide your home with a heat source and an architectural feature that lends elegance and interest to your interior living space. While fireplaces can provide many benefits, these features can quickly turn into a safety hazard if they are not properly maintained. Making the choice to commit to keeping your fireplace clean will help you avoid the potential fire hazards associated with a working fireplace. Here are three tips that you can use to help keep your fireplace clean in the future.

1. Burn soot and creosote away.

As you burn traditional wood logs in your home's fireplace, a substance known as creosote can buildup on the interior surface of your chimney. This creosote is highly dangerous, as it is flammable and could ignite at any time.

Creosote that catches fire inside of your chimney could cause serious structural damage to your home, so it's vital that you take the necessary steps to remove this substance on a regular basis. You should invest in some specialized logs that are designed to help control creosote buildup.

These logs release a chemical that binds with the creosote as they burn. The chemicals help to loosen creosote from your chimney's interior walls, allowing it to fall down into your fireplace where it can be safely removed.

2. Remove ash regularly.

You don't want to allow ash to build up inside of your fireplace, since this ash could eventually filter out of your fireplace and into your home's air supply.

Take the time to remove ash on a regular basis by scooping excess ash with a specialized tool and placing it gently into a bag or bucket for disposal. Cover the carpet and walls around your fireplace with plastic while cleaning ash to ensure that stray ash particles don't adhere to these surfaces and create unsightly stains.

3. Invest in professional chimney cleaning.

In order to ensure maximum safety, you should dedicate yourself to hiring a professional to clean your chimney on a regular basis. Professional chimney cleaning will completely remove harmful creosote and soot particles that could cause an unwanted fire, and a professional chimney sweep will be able to inspect your chimney, flue, and other fireplace features for signs of damage.

Experts suggest that you have a professional service your home's chimney at least once a year to prevent serious safety hazards.

Seeing to the cleanliness of your home's fireplace will ensure that you are able to safely use this architectural feature for many years to come. For more information, contact a business such as Country Corner Chimney Sweeps.