Saturday, June 7, 2014

Protect Your Home With Chimney Sweep Alexandria VA Technicians

Protect Your Home With Chimney Sweep Alexandria VA Technicians

By Sally Delacruz


Chimneys can cause serious functional and structural problems if they are not properly maintained and cleaned. Burning of wood logs in fireplaces and stoves will release gases and smoke particles that need to be extracted. With the buildup of soot and creosote within the chimneys, it is essential that you consider consulting chimney sweep Alexandria VA technicians. Creosote forms inside flue vents as a result of gases condensing before they reach outside.

One major problem with chimneys is the buildup of the shiny sticky substance, creosote. The creosote will form due to burning of wood logs. Smoke occurs when burning wood because not all chemicals within the fuel materials, or logs are burned by the fireplace and wood stoves. The smoke contains tiny and unburned solid particles, which are flammable. These tiny particles will adhere to the walls of chimneys and form the creosote.

Creosote forms out of the condensing gases. This substance appears as black or brown material that is crusty and flaky. It may look like tar with a shiny and hardened texture. The creosote will occur in different forms depending on how long it has remained on surfaces, but regardless of what the form of the substance is, it is highly flammable.

The brushes are designed of different materials such as plastic, polypropylene, or metal. In addition, these brushes come in different sizes in order to enable them fit into chimneys of dissimilar sizes correctly. If you do not use the right size of brushes, you may not be able to get the debris out from flues.

The formation of creosote is something inevitable. No matter how cautious you are when using your chimneys, creosote will eventually form. However, there are ways in which you can minimize this problem. You can burn seasoned or dry wood instead of using the wet unseasoned logs that encourage formation of the shiny tar like substance on walls of flues.

Allowing smoke and gases to move updraft slowly could give time for the gases to condense inside thus forming creosote. If there is lack of sufficient air make up that is able to drive the heated smoke up chimneys, such a situation could encourage the formation of creosote too. When you seek chimney sweep technicians, they will inspect your property, and clean it properly.

The work is quite tasking, and requires the use of the right tools including brushes, rods, chemicals, vacuums, and ladders. Since you need to access the rooftop to clean the flue down, it means you will use ladders. This can be risky for the homeowners. Besides, some areas of chimneys are not easily reachable requiring climbing inside the vent using a light source to aid the technicians see the dark areas.

Dirty chimneys bring a host of problems such as fires, health complications, reduced structural integrity, and increased cost of home maintenance. If smoke and gases cannot flow updraft smoothly, it means that the home with be filled with smolder and noxious substances. The surfaces will be darkened while people in the house experience irritation on their eyes. Besides, dirty chimneys will be inefficient thus increasing the cost of burning fuel.




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