Qs Laptop
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2018
- Messages
- 4,440
My wife and I have lived in our house for 25 years now. We have a fireplace but have never had a fire. When we first moved in we had a chimney sweep come out and clean the chimney. (I don't remember it being very dirty.) He also put a new chimney topper on (a wire cage to keep animals out of the chimney.) The charge was $350, which I thought was exorbitant, considering he was at the house for less than an hour. Did he really clean the chimney, or not? I also felt that I was unnecessarily upsold on the chimney cap. Obviously, it made an impression on me as I still remember it clearly 25 years later.
We thought it would be nice to finally have a fire in our fireplace this Christmas. But I hesitate because I don't know the integrity of the chimney. I fear we get a fire going and the smoke doesn't draft up the chimney. Instead it backs into the house and we have a huge problem on our hands.
A visual inspection with a flashlight shows it is unobstructed all the way up.
I figured the fire department would be the people to call for a chimney inspection. It makes sense to me that the people responsible for putting out house fires would be eager to inspect chimneys as a preventative measure. My wife called the city but was told they don't do this service for liability reasons.
My wife called some chimney sweep companies. The expense varies from $99 to $295. The $99 charge is for coming out to your house and inspecting the chimney. If there is nothing more to be done the fee is $99. If the chimney needs to be cleaned it will be $295, which includes the service call/inspection fee.
So, what is the inspection going to consist of? A person with a flashlight looking up the chimney, right? They are not going to climb up on my snow covered 2 story house and peer down the chimney. I feel like I'll be paying $99 for someone to shine a flashlight. Call me a cynic, but I figure any chimney sweep I have out here is going to tell me I need to clean the chimney. I kind of feel helpless in this situation.
Questions:
1. How do you know if it's safe to have a fire in your fireplace?
2. Other than a visual look-see, what does a chimney inspection consist of?
We thought it would be nice to finally have a fire in our fireplace this Christmas. But I hesitate because I don't know the integrity of the chimney. I fear we get a fire going and the smoke doesn't draft up the chimney. Instead it backs into the house and we have a huge problem on our hands.
A visual inspection with a flashlight shows it is unobstructed all the way up.
I figured the fire department would be the people to call for a chimney inspection. It makes sense to me that the people responsible for putting out house fires would be eager to inspect chimneys as a preventative measure. My wife called the city but was told they don't do this service for liability reasons.
My wife called some chimney sweep companies. The expense varies from $99 to $295. The $99 charge is for coming out to your house and inspecting the chimney. If there is nothing more to be done the fee is $99. If the chimney needs to be cleaned it will be $295, which includes the service call/inspection fee.
So, what is the inspection going to consist of? A person with a flashlight looking up the chimney, right? They are not going to climb up on my snow covered 2 story house and peer down the chimney. I feel like I'll be paying $99 for someone to shine a flashlight. Call me a cynic, but I figure any chimney sweep I have out here is going to tell me I need to clean the chimney. I kind of feel helpless in this situation.
Questions:
1. How do you know if it's safe to have a fire in your fireplace?
2. Other than a visual look-see, what does a chimney inspection consist of?