There are certain things in most homes that are only used for a few months of the year. This includes air conditioners used in the hot summer season and cracking fire in the fireplace during cold winter nights.
If you want to avoid spending a large sum of money on chimney repair due to negligence every year, add chimney maintenance to your list of responsibilities in summer and spring.
Here’s what you can do to ensure optimal performance of your chimney and keep it functioning efficiently.
Annual Professional Maintenance
Chimneys are affected by factors on both the inside and outside of your home. Extreme weather conditions all year wear out the masonry and mortar from the exterior, while the mix of moisture and acidic creosote deposits slowly damage it from the interior.
That is why it’s necessary to hire chimney sweep professionals so they can identify the damage before it’s too late as chimney repair for moisture damage can cost quite a lot. They can conduct a complete chimney inspection and give you a report of the details.
Install a Chimney Cap
Owning a functional chimney cap is a crucial part of chimney maintenance that many people tend to forget about. They keep rain, snow, sleet, and even debris from falling into your chimney. They are helpful in keeping birds and small animals away as well.
Even if you do have a chimney cap, it may be damaged or outlived its usefulness. Since you’ll do it eventually anyway, it’s better to have it installed before winter. You might require the services of home daily Local trucking jobs or other facilities to ship one to your home.
Waterproof the Chimney
Once the chimney’s masonry is exposed to moisture, it could begin leaning in one direction and slowly collapse. Since it is so weak to water, it’s a smart idea to make your chimney waterproof, giving you an additional layer of protection.
An easy way to start is by adding a water sealant to the outside of the chimney. You can also add chase covers to the top of the chimney to allow smoke to escape while still covering the top.
Get a Gas Log Fireplace
Although wood-burning fireplaces have been used for centuries, they aren’t exactly the most eco-friendly. Replacing it with a gas log fireplace could prove to be safer for your home. At the same time, they produce less harmful smoke, making them much greener than real logs.
Additionally, they are also a lot more efficient than typical fireplaces. Gas log fireplaces usually have an efficiency of 92% to 99% while typical ones only go high as 80%.
Clean Out the Ashes
If you don’t take care of your chimney by leaving ash, dirt, and soot in there during the off-season, it will significantly lower its quality and expose nasty odors into your home once you do use it.
Not only is it necessary to remove the ashes for health and safety reasons, but it will also make your chimney look better and cleaner.
