I had an experience the other day that really hit home for about the thousandth time how responsible home ownership sometimes nonetheless overlooks the obvious with disastrous consequences. Now, when I say "average homeowner," I'm referring to the very responsible homeowner who maintains, protects and upgrades when possible his or her most valuable asset--their home. I'm writing this article with the hopes of reaching these types of folks out there who are susceptible to disregarding, forgetting about or unintentionally overlooking a very enjoyable but potentially dangerous component of their home--their chimney.
Case in point: I met a couple at their beautiful home the other day here in Minneapolis after they had called my company to have their chimneys cleaned. After exchanging some pleasantries with the homeowners I got down to business and naturally asked them when's the last time they had their chimneys inspected or cleaned but this was immediately met with a rather sheepish expression from the lady of the house who answered with "I'm not sure, I guess it's been awhile." Hmmmm........I wondered to myself.
They have a wood stove in the basement and a fireplace in their living room, heating appliances which they both use and enjoy during the cold Minnesota winters. Now, of course they shall remain nameless but I think it's worth noting that the lady of the house was a microbiologist and her husband was an IT director and it was obvious in looking around their living room that they took much pride and had invested their hard-earned dollars into creating a beautiful, well-furnished and maintained household and did so in an educated and informed manner.
Now comes the whole point of my story: These same homeowners, when it came to their chimney, were completely uninformed and unaware of the condition their chimney was in. I did a routine inspection and was not suprised to find a very dangerous buildup of flammable creosote in both flues. This, simply put, is a combustible material deposit in the chimney that is a major contributing factor for the over 25,000 chimney fires annualy in the USA that has cost homeowners over 125 million dollars in property damage. And yet the lady of the house had even remarked to me earlier that her neighbors had burned down their home because they had left their damper closed when starting a fire. And of course, she knew better than that!!
I won't go into the other very major and very costly damage to their chimney that I found, all of which could have been avoided or been tremendously minimized by the simple solution of an annual inspection and cleaning of these appliances.
Of course, the homeowners in my story reacted very diligently and responsibly and scheduled the needed repairs to make their chimney safe and functional. And they're already scheduled for next year too!!
The morale of my story here is that once they got the correct knowledge regarding their chimney they acted with responsibility to fully handle the situation, which is of course how a responsible homeowner naturally responds. In my extended experience in the industry, I find that the only factor that is missing in 99% of these episodes is that the homeowner does not have the accurate knowledge about their chimney and fireplace in the first place. And so, the chimney gets very unintentionally overlooked, neglected and ignored. Then I show up, or worse case scenario, the fire truck!
So homeowners, get yourself educated on this important part of your valuable home! Here's some basic information right here and now for you: The National Fire Protection Agency recommends that all chimneys and wood stoves and heating appliances be fully inspected annually and cleaned and repaired as needed. NFPA is the world-wide authoritative source for you as a homeowner when it comes to maintaining safe standards and practices when it comes to fire prevention and safe usage of your chimney or heating appliance.
Do your own homework on the subject and you'll find another equally important piece of information: Only use Chimney Safety Institue of America certified chimney sweeps to inspect and service your chimney. Certified chimney sweeps are the industry professionals trained to apply the NFPA standards on your chimney. You can even go the the CSIA website and put in your zip code and you'll get a listing of certified sweeps for your area. It's that simple.
Well, that's my story........
Now, over to you!!!