For you to keep your chimney in good shape you need to clean it regularly. How you clean the chimney has a great impact on the results that you get, not to mention your safety. Chimney sweep recommends that you consider these tips when cleaning your chimney:

Have the necessary cleaning tools

There is no way you are going to clean the chimney properly when you don’t have the right tools. In addition to cleaning brushes, you also need to have tough boots and work gloves. If you are working in a noisy environment, you should wear earmuffs, earplugs, or any other ear protection devices.

One of the best ways of cleaning the chimney is from the top. For you to get to the roof you need to have a ladder in place. As rule of thumb, you should ensure that every tool you use is of high quality.

Since chimney flues are of different sizes and designs, you also should ensure that the chimney brushes you use are of the right size.

Prepare the chimney properly for cleaning

When you are looking to clean the chimney, you shouldn’t simply start cleaning—you need to prepare the unit first. After you have worn the safety gear, you should lay a plastic tarp around the hearth to protect the surrounding carpet. This also reduces the amount of after-work cleanup that you need to do.

For you to be comfortable when doing the cleaning, you should get a kneeling pad. If you have never done chimney cleaning before, you should know that it tends to get messy; therefore, you should remember to wear old clothes. You don’t want your good clothes to get dirty, do you?

Remove the grates

Using a nylon brush, you should scrub the soot and debris from the fireplace grates. Once you are done, rinse them off using clean water and wipe them dry. Are you looking to give the grates an extra shininess? You should use metal polish.

It’s common to breathe in the ash and dust when you are doing your work. For you to avoid the inhalation, sprinkle some used coffee grounds or tea leaves over the debris piles in the fireplace.

The best way of doing it is sweeping everything up with a brush and dustpan and then place it in a metal bin or bucket, outside and away from your home.

Scrub the walls

Once everything is out of the way, you should now scrub the walls with a nylon brush. You can use the same one you used to clean the grates, or use any other—it doesn’t matter. For you to have an easy time doing the cleaning, you should clean the unit from the top to the bottom.

Clean up the hearth

Once everything is set and done you should gather the plastic tarp and soot-covered newspaper and dispose them outside. You should then vacuum the remaining debris on and around the hearth and spray the sooty areas with water.

For you to give these areas a good rub, apply a hearth cleaner. You should finally rinse the cleaner off with a clean sponge and let it air-dry.

Valuable chimney tips

For you to avoid having to clean the chimney too often, you should be cautious about the type of wood that you are burning. As rule of thumb, you should only burn hardwood that has been air dried for at least six months.

You should avoid burning wet, softwoods as they tend to not only produce a lot of soot that requires you to keep on hiring chimney cleaning services MD professionals, it also tends to burn with little heat; therefore, you have to burn a lot of it for you to keep your house warm.