Find a professional chimney sweep near you

As a vital part of home maintenance, chimney sweep services include all the tasks necessary to clean out your chimney and ensure that it’s safe to use and remains efficient in warming your home. This is a complete chimney cleaning service provided by experts who can inspect, remove obstructions and clean out soot as well as potentially dangerous creosote from your chimney. 

Inspecting the chimney

Your hired chimney sweep begins the service with a thorough visual inspection. They can go up on your roof to check if the flue has any obstructions. Your chimney sweep can likewise check all the accessible nooks and crannies to see which areas need a good clearing up and cleaning. They can also take measurements of the flue to determine the width and length of the chimney brushes they must use. 

Preparing for cleaning

In preparation for cleaning, your hired chimney specialist can remove blockages in the flue or other vital and accessible parts of your chimney. They can remove twigs, dead leaves, birds’ nests or any other debris that may be obstructing the flue. Some chimney sweeps can deal with insect nests as long as they’re safe to remove. 

If your chimney sweep finds dangerous pests like wasps or snakes, we recommend you find a separate service to deal with the pests before proceeding with the chimney sweep and inspection. Depending on the size of your chimney and if your chimney sweep opts to clean the chimney from top to bottom, they may wrap the firebox and areas surrounding the fireplace in a protective plastic covering or a tarp.   

Cleaning the flue

Your chimney sweep can use brushes of the appropriate length and diameter to get into the flue and scrub loose all the soot and creosote. They do an upwards and downwards motion to loosen as much soot, creosote or other debris that has accumulated in the flue. The scrubbing continues until no more soot or creosote falls onto the chimney floor or hearth. Your specialist can then use an ash vacuum or a fireplace shovel and broom to scoop up all the soot, creosote and other debris. 

They may then remove any plastic covering on the firebox if this was used and dispose of all the collected soot, creosote and debris in the neighbourhood dumpster or skip. If your firebox has stubborn stains from smoke, some chimney sweeps may offer to clean these stains. 

Cleaning the chimney cap and stack

Your chimney sweep can go up on the roof to clean the chimney cap. They can partially disassemble, clean the chimney cap and its wire screen of accumulated soot and creosote. Afterwards, your Tasker puts the chimney cap back together.