Chimney sweeping and cleaning in Winter Springs.

1. What the brushes lift.

   A wood fire leaves a film inside the flue. While fresh it is dry and easily brushed off. Repeated slow, smoky burns turn it to sticky tar, then to a glossy hard glaze that bristles hardly dent.

   We begin at the damper and work up to the cap, then clear the smoke shelf and finish with the firebox floor. Whatever comes loose goes out of the house with us instead of staying to burn.

2. Working out the next sweep.

   It depends on how you burn. Nightly fires lay down deposit much faster than a few fires over a cool season, and a thick or glossy coat means a sweep is overdue.

   NFPA 211 recommends an inspection every year regardless of use. The inspection reveals the build-up, so a sweep and an inspection often happen in one visit.

   Fireplace season is brief here. Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024 show about 94 percent of Winter Springs homes (13,961 of 14,893) heating mainly with electricity, and 23 homes (margin of error 37) with wood as the main fuel. A flue used now and then still collects soot, and an unused one can fill with leaves and nests, so the annual check is where to start.

3. What a clean flue achieves.

   Built-up creosote can ignite inside the flue, which is how chimney fires start; take the deposit away and a stray spark finds little to burn.

   Draft improves as well: smoke should rise and leave, but through a coated or partly blocked flue it may spill into the living space the moment the damper is opened.

4. Stoves, inserts and gas logs.

   A stove turned down for the night burns cool, and cool smoke drops the most creosote, mostly in the connector pipe.

   For a stove, every stage of the smoke path is covered: the connector off the stove and each joint in it, the flue or liner above, and the cap. Gas is another matter. Where a flue once carried wood smoke, the Florida Building Code's Fuel Gas volume requires that passage to be free of obstructions and combustible deposits, cleaned first if it served solid fuel (501.15.2). The passage must also be examined before an appliance is swapped (503.5.6).

5. Up on the cap.

   Cooled smoke drops soot onto the cap's mesh. That mesh is also what stops sparks, so a clogged one weakens the draft and defeats its own purpose, and we clear it on every visit. Birds and bats move into Florida flues too. Federal law protects chimney swifts, and bats may not be excluded between mid-April and mid-August, which means a flue with wildlife in it waits for the right season.

6. Smells in muggy weather.

   The usual cause is creosote. A flue that has seen use holds a little, and in thick damp air, or when the draft reverses, the odor settles down into the room. The source goes with the sweep; a damper kept shut and a cap kept on deal with any trace.

Schedule a sweep