- My name's Aaron Massey, from MRFIXITDIY.com,
and welcome back to another episode of "Home School'd."
For today's project,
I'm gonna show you how to clean your chimney.
(upbeat rock music)
Nothing rings in the holiday season
like sitting around a roaring fireplace,
and if you haven't already,
now is the perfect time to clean your chimney
before Santa Claus comes sliding down
and tramples soot all around your home.
Regularly cleaning your chimney is an important part
of keeping your home safe for the winter months,
and that's because, as you use your fireplace
to burn wood for warmth or just for seasonal atmosphere,
a highly flammable, tar-like substance called creosote
begins to build up on the inside of your chimney walls.
Over time this buildup can ignite and burn
at over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit,
which can be extremely difficult to extinguish
and quickly spread to other areas of your home.
In fact, on average there are over 25,000
of these chimney fires every year
that lead to over $125 million in property damage.
I rate these projects by how many F-bombs
you're likely to drop while tackling the project.
This one isn't too (jackhammer rattles) difficult,
but it takes a little bit of time,
can get a little messy, requires you to get on your roof,
and requires some basic tools to knock it out.
I'll leave a link in the description down below,
where you can find all the necessary tools
you may need for this job.
Fortunately, cleaning your chimney
isn't a super challenging task,
and it's something that most homeowners
can tackle on their own if they choose to,
so today I'm gonna show you how you can do it
and why you should add this to your to-do checklist
to make sure that your home is ready for the winter.
Before we get started on showing you
how to clean the chimney,
I'm first gonna show you how a fireplace works
because I find that if you know
how things in your home work,
it's easier for you to fix them
when they break or when they need maintenance.
Now, if you don't care about how it works
and you just want to skip ahead, no worries.
Just use the time code links
in the description down below to jump ahead.
Otherwise, here we go.
So the major components of a traditional fireplace
are the firebox, a damper,
the smoke shelf and smoke chamber,
the chimney flue or liner, and the crown.
Now, as a fire burns,
the heat and smoke rise through the damper
to the smoke chamber and up the flue.
Turbulent air mixing from the inside of the room
and the air in the chimney mix on the smoke shelf
and should create an updraft
to send the smoke back up the chimney
instead of into the living space.
Now, the damper can be used
to close off the chimney when not in use
so cold air doesn't fall through the chimney
and create drafts in the living space.
Now, there's many reasons why
a traditionally constructed chimney like this
are no long considered
the most efficient ways to heat your home,
but for the sake of this video, we'll just assume
that you have a traditional style like this
that needs to be cleaned.
So here we go.
Cleaning your chimney should only be done
when you have not had a fire in the fireplace
for quite a while.
The first thing you'll need to do
is purchase a simple chimney sweeping brush
online or at a hardware store.
Now, there's a ton of different options
available in various sizes,
so you may want to go on your roof
and measure the diameter of your chimney flue or the liner
to make sure that you buy one that fits.
I bought this one that attaches to the end of a drill
on Amazon for about $60.
Next you'll want to use some plastic and tape
to tape off the fireplace area,
or make sure that your wood stove is closed and sealed.
This process creates a lot of soot flying around,
and you don't want all that flying around into your home.
I also like to add a shop vac hose
into the sealed firebox area
to help collect any flying dust.
From there, you'll need to get up to your roof,
so make sure that you can do that safely with a ladder.
It becomes a little more challenging
for steeper-pitched roofs,
so make sure that you take the necessary safety precautions
so that you can access the roof and the chimney safely.
Depending how high up your chimney
sticks up out of your roof,
you may need an additional stepladder
or stool to get to the top
so that you can access the very top of the chimney.
Once you're up on the roof, remove the chimney cap.
Typically they're installed with just a few screws
to hold them in place.
If you don't have a chimney cap in place,
you should definitely purchase one.
Not only do they prevent birds and other animals
from nesting or climbing down the flue and getting stuck,
but they also keep other debris out like leaves and branches
or things that can cause a clog
that could potentially be problematic down the line.
To my knowledge, they're also required
during a home inspection,
so if you ever plan to sell your home
you'll need to have on installed.
They're not very expensive online
and most cover different size ranges,
so just measure your chimney liner
to buy one in the size range that fits.
Next you'll want to use a flashlight
to shine down the chimney and see what you're dealing with.
Now, if you have a GoPro or an action camera of some sort,
this is a perfect use for that
as you can attach it to a long pole
and send that down the chimney
to see any visible obstructions
and inspect the condition of the chimney
to make sure there's no visible obstructions or damage.
In my case it looks pretty good,
but as you can see, there's some buildup along the walls
that needs to be cleaned.
From there, assemble your cleaning brush.
In my case it's a matter
of attaching the fiberglass rods together
and putting the brush attachment on the end.
And if you have someone down in the house below,
ask them to turn on the shop vac for you.
Otherwise you have to climb down and turn on the shop vac.
Make sure you have a good respirator,
safety glasses, and gloves on hand
so that you protect yourself from any flying debris
and potentially carcinogenic dust.
If you have a brush that attaches to a drill, like this one,
once you've fed the rods down the chimney
and you've reached the length of your chimney liner,
attach the other end to the drill
and make sure that the chuck is connected tightly.
You don't want to drop the rods down the chimney
because then you have to try and fish it out,
which can be challenging.
(beep)
I like to start at the bottom of the chimney
and work my way up,
but it doesn't really matter how you do it.
Just work your way through the entire liner
and make sure that you clean it thoroughly.
Once you think you have it nice and clean,
use your flashlight or camera to make sure it all looks good
and try your best to clean any additional spots
that you notice that maybe didn't get cleaned so well.
Once the chimney's all clean,
replace your chimney cap and you're good to go on the roof.
From there, allow the dust to settle for at least 30 minutes
so that anything that's flying around
can settle into the firebox,
and then next, locate your chimney cleanout if you have one.
It's usually a door on the backside
of your fireplace or your chimney,
and you can use a small shovel or scoop
to remove all the larger debris that may have fallen.
If you don't have a cleanout, which is true in my case,
just do your best to clean any remaining dust
out of the chimney with your shop vac.
They sell specialty vacuums for this.
However, if you've already removed
the majority of the ash from your fireplace,
I don't really find them necessary
as long as you have a good filter in your shop vac.
Do your best to clean any remaining dust
out of the chimney and firebox with your shop vac.
And lastly, reinstall any fireplace screen
or doors if you have them,
and you're good to go to enjoy many warm fires
in your fireplace or wood stove for the winter season.
It doesn't hurt to burn one of these creosote-busting logs
in your fireplace every once in a while.
They're designed to help keep creosote from building up,
but they should never be used as a replacement
for a good chimney cleaning.
If you have a gas line
that runs to a gas starter on your fireplace
and don't want to deal with the hassle
of a wood fire every year
or doing the deep cleaning that I just showed you how to do,
you can also replace your wood-burning fireplace
with either a gas insert or a gas fire log set.
These log sets are a little expensive,
but they use either natural gas or propane
to create a clean-burning fire
without the hassle of creating a lot of ash and soot.
But as always, you want to make sure
that you have quality smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
inside your home and that they're working properly.
So that's it for this video, I hope you enjoyed it,
and I hope it helped you get your fireplace ready
for the long winter ahead.
As I mentioned before,
traditional wood-burning fireplaces like this
are no longer considered
the most efficient way to heat your home,
so perhaps down the road I'll show you guys
how you can update your fireplace
to make it a little bit more efficient.
But for now, I hope you guys enjoyed this video.
If you did like this video, please hit that like button
and leave a comment down below and let me know.
And if you'd like to check out any more of my DIY workshop
or home improvement tutorials,
you can always visit my website at MRFIXITDIY.com.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
I hope you and your family have a very warm,
safe, and happy holiday season,
and I'll see you next time.
("Carol of the Bells")