Advice
Written for somebody deciding whether to call, not for a search engine. Several of these end with a reason not to book anything, which is the point of writing them.
Which flue is yours in a two-family house
One chimney, several flues, and a century of appliances swapped in and out. In a divided house the first useful question is not whether the chimney is dirty. It is which part of it belongs to you.
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When duct cleaning earns its money, and when it does not
This is a service we provide, so treat what follows accordingly — and then note that most of it is about the circumstances in which you should not book it.
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What a hundred winters do to a chimney crown
Water gets into a hairline in November and freezes in January. Do that ninety times and the slab on top of your chimney is no longer shedding water — it is routing it into the middle of the stack.
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The signs a dryer vent is blocked, in the order they appear
A dryer that needs two cycles is not a dryer that is wearing out. It is a dryer working against a duct that has narrowed, and it has been telling you so for a while.
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What an oil-to-gas conversion does to your chimney
The boiler was replaced. The chimney was not. That single mismatch is the most common finding in pre-war Essex County housing, and it works on the masonry from the inside for years before anybody notices.
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Level 1 or Level 2 — which chimney inspection do you need
There are two inspections a homeowner will ever be offered, they cost different amounts, and the wrong one answers a question you did not ask. The choice is simpler than it sounds.
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How often a chimney really needs sweeping
Every answer to this question that starts with a number is guessing. The interval is set by how the fire is run, and two houses on the same street can be three years apart.
Read thisThe three stages of creosote, and which one you have
Most people think creosote is a quantity. It is really a state of matter, and the state you end up with is decided by how cold the smoke gets on the way out of your house.
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Still not sure which one yours is?
Describe what you are actually seeing and we will tell you which of these it is — including when the answer is that it can wait until spring.