Melted my face off with a bad creosote fire last Tuesday - now I'm a believer in yearly cleanings

3 comments

3 Comments

Four years back I let mine go eighteen months and that was enough. The creosote had built up to almost an inch thick in spots near the flue collar. Took a chimney sweep almost two hours to scrape it all out and he said another few fires and I would have had a real chimney fire, not just a smoky mess. I put a reminder in my phone for every September now and it costs me a hundred bucks each time. Best money I spend all year honestly.

ninam861mo ago

So what made you finally schedule it after that long?

terry_hayes181mo ago

Yeah, it’s wild how we ignore stuff like that until it almost burns the house down. @schmidt.blake is right, a hundred bucks is nothing compared to the headache of a real chimney fire. I’ve noticed people do the same thing with dryer vents, furnace filters, even gutters. We wait until something breaks or gets dangerous, then suddenly we’re believers. It’s like we need one bad experience to finally see the pattern. But once you’ve had that scare, you never want to risk it again.