CHARLIE:
Herman from Willow Bend has one for you Tom. He says, we have a wood burning fireplace, and he wants to know how often should we have chimney cleaning done?
Podcast: Play in new window
TOM:
Well there’s a couple things you can do. You can be the investigative type of person. This would be the person that would stick his head up into the fire box. Yes. Open the damper, and measure the thickness of creosote that has built up on the damper. The rule is if you have an eighth inch or more it’s time to have it cleaned. Now for those of us that done want to stick our head in holes …
CHARLIE:
Can I suggest an alternate path?
TOM:
Yes.
CHARLIE:
Reach down into your pocket, pull out a phone.
TOM:
Well we’re going to get there, because that’s what they’re going to do either way. I didn’t tell him to clean it, I just wanted to know if he has to clean it. That would be rule one. Now the other thing is if you burn at least one cord of wood a year after a cord you should go ahead and … What is a cord?
CHARLIE:
I know what a cord is.
TOM:
A 10 by 10 by 10 kind of thing.
CHARLIE:
Every winter I had to stock three of them into our bomb shelter.
TOM:
There you go. You probably would clean yours every year, but this case on a Houston area take a look at it, if it’s a little dirty you could have it cleaned probably once every three years if you use it three winters in a row. I doubt you’re going to burn an entire cord in three winters, unless you just run it for fun and then turn the air conditioner on. That’s another thing, but probably every three years….
CHARLIE:
Make sure it’s a guild member who you have come out and …
TOM:
You always get a chimney sweep, registered chimney sweep. Yep, and guild.