Fireplace maintenance is very important and there are 6 things you can do each year, 1. Inspect your firebox, 2. Check your Carbon Monoxide detector and Smoke Alarms, 3. Clean fireplace brick and stone, 4. Visually inspect your chimney for problems 5. Clean fireplace glass doors 6. Hire a professional chimney sweep.
A clean chimney is a happy chimney
Jonathan A.
Why is Fireplace Maintenance important?
For most people that own a house with a wood-burning fireplace, it is a focal point in the room, it’s what keeps you warm in the winter and gives you and your family hours of enjoyment and a great spot to entertain friends.
Like everything that gets used you need to do regular maintenance to keep it functioning properly, and by doing regular fireplace maintenance you can prolong your fireplace’s life span dramatically.
Now it is true that your fireplace doesn’t have a motor like a car or even many moving parts, but they do receive a lot of heating and cooling over the years causing your fireplace to expand and contract, also on the outside it has to put up with all the elements of weather like sun, rain and temperature changes that can all affect the brick or metal chimney,
To help ensure that your fireplace continues to provide comfort for years to come, consider some best practices for fireplace maintenance.
DIY maintenance for wood burning a fireplace
These 6 tips will help you do your own DIY maintenance on your wood-burning fireplace, and you will also see some affiliate links to recommended products that will make your life a lot easier.
please continue reading and feel free to leave me a comment at the end or share this post with a friend below.
1. Inspect and clean your firebox
Having a fireplace that looks great is very important with it almost always being the focal point in a room, so what can you do to improve on that? seeing how you are burning wood in your fireplace causes a lot of extra byproducts to be left behind like ashes, and if those ashes are left in the fireplace during the summer months when it is not being used they can start to smell and cause unwanted odors all through the house
So cleaning the interior of your fireplace is very important and will make a big difference aesthetically.
This is definitely DIY fireplace maintenance, and to do this you will need only a few basic tools below:
- Broom head or brush
- Gloves
- goggles or protective glasses
- vacuum preferably a shop vac style vacuum
- 5-gallon pail preferably metal
- a small garden shovel or scoop
- dustpan
- a headlamp or trouble light
Tips: One tip I would like to share with you is when scooping out your ashes from the firebox don’t vacuum ashes up because they are so fine that they can damage your vacuum filters and motor, but what you can do to keep the dust level down is have it running with the vacuum hose on the hearth facing the fireplace, this will help reduce any ashes that get in the air.
Shop-Vac
This ash vacuum is made to suck up ashes without ruining your vacuum or allowing particles out in the air.
Don’t be afraid to slowly brush any ashes down that are accumulated on the back wall of your fireplace, do this before scooping any ashes out. If you have a garden don’t throw those ashes away because you can use them in your garden as fertilizer.
cleaning the ashes out of your fireplace is one of the most important things you can do in fireplace maintenance
For more information on how to use fireplace ashes, take a look at my post on FIREPLACE ASHES, 16 GREAT WAYS TO DISPOSE OF THEM
2. Check your Carbon Monoxide detectors and Smoke Alarms
So it is true a fireplace can be very enjoyable but having one also comes along with responsibility, although most fireplaces are very safe to use they can be dangerous if not taken care of or used properly,
Kidde Carbon Monoxide Detector
Protect your family from carbon Monoxide in your home, this detector is highly rated by customers and comes with a sound warning and Battery Powered Alarm.
Now because carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless this makes it very hard to detect, and if it is lingering around your home it could possibly be causing harm to your family or others.
This hazard can be caused by many things in your home including a chimney or fireplace that is not proportioned and is causing smoke to puff into the room, a dirty chimney, and many other things that can cause this, and if you don’t have carbon monoxide detectors or smoke alarms that could go unnoticed.
So to have peace of mind and safety in your home have carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarms installed in your home if you don’t already have them, and if you do have smoke alarms take a look at the back of one to see what the expiration of the unit if it is overdue then it needs replacing, these are needed in each different room so you will need more than one, this is not direct fireplace maintenance but it is a very important safety factor and it will tell you if your fireplace is working properly
3. How to clean fireplace brick and stone
Fireplaces sometimes have the tendency to get dirty on the outside face with soot and creosote and this generally happens when the fireplace has an internal problem, possibly with the damper or the flue being dirty among other things.
Quick N Brite
Fireplace Cleaner with Cleaning Brush for Brick, Stone, Tile, Rock, Soot, Smoke, Creosote, and Ash, 16 oz, 1-Pack
Seeing how most fireplaces are built with brick, stone, or cultured stone these materials tend to be rough and the soot and smoke cling to them easily, the problem with this is it becomes very hard to clean them especially if you want to use a natural cleaning method, there are many chemical cleaning agents and if not applied right they can make your fireplace look even worse and they are also very dangerous to use like acid.
I would never recommend using a chemical cleaner unless you have experience in using them so instead I’d like to recommend some simple natural cleaning agents, environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and non-toxic ingredients to clean fireplace brick and stone.
It is true these methods can take a little longer to work and also require for the most part a little more elbow grease, but you won’t have to worry about damaging anything or harming yourself.
So let’s take a look at a few easy methods that you can try if you have smoke stains on your brick fireplace or stone fireplace
Tip: here are two natural ways you can clean soot and creosote from brick and stone
- Dish detergent: clean fireplace bricks or stone with dishwashing detergents like dawn or dove, try wetting the bricks first with a spray bottle of water, and then with dish detergent mixed in a pail you can use a rag or sponge to rub it in, creosote and soot are oily and the grease-cutting agents in dish detergent are effective at lifting them, you will need to use some good old elbow grease also to help with the prosses, if it doesn’t all come off you can try the prosses again.
2. Vinegar: You can use distilled white vinegar as another option, it is acidic it can lift stains and eat away at creosote or soot stains, If you decide to use vinegar just mix it in equal parts with warm water and rub it into the stains let it sit a few minutes and wipe away then repeat the prosses as many times as you need to.
4. Visually inspect your chimney for problems
Any homeowner can do their own visual inspection of their chimney and its important to do one each year to avoid problems or safety hazards, and in this way do your own DIY fireplace maintenance at the same time
First: take a lookup inside your chimney with a flashlight look up and try and see if there are any cracks in the brick or clay flue tiles if you have a masonry fireplace if you have a metal chimney look for what is called buckling, this looks almost like a dent that is forced inward or almost like a wrinkle in the metal.
Second: you should take a look at your damper so that it is not warped and is moving freely, if you move your damper and you see soot fall you’re probably overdue for a chimney sweep.
Third: Check your fire brick in the firebox to see if there are any cracks or broken pieces, and if you have a factory-built fireplace you will have refractory panels that simulate brick, visually inspect them to see if they are not cracked or broken.
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Forth: do a visual inspection of the outside of your chimney to look for cracks and broken brick, if your chimney is metal look for rust on the chimney or broken brace poles on the roof, and make sure it has a rain cap to keep out the rain and animal.
If your fireplace or chimney has anything out of place then don’t hesitate to call your local chimney sweep and ask for an inspection because it is possible you have had a chimney fire.
To find out more take a look at my post on A CHIMNEY FIRE, 3 IMPORTANT THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
5. Clean fireplace glass doors
Cleaning your fireplace glass doors really makes a big difference and to me is a big part of fireplace maintenance, making an impact on how your fireplace looks especially in the offseason and there is a natural and very effective way to clean them.
Tip: All you need to do is take some of the fine ash that is in the fireplace put it in a dish with enough water to make a paste and just rub it in the creosote stains on the glass, this will remove them with ease and when you finish just wipe it away and rinse with some Windex and paper towel.
If you are still having trouble cleaning your fireplace glass doors then you can try MEECO’S RED DEVIL Woodstove Glass Cleaner as a great alternative.
6. Hire a professional chimney sweep
Hiring a professional chimney sweep is the most important thing you can do for fireplace maintenance, everyone asks me how often they should have their chimney swept. and my answer is always the same, for proper fireplace maintenance and safety you should have your chimney cleaned and inspected at least once a year and if you burn a lot of wood each year then you may need to have it done more often.
A proper cleaning each year will give you peace of mind that everything is working well and that you will be able to avoid a possible chimney fire because of creosote buildup, so you can see why this is the most important part of fireplace maintenance.
Fireplace maintenance conclusion
I really hope that some, if not all of these tips can come in handy for you as a homeowner please don’t take fireplace maintenance lightly and you will be able to enjoy your fireplace for years to come.
If you thought this post was informative please leave a comment and if you would like more fireplace tips and ideas please subscribe to my newsletter, thank you for reading
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Thank you for the wonderful article! It helps me understand more about fireplace and chimney maintenance. If in need of Chimney Sweep Baltimore we have the service for you! Thanks!
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