Questions

Chimney sweep FAQ for El Dorado County

The questions that come up most on the phone, answered the way a contractor would answer them rather than the way a brochure would. Scheduling and pricing questions are on the cost page and the how it works page.

Creosote and chimney fires

What is creosote and why does it matter?

Creosote is condensed wood smoke, and it is flammable. When wood burns it releases vapor and unburned particles. If that gas stays hot all the way up, most of it leaves the chimney. If it cools on the way, it condenses on the flue walls, and what it leaves behind is fuel sitting inside the part of your house that routinely gets hot.

It builds in three stages, and the distinction is the whole ballgame. Stage one is a light dusty soot that a brush takes out in twenty minutes. Stage two is a crunchy flake, like burnt cornflakes, and it takes real mechanical work. Stage three is a hard shiny tar glaze fused to the tile, and it will not brush off at all. Removing it means chemical treatment over weeks or mechanical cutting with rotary tools, and it runs $300 to $800 on top of the sweep.

The gap between stage one and stage three is usually two or three skipped seasons. That is the actual argument for annual service: not that a yearly sweep is magic, but that a yearly sweep is $200 and the alternative compounds.

How do I know if my chimney needs cleaning?

Take a flashlight, open the damper, and look up. If you can scratch a deposit and it is thicker than about an eighth of an inch, book the sweep. Other tells: the fire is hard to get going, smoke hangs in the room instead of pulling up, there is a strong smell on humid days, or black tar-like flakes are dropping into the firebox.

If you cannot tell, that is fine, most people cannot. A Level 1 inspection runs $100 to $180 and is usually bundled into the sweep anyway, so the honest answer is that the check costs almost nothing and the guess is the expensive part.

What happens during a chimney fire?

Sometimes it is unmistakable. A loud roaring like a freight train, cracking and popping, dense smoke, and sparks pouring out the top. Sometimes it is completely silent and you never know it happened until a contractor finds the evidence.

The slow quiet ones do the damage people do not expect. A chimney fire can hit temperatures that crack clay flue tiles or warp a metal liner, and once the flue is breached, the next ordinary fire has a path into the framing. This is why a chimney that has had a fire needs a full internal inspection before it gets used again, regardless of how minor it seemed.

If one is happening: get everyone out, call 911, and do not open the damper or add water. Closing the appliance's air supply if you can reach it safely helps. Afterward, do not light another fire until it has been inspected.

Do creosote sweeping logs work?

Not as a replacement for a sweep, no. The catalyst in them can make stage three glaze somewhat more brittle, which genuinely helps the person doing the actual sweeping. That is the honest extent of it.

What a log cannot do is remove anything from the flue. Whatever it loosens is still in there, or it is now sitting on your smoke shelf. It also cannot look at your cap, your crown, or your arrestor, and it has never once found a cracked flue tile. Use one if you like. Do not let it replace the visit.

Smoke, smells, and draft

Why does smoke come into the room when I light a fire?

Almost always the chimney is not drafting, and there are a handful of usual suspects. The damper is partly closed. The flue is cold and has a plug of dense air sitting in it, which is why the first fire of the season is the worst offender and why a rolled newspaper torch held up near the damper for a minute fixes it. The house is sealed tight enough that the fire has no makeup air, so cracking a window near the fireplace tells you immediately. The cap screen is packed with leaves or acorns, which is extremely common under the oaks in Cameron Park and Shingle Springs. Or a tree has grown up over the stack in the last fifteen years and the chimney no longer has clear air above it.

If none of that is it, the flue may be genuinely blocked or the chimney may be too short for its roofline, and those want a contractor rather than a guess.

Why does my house smell like smoke in the summer?

Creosote absorbs humidity and gives off odor, and in warm weather chimneys frequently draft backward. Cold air sinks down the flue instead of rising, and it brings that smell with it. So the smell is worst on exactly the days you are not using the fireplace.

It is telling you there are deposits in the flue. Sealing the damper or using a top-sealing cap masks the symptom, and a sweep removes the source.

Can I burn a fire in a fireplace that has a gas log set?

No, and this one matters. A gas log set is not a grate. The burner, the valve, and the connections are not built for a wood fire on top of them, and the damper on a conversion is often locked open or removed in a way that assumes gas. If you want to burn wood in a converted fireplace, that is a conversation with a contractor about converting it back, not something to try on a cold night.

Wood, and burning it

How long does firewood need to season?

Oak wants two full summers split and stacked. Pine, cedar, and fir want at least one, and are better with more. The number people usually have in their head is one year for everything, and that is where oak catches them out, because oak is dense enough to hold water in the middle of a round long after the outside looks grey and checked.

Split it, stack it off the ground, cover the top and leave the sides open to the wind, and burn from the oldest end. Getting two winters ahead is a one-time effort that pays for itself every year after, and it is the cheapest chimney maintenance there is because it costs nothing but planning.

How can I tell if my wood is actually dry?

Two ends of a split should have cracks radiating out from the center. Knock two pieces together: dry wood cracks, wet wood thuds. Dry wood is noticeably lighter than it looks. If the fire hisses, or the ends bubble, it is wet no matter what the person who sold it to you said.

A moisture meter costs about twenty dollars and settles the argument permanently. Split a piece and test the fresh face, not the outside. Under 20 percent is what you want.

Does burning hot fires clean the chimney?

No. A hot fire deposits less than a cool one, which is worth knowing, but it does not remove what is already there. The idea that you can burn your flue clean is how stage two becomes stage three: a genuinely hot fire in a loaded flue is not maintenance, it is ignition.

Burn hot, burn dry, and still get it swept.

Local rules and specifics

Is a spark arrestor required in El Dorado County?

Yes, in most of it. The State Responsibility Area covers the bulk of the county outside the incorporated cities, and a large share of that is mapped high or very high fire hazard severity. In those areas California requires a spark arrestor on the chimney of any structure burning solid fuel: a screen with openings no larger than half an inch and no smaller than three eighths, in a material that will not rust out.

It is the cheapest part on the whole chimney and the one most often missing or rusted through. Insurers have started asking about it, and a missing arrestor is a routine finding on a home inspection that can hold up a sale. Combined with a rain cap it is one part and one visit.

Do I need a permit for chimney work?

Not for a sweep or an inspection. Not usually for a cap, an arrestor, or a crown seal. A relining, a new appliance installation, or structural masonry work generally does need a permit from El Dorado County, and a contractor who pulls one as a matter of course is telling you something good about how they work.

The permit matters more than people think at resale, because unpermitted work on a wood-burning appliance is exactly what a Level 2 inspection surfaces during a transaction. See the inspection page.

There is an animal in my chimney. What now?

Do not light a fire, which is the instinct and it is both cruel and ineffective. Birds nest in uncapped flues every spring, and occasionally something larger gets in and cannot get back out.

Removal is its own job. The part worth understanding is that getting the animal out is one bill, and getting a cap installed afterward is what stops it becoming an annual bill. An uncapped flue in the forest around Pollock Pines or Georgetown is an open invitation. Also note that nesting birds may be protected during breeding season, which affects timing.

Does homeowners insurance cover chimney damage?

Generally a sudden event like a chimney fire or a tree falling on the stack is covered, and gradual deterioration is not. A crown that has been cracked for eight years, mortar that has gone soft, or a rusted-out chase cover are maintenance in the eyes of nearly every policy.

This is not insurance advice and your policy is the authority. The practical point is that the failures that get denied are the slow ones, which are also the ones an annual inspection catches while they are still cheap.

Do the contractors work on gas fireplaces?

Yes, for the chimney side of it: the vent, the termination, the cap, and the flashing. A gas appliance that spills produces no smoke and no smell you would notice, which is exactly why the venting deserves a look even though there is no creosote to sweep. That is most of the work in El Dorado Hills. Gas line and valve work is a different trade with a different license.