Every business has a busy season. If you’re an accountant, you pretty much know that January through April is going to be crazy. If you work in the agriculture industry, don’t plan on taking vacation during planting season or harvest, either. Do you own a business that has a busy season? If so, you know the one thing you don’t want – having someone come in when you’re really busy with a really urgent need.
If only people planned ahead, right? When you work in the chimney sweep industry, the busy season is in the fall when winter is approaching. Around this time is when people start to think about snow and using their fireplace. This means that it’s time to get their chimney inspected, cleaned, and repaired. Allowing time for chimney maintenance makes building a fire without worries of chimney fires or carbon monoxide build-up easy!
Why Do You Need Your Chimney Cleaned?
Over the course of the winter, you use your fire quite often. As the fire burns, the smoke is directed up and out of the chimney. After so much use, sometimes the tar fog, water vapor, minerals, unburned wood particles, and other chemicals don’t make it all the way out of your chimney. Instead, they condense on the top part of the chimney where the air is cooler. The substance that is left on the inside of your chimney is a highly flammable substance called creosote. Beyond the risk of chimney fire, this can also cause health problems – such as causing your mouth and eyes to burn, or even having an upset stomach!
Another thing that needs to happen when you have a fire? Proper ventilation of the chimney smoke, up and out of your home. Without this ventilation, you may be allowing an unsafe level of carbon monoxide to stay in your home, instead of being vented out. This can have serious, even fatal results. Carbon monoxide is a odorless, tasteless gas that can build up and cause serious health issues, such as upset stomach, dizziness, or headaches. If people or pets are left in an area with a high concentration of carbon monoxide, death can occur. Did you know that your body actually prefers carbon monoxide to oxygen? So, even if both are present, you will take in the harmful carbon monoxide!
Schedule Your Repairs Now!
You can see why it’s so important to have your chimney inspected on an annual basis. Having said this, why should you schedule early? If your chimney inspection uncovers problems with your chimney, you’ll need to make sure that there is time to get those repairs fixed – before you want to use your fireplace. In addition, if you wait until right before fireplace season, your chimney professionals may not have the time to get to those repairs before the colder weather sets in.
Give Old Dominion Chimneys a call today to schedule your chimney inspection and cleaning. They are dedicated to giving it the attention it deserves! Old Dominion Chimneys will also be able to schedule needed repairs – before the busy season begins.
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