Creosote Removal

When you have a fire in your fireplace, smoke and fumes that are produced go up your chimney, they eventually cool down and some compounds condense onto your flue walls. This includes creosote, a brown or black substance that adheres to your chimney’s interior walls.

Creosote shows up in a few forms, depending on how long it’s been in your chimney. In the initial stage, it can have a light, flaky appearance or may be more tar-like, depending on whether you’re burning seasoned or green wood, the kind of wood you’re using, and how quickly the smoke leaves your chimney.

Regardless of the nature of your creosote, regular chimney sweeping services are often enough to remove the compound from the walls of your chimney.

Unfortunately, when it isn’t swept out on a regular basis and becomes hard, it also becomes harder to remove, known as glazed or third-stage creosote. At this point, your chimney technician will need to use particular products and solutions to loosen up the glazed creosote so that it may be removed from your chimney without causing damage.

Is creosote dangerous?

Creosote is not only combustible, but also the leading cause of chimney fires. When a fire starts in your chimney and can spread to the rest of your home. Creosote is highly flammable, and the more you have, the higher the risk of a dangerous chimney fire.

How do I prevent creosote buildup?

Once you’ve had creosote buildup removed from your chimney, the next question you may have is how do you prevent or reduce its buildup in your chimney?

Unfortunately, you can’t prevent it, because burning fuel in your fireplace will require regular chimney sweeping to remove it.

However, you can follow some best practices to reduce its accumulation. These practices include:

• Don’t burn green firewood. All firewood that you burn needs to be cut to length, split, and dried for a minimum of six months prior to burning to remove moisture. Moisture makes your fire burn cooler, allowing creosote and smoke to develop in excess, increasing buildup.
• Burn hot, clean fires. Seasoned wood guarantees that you’ll get hotter fires, though woods such as hickory, oak, and similar hardwoods will burn hottest. Good airflow helps ensure smoke rises quickly, providing less time for creosote to cool, and condense.
• Preheat your flue. Warming up your flue prior to starting your fire encourages smoke to rise quickly while reducing the likelihood of condensation and buildup. Build a small paper or cardboard fire in the back of your fireplace before starting larger pieces of wood.
• Encourage a good draft.When you have good airflow moving through your system quickly and efficiently, you get a safer, more efficient operation. If something is hindering draft, get it taken care of. If you don’t have good flow into a room, consider cracking a window open.
• Schedule regular maintenance. Getting an annual inspection and regular chimney sweepings, in addition to taking care of chimney or fireplace repairs quickly, ensures that your system will be in the best shape over the years, helping you avoid creosote buildup.

When you combine these best practices, you’ll reduce how much creosote builds up in your chimney while improving efficiency in your fires and keeping your system in better shape over time.