Having clean gutters is especially important if you collect rainwater in a tank. With much of the material for their nests already made, birds and insects can congregate around gutters and also make their way into your home, and pest control may be required to remove them. If they become clogged, they can leak or even break, and that extra water can start to damage the roof or the walls of your property.Ĭlogged gutters also make inviting homes for pests such as birds. Water that hits your roof needs a place to go, and gutters make sure that the water goes somewhere safely away from the house. The main reason to clean gutters is to divert runoff. Not all of them are straightforward and may seem unrelated at first glance. There are many reasons why you should clean your gutters. Gutters should be cleaned regularly, but how often do they need to be done? It depends on your home’s location, the gutter material, and even the way you collect and use water in your property. Having clean gutters helps ensure that water drains to the right place and helps keep your property looking great. Creosote can also become very smelly during the heat of summer, and the smell can be hard to get out of your furniture and other belongings! If you need a chimney cleaning or inspection in Apex, call our CSIA-certified chimney sweeps today to get a service estimate.Keeping your gutters clean is an important part of home maintenance and one that sometimes gets forgotten about. A professional chimney sweep removes dangerous creosote deposits or other corrosive materials left in your flue, so that they do not become a fire or carbon monoxide habit. It’s important to note that, while you can perform simple surface cleaning and ash removal yourself, it’s no substitute for a professional chimney cleaning. Thirdly, during the heat of summer, the last thing you want is extra heat in your home, even if it’s the small amount produced by a pilot light! Hire a Professional Chimney Sweep in Apex! An active flame, no matter how small, is always at least a minor risk, and it never hurts to reduce that risk. Firstly, a pilot light does cost you a bit of money, even if the fireplace is not in use. If you have a gas fireplace, it is generally recommended that you turn off your pilot light if the system will be out of use for a few months. To summarize, anything from the outdoors-rain water, birds, squirrels, debris, drafts-can come into your home if the damper is not closed. But when your fireplace is not in use, leaving the damper open can have several consequences, which we discuss more in detail here. When a fire is burning, the damper should be open so that the smoke can escape through the flue. Your fireplace’s damper helps you control the flow of air coming in through your chimney system. For this reason, typical household cleaners and wet cloths won’t be sufficient instead, use a dry brush to clean away as much of the debris as possible. If you have a cast iron fireplace grate, it will likely have been treated with a substance (called iron paste) that protects it from moisture damage. Again, wood ash contains lye, which will corrode these items and make them look older and more used than they are. Next, clean any accessories you have in your fireplace, such as the grate or andirons. Note that ashes can remain hot hours after a fire. Our tip for cleaning up ashes without making a mess: use a shop vac and go very slowly, so as not to send them flying around the home. Leaving ashes in your fireplace all summer could damage it, so before closing out your system for the season, clean out any ashes left behind. It’s actually beneficial to have a little ash in your fireplace, to help insulate tinder as it catches, but it’s also important to remember that ashes are chemically corrosive (you may remember from Fight Club that ashes contain lye, which makes soap when mixed with fat). While the firewood can be stored for another season, excessively dry wood can be problematic for your chimney system. If the weather hasn’t completely warmed up yet, we suggest throwing a brief springtime bonfire and enjoy the last bits of the winter season. Firewood left in a fireplace for a few months or a season can attract pests, like termites. Your firebox is a safe place to burn wood, but not necessarily the ideal place to store it. Keep reading to learn how to close your chimney system safely, without damaging your fireplace or its accessories, from our Apex chimney contractor. With the days getting warmer and longer, it’s time to think about closing down your fireplace for the summer season, when it’s likely to see very little use.
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