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Residents of West Chester, Pennsylvania like you receive the full variety of seasons. During winter, you probably appreciate having a wood-burning fireplace or stove by which you can warm yourself. In order to properly care for your fireplace, you can depend on the services of West Chester’s Midtown Chimney Sweeps.
Efficient Chimney Cleaning in West Chester, PA
One of our core main services is chimney cleaning, a practice that has been around for more than two hundred years. Our process for cleaning chimneys is simple: We extract soot from your flue with stiff bristle brushes, and then we collect the soot with our HEPA vacuums. Regular users of fireplaces and wood stoves should arrange to have those heating units cleaned annually. When you receive annual cleaning, you ensure that smoke will easily travel up and out of your chimney. Not to mention, you prevent a chimney fire from happening at your house.
Fireplace Cleaning in Your Area
Fireplaces are composed of several parts – the foundation, the firebox, and the chimney. The portion that contains the fire is called the firebox. The firebox is specifically designed to handle the high heat of a continuously burning flame. In order to stay in good shape, the firebox is usually lined with bricks, special refractory bricks, or refractory panels. Even wood stoves are lined with brick material. These are not red-clay bricks found at a standard home improvement store – they are special firebricks. All our technicians carry a regular supply of these special fire-rated refractory bricks to reline degrading fireboxes.
West Chester, PA Chimney Sweeps
The core service of our business is the proper sweeping of chimneys. Oil burning furnace flues, gas furnace flues, pellet, and wood burning stove chimneys are all in our everyday work load. Oil and gas furnaces leave a residue that needs to be removed with a poly brush and then the interior surface neutralized so that the acidic nature of the byproducts of combustion do not deteriorate the interior of the chimney or the chimney liner. Annual Level 1 inspections are completed with every chimney sweep. All of our chimney sweepers are qualified by a third-party agency via a thorough training and testing process that leads to a Qualified Chimney Professionals credential. Whether it is the busy season of fall, or the beautiful summer time, our technicians are ready to help!
Greater Pennsylvania Chimney Repair
While at your home, our technicians are can evaluate and recommend numerous small chimney repairs, fireplaces updates, and water-resistant compounds that can enhance the performance of the chimney, or prevent rain from leaking in.
- Chimney repairs at the crown or top flue tile may need to be done.
- Possibly there is missing mortar in the firebox around the refractory fire bricks.
- Tuck-pointing might be required around the top of the chimney above the roof to help provide a properly sealed chimney.
Have a friendly and courteous Midtown Chimney Sweeps certified technician out to your house today to inspect the chimney and advise you on any work that might need to be done.
Fireplace Repair Near West Chester, PA
The fireplace is the lower portion of a chimney system, where the wood or gas is burning. The byproducts of combustion are carbon and sulfur and other particulates that rise on the hot air of the fire and cool and stick on the inside walls of the fireplace or chimney system. Regular sweeping removes this normal buildup. But sometimes the soot mixes with falling rain, especially when there is no chimney cap or top-sealing damper. That is why we recommend a chimney cap on every flue, and why we offer energy efficient top seal dampers!
Clothes Dryer Vent Cleaning in West Chester, PA
How many clothes dryer fires are there annually in the United States of America? Thousands of structure fires occur annually from defective or dirty clothes dryers and their associated vents.
The lint and debris blown out by your dryer every time you use the appliance is dry and often hot. If the lint combines with the high heat of the electrical element, together they could start a fire.
How Often Should the Dryer Vent Be Cleaned?
- Your clothes dryer’s exhaust pipe and dryer flex connector should be inspected and cleaned once a year.
- The area surrounding the vent should be visually inspected every 6 months to be sure there’s no damage to the flexible connector pipe. Tiny holes may develop in the flexible connector behind the clothes dryer causing dust (or monoxide if it is a gas-fired dryers) to enter the residence.
- Plastic flexible connectors are not code, and must be replaced with a UL Listed product.
Let the experts at Midtown Chimney and Dryer Vent Cleaning of Pennsylvania perform your dryer vent cleaning in the greater Kennett Square, PA area today!
Gas Fireplace Service in Pennsylvania
Many people do not know that gas fireplaces are required to be inspected annually per the manufacturer’s instructions. Although the inside of the chimney does not build up with black soot like a wood-burning fireplace does, there are still many safety related items that should be inspected.
We Fix Leaky Chimneys in West Chester, PA
A common chimney repair for our technicians is that of providing water protection on the exterior surfaces of the fireplace or chimney. We can fix leaky chimneys. Our suite of water-resistant membranes and coatings can be applied on moist surfaces and only 4 hours before a rainstorm.
- Crown Coat seals the top of a concrete and brick chimney with a rubberized barrier.
- Chimney Saver seals the moisture from entering the sides of brick and stone chimneys.
- Flash Seal repairs and strengthens the roof-to-chimney junction flashing area to keep out water.
Quick-drying and effective, our chimney protection and leak-fighting methods are gaining popularity from Seattle, Washington to Central Iowa, wherever the need arises. If your leaky chimney needs a repair, call our friendly staff and schedule a service call for a courteous Midtown Chimney Sweeps technician today!
Types of Chimney and Fireplace Inspections
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recognizes 3 levels of fireplace and chimney inspections. The three inspection levels increase in their thoroughness as the numbers increase.
- Level I Chimney Inspection
- This is your annual chimney inspection performed with every chimney sweep. Level 1 inspections satisfy the annual inspection requirement per NFPA 14.2. It is a thorough visual scan of all readily accessible portions of the chimney, appliance and connector pipes.
- Level II Chimney Camera Inspection
- This is a more invasive inspection that requires the technician to inspect all accessible portions of the chimney, appliance and flue. This is required for all real estate professionals and property managers who are managing a home sale or transaction. When a residence changes ownership the fuel type changes, or any structural damage has occurred to the home, a Level II Inspection should be ordered. A Level II inspection requires roof access, and a live scan video of the inside of the flue. The video camera inspection is helpful to the technician to identify debris, soot buildup, and damaged flue tiles or chimney pipes.
- Level III Chimney Construction Inspection
- This is the most invasive chimney inspection recognized by the NFPA 211. It requires the removal of bricks, drywall, or other building materials in order to allow the technician to gain access to the area that needs inspection. We do not quote these prices over the phone due to the unique nature of each job. So let’s start with a Level I chimney inspection and see if you need anything more than that first!
Proudly Serving These Pennsylvania Cities
When most people think Pennsylvania, “Amish” is the first thing that comes to mind, especially Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which is right next door to our Chester County, Pennsylvania. The Keystone State is home to many more Amish besides those in Lancaster, PA. We at Midtown Chimney Sweeps are proud to serve almost all of South-Eastern PA.
We are glad to serve the homeowners of West Chester, Pennsylvania, Chadds Ford, Concordville, Glen Mills, Greenbriar at Thornbury, Marshallton, Embreeville, Coatesville and South Coatesville, West Grove, Lincoln University, Morgantown, Intercourse, New Holland, PA, and everything in between!
The image above (“MarshallSquarePark_12” by Michael Napoleon) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
