sweeping chimneys and making a fire....

[beanieb]

My OH has just swept the chimney in our house, the fireplace needs a grate etc which his brother is going to make for us. There are two blocked up fireplaces upstairs and another in our other downstairs room which is unblocked but not swept and not likely to be used.

Do we need to unblock these or can we just go ahead and get the downstairs fire done?

There are four chimneys in a row on the roof and smoke is only coming out of one.

I'd really pay for a one off visit from a chimney sweep cos they will be able to tell you with true certainty. Ours looked at things like the lining of the chimney as well and gave us a couple of handy hints. I pay £25 a year for him to come and check it out.

how much does that first visit cost roughly?

You definitely need to get a chimney sweeper out.

Probably costs in the region of £30, depending on where you are.

thank you

we used a proper chimney brush and loads of soot came out, no birds-nests or dear rodents thankfully.

Ours cost the same as normal visits which back then was £15. Gone up quite a lot in 10 years!

lol at 'dear rodents' do you think quite fondly of them then?

woops, I meand dead ones! ha ha

I agree that it is worth having hte chimney properly swept.
A friend went into her DS2's room a little while ago to find it full of smoke that had come through the chimney breast in his room when the fire downstairs was lit. They called the sweep about 5 mins later!

Our sweep charges £30 a time, flat rate.

erk, don't fancy that! I'll investigate. thank you

Tiger that happened to us when we tested our fire, it filled DD1's room with smoke. It also turned out that the previous owner of the house before us had put a flagstone over the chimney and blocked it, very dangerous indeed had we had a gas fire fitted. It wasn't until the chimney sweep (he is also a roofer) got on the roof that we noticed.

I would get it swept for insurance purposes, just in case something happens. We get a certificate from our sweep confirming everything is ok. If you had a chimney fire I would expect one of the first questions asked from an insurance company would be when was the chimney last swept and by whom!