Without realizing it, many homeowners make plenty of mistakes that put them and their families in great danger. For you to be safe, avoid doing these things as given by chimney contractors:

Using a chimney that hasn’t been cleaned or inspected

A recent US report on fires found that 59,000 of house fires resulted from heating equipment. Of these fires, 55% of them were as a result of using dirty or poorly maintained chimneys.

Chimney fires result from excessive creosote deposition. When you allow a lot of creosote to accumulate in your chimney, it catches fire, gutting down your property and even injuring your loved ones.

For you to avoid this, make a habit of cleaning the chimney once a year. You can do the cleaning by yourself if you have the skills or hire an expert to help out.

Many people have the notion that when they move to new houses, they don’t need to pay attention to the chimney. Far from this.

If other people were living in the house, chances are they didn’t clean the chimney before they vacated. It would be irresponsible of you to live in a house with a dirty chimney.

Even if the house is new and no one has ever lived there, the chances are that it has been in the market for a long time. Birds and animals might have built nests there. Even worse, they might have died there.

Dead birds and animals block the chimney flue preventing effective removal of carbon monoxide and other toxic gases.  Before you start using the chimney, ask a chimney technician to inspect the chimney and confirm there are no nests or dead animals.

Hiring any chimney sweep

Since the chimney sweep industry isn’t regulated, it’s an easy target for con artists.

Recently the office of the consumer affairs and business regulation published a report asking homeowners to be cautious when hiring chimney cleaning providers as con artists have inflated the market.

These fake cleaning scam bags pose as experts, and yet they aren’t. When they visit your home for inspections, they make false claims about expensive chimney repairs you need. Most of them receive your money and run.

Few will repair the chimney but will make the situation worse than it was.

You need to be ultra-cautious when looking for a chimney professional to clean or repair the chimney. To avoid falling in the wrong hands:

• Ensure the company you are looking to hire has an established business and a good reputation
• Check the better business bureau and see whether there is any information about the company
• Ensure the chimney technician is certified by the chimney safety institute of America (CSIA). This is an organization that serves as proof that someone has the necessary training and experience for the job.

Burning the wrong wood

Wooden chimneys are the most common in most homes. Homeowners love them as they give homes a warm, homely feel. While this is the case, out of ignorance or lack of knowledge, many homeowners burn the wrong wood.

This not only leads to a lousy fire experience, but it also makes the chimney accumulate a lot of creosote. For a great experience, burn wood that has cured or dried for at least six months. This wood burns faster, hotter, and doesn’t produce a lot of soot.

Ignoring minor problems

You might see the chimney smoking out of the ordinary, fire burning weirdly, among other problems, and ignore them. It’s these little issues that get worse, and you end up spending colossal amounts of money on repairs.

Regardless of how minor a problem is, ask a chimney cleaning services Columbia MD professional or any other expert to look into it and fix it.