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fi2—tmcaster Farming, Saturday, October 8,1983
Who's That Top-Hatted Gent
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
SEVEN VALLEYS - Don’t be
startled someday if you happen to
glance skyward and see a top
hatted figure perched atop a
neighborhood roof.
It’s not Superman in formal
attire, but more likely your local
chimney sweep.
A chimney sweep is a kind of
inexpensive insurance against a
seasonal hazard; chimney fires.
Just as sure as October’s foliage
turns to yellows and reds, so chilly
October evenings turn many
homeowners’ thoughts to
fireplaces and woodstoves. But
lurking behind the cheery orange
glow and pungent woodsmoke
scent is danger, in the form of a
tar-like deposit called creosote.
Creosote is formed by chemical
changes which occur when wood is
heated. Heat causes gases and tiny
liquid droplets of tar and water to
be released in smoke.
While wood begins chemically
breaking down at 500°F, the gases
that fuel a fire will ignite only if the
fire’s temperature is over 1100°F.
For maximum efficiency of
combustion, that high temperature
must be maintained.
Since wood burning is never
totally efficient, a certain per
centage of the fuel is lost in smoke.
Because chimney and stove pipe
surfaces are cooler than the fire,
the tars and gases in the smoke
condense on interior walls.
Rosalie Klein lends a hand as the ‘‘go-fer,” and as tool
assistant when Klein is working inside a fireplace interior.
Respirators help protect chimney sweeps from soot that can accumulate in lung
deposits, causing serious disease.
on the Roof?
That residue buildup, creosote,
is highly volatile.
That’s where chimney sweeps,
like Ken Klein come in.
Klein is by profession a
paramedic and former firefighter
for Baltimore County,’ Md. About
two years ago, while waiting in a
hospital for his son, he happened to
flip through a magazine and
spotted information on chimney
sweeping.
Having been considering star
ting his own business, and with
some experience of chimneys and
chimney fires from his firefighter
background, Klein figured
chimney sweeping might be just
the answer.
Armed with equipment that
included a commercial vacuum
cleaner, various sizes of ladders,
assorted stiff wire brushes, ex
tender rods, and miscellaneous
small cleaning tools, Klein offered
to clean the chimneys of his
friends, free, for the experience.
With that practical experience,
plus studying that he did on his
own, Klein began advertising his
sideline. Meanwhile, his friends,
now with clean chimneys, told
their friends, who told their
friends, and Mason-Dixon
Chimney Sweep, at Seven Valleys
R 2, was in business.
A protective tarp goes down first
when a chimney and fireplace or
woodstove is in line for a cleaning.
That protects carpets and floors
from the soot.
If the chimney is safely ac
cessible from the house roof, Klein,
wearing his top hat that is the
classic symbol of a chimney
sweep, heads up a ladder or TV
antenna tower. Using long handled
brushes, he can sweep the upper
portion of the chimney by reaching
down from the top. If a homeowner
prefers, a cover can be installed
that helps keep birds and debris
from falling down the flue.
Many chimneys can be cleaned
from the inside of the fireplace,
reaching up with extender rods on
the brushes. While that may be
safer than climbing about on the
roof, the creosote and soot brushed
down falls on the sweep crouching
in the fireplace interior.
Thus, the classic image of
chimney sweep, dusted and
smudged from head to foot with
soot, is fact.
Chimney sweeping is dirty work.
Rosalie Klein sometimes assists
her husband on the sweeping jobs,
helping to operate the vacumn
cleaner that whisks the soot away,
and handing him the necessary
tools as he works in the cramped
chimney spaces.
Smoke chambers and smoke
shelves are also carefully cleaned,
since soot and creosote builds up in
these spots, and the sides and
floors of fireplaces are brushed
and swept. Woodstove systems are
taken apart and thoroughly
brushed down.
“For fireplace burning, a
chimney should be cleaned
whenever the creosote buildup
reaches a quarter-inch thickness,”
says Klein. “Woodstoves or
fireplace inserts need cleaning at
least once or twice a year.
Stoves are more efficient fuel
users than fireplaces, but can coat
with residue very quickly if burned
at low levels. Low settings cause
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Sporting the top hat symbolic of chimney sweeps, Klein
heads up a ladder to perform the valuable service of helping
prevent chimney fires.
wood to burn more slowly, at
cooler temperatures, and cause
heavier deposits of creosote.
“A small, hot fire, burned at
least a half-hour or hour a day in a
woodstove, helps cut down on
creosote deposits/’ Klein
recommends. “But every wood
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out much of the flue from the rooftop, using long-handled wire
brushes with extender rods.
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stove system should still be
cleaned out at least annually.”
Burning green or wet wood also
causes heavier deposits of
creosote. Instead, wood should be
air dried, preferably outside.
One of Klein’s “horror” stories is
(Turn to Page B 4)
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