Buying a house with a fireplace: what to ask before closing
A home inspector will flag a chimney rather than assess it. Here is what to ask, and why a Level 2 inspection before closing beats one after.
Rick Lee
Rick Lee is the owner and lead chimney sweep at Zenith Chimney Service in Geneva, Illinois. He has worked in the chimney trade for 19 years and runs the company with his two brothers, Jack and Andy.
White chalky streaks on your chimney: what they mean
Efflorescence is harmless salt deposit. What it tells you is that water is moving through your masonry, and that is worth acting on.
Why your fireplace smokes in a well-insulated house
Smoke rolling into the room is not always a blocked flue. In a tightly sealed house the fire simply cannot get enough replacement air.
Why a new furnace can quietly wreck an old chimney
High-efficiency furnaces produce cooler, wetter exhaust. In an unchanged flue that condenses into acid and eats the chimney from the inside for years.
Something is living in your chimney. What now?
Scratching in the flue is common on wooded lots. What to do, what not to do, and why capping immediately is sometimes the wrong answer.
What an unlined chimney actually means
Plenty of older Elgin chimneys were built with no liner at all. Here is what the liner does, why its absence matters, and what the realistic fix is.
Black soot on gas fireplace glass is a warning, not a cleaning job
A correctly burning gas fireplace should not deposit soot. If yours does, the appliance is burning incompletely, and that is the same condition that produces carbon monoxide.
The three stages of creosote, and which one is dangerous
Not all creosote is equal. Stage one brushes off; stage three is fuel welded to your flue. Here is how to tell them apart from the hearth.
Why chimney caps pay for themselves
A cap is one of the least expensive parts of a chimney and prevents four separate expensive problems. Here is what an open flue actually costs you.
Why your wood stove insert may be venting wrong
An insert vented into a large open masonry flue is a common installation error that causes poor draft, heavy creosote and hard-to-diagnose smoke problems.