Stay on Top of Your Chimney Before it Topples Over

All of the ingredients that combine to create your chimney break down, away and fall apart altogether without regular attention and occasional repair. Making sure your chimney is up to snuff goes a long way in keeping your family safe from the threats of fire and other threats the emerge from an unkempt chimney. 

Guardian Chimney offers masonry repair in Essex County and surrounding towns. Many reasons call for masonry repair. It is wholly worth your while to pursue regular masonry check-ups for your chimney and/or fireplace made of stone or brick. 

Masonry fireplaces weigh quite a bit. They need extensive footing that can handle their weight and bulk. If problems exist within the footing, the bricks or stones will move, causing cracks in themselves and in the masonry. Any fire than can and will escape via these cracks and possibly set nearby combustibles such as trees or roofing. 

Permanently exposed to the outdoor elements, your chimney gets blasted daily by precipitation, temperature and wind. The chimney and its masonry will be in a position to always bear the brunt of these elements, making it likely that they will gradually succumb to the issues presented by severe weather. 

Do not get too worried, there are some measures you can take to ensure the life of your chimney by taking some simple steps. Call in the help of an expert chimney repair company such as Guardian Chimney—if and when you notice that the chimney needs some masonry repair. Issues like tuckpointing (“re-pointing”)—when professionals remove old mortar from between existing bricks and replace it with new mortar—and easily prevent the need for further masonry repair, or even having to replace the entire chimney.

Professionals also can pay your home a visit to look upon your chimney cap and conduct waterproofing. Both of these are crucial when it comes to keeping water and debris out of your chimney, waterproofing can help keep the interior metals within your chimney from rusting and needing repair or replacement. A chimney cap also contributes to the overall efficiency of the chimney, doing more than just keeping out water: it is an unintended means of denying access to birds and rodentia from nesting in your chimney or just calling it home. 

A little masonry repair will also protect your family and home from potential carbon monoxide poisoning. If cracks in masonry prevent effective venting from your fireplace, carbon monoxide will creep back into your home. Colorless and odorless, carbon monoxide getting may not be something you realize is happening before a worst case scenario can begin to unfold! 

Would you like to learn more about masonry repair in Essex County? Call Guardian Chimney at 1-888-688-1388 or you can contact us. 

The Reasons for Your Chimney Repair Can Be…

Guardian Chimney offers chimney repair for your Ft Lee and local areas home. We are often asked what types of chimney repair work we conduct most often. As per different repair work there is to do on a chimney, the answers are wide-ranging from masonry repair to eliminating the improper exit (and therefore entry into your home itself) of carbon monoxide. The following is a rundown of the most common types of chimney repair work we conduct.

·         Masonry: Your masonry erodes over time due to Mother Nature and all of the challenges found within the chimney itself. We can apply water repellant as a means to prevent this sort of chimney repair.

·         Rubble: Should you encounter materials that make up your chimney ending up at the bottom of the flue, this is indicative of a breakdown within the structure itself. Do not hesitate to call on Guardian Chimney to handle this repair.

·         Soot: When the smoke fumes from a fire don’t rise rapidly enough up the chimney, or if your flue is not wide enough to properly ventilate the fire, soot can build up. Installing a smoke guard in the flue can help the smoke get drawn up and out of the chimney better and more easily.

·         Carbon Monoxide: Carbon monoxide fumes are deadly in high doses. If you are unfortunate enough to find that your  carbon monoxide detector is being set off, get out right away. Be wary of the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, like strong headaches, dizziness, nausea, fainting and mental confusion. Call on us for chimney repair if you are experiencing problems with high levels of carbon monoxide.

·         Creosote: The gas emitted from burning wood combines and cools within the chimney and  creosote formation unfolds. A sticky, smelly tar-like substance that builds up to form blockages in your chimney, creosote’s presence requires chimney repair. Too much creosote within will create unpleasant odors, crumbling of chimney walls and may even ignite to cause a fire itself. Be sure to have your chimney cleaned regularly.

·         Crown: The chimney crown is prevents moisture from sneaking between the masonry and the flue lining. Crowns are often cracked due to the contraction and expansion of the metals within the chimney and its crown. Crown repairs are common and generally involve sealing it to ensure no further cracking and/or damage.

·         Flashing: Flashing keeps moisture from entering between the connection of your roof and  chimney, a popular cause of leakage. These types of chimney repairs are called for when the flashing begins to fall apart or if it was not rightly installed. Guardian Chimney has frequently waterproofed flashings to make sure it does not cause leaks anymore.

For more information on chimney repair in Fort Lee, call Guardian Chimney at 1-888-688-1388, or Contact Us.

The Origin of the Chimney Sweep and Chimney Cleaning

A chimney sweep is a worker who clears the ash and soot from your chimney. Over time with the build-up of creosote – and a lack of chimney cleaning – the chimney itself becomes a volatile location where the fire within the fireplace may ignite the accumulation and set it, and ultimately the building, ablaze. The sweep, essential to full functionality of the chimney, comes in with brushes to clear them out. If your Hackensack home needs a chimney cleaning, look no further than Guardian Chimney.

The chimney became all the rage in 16^th century England, so much so that they tended to be placed in every room of the home. The 17^th century brought about the Hearth Tax (based on house size and number of chimneys a house had) which homeowners sought to avoid. Builders of the day would connect the multiple flues stemming from the multiple chimneys in a complex maze of tunnels inside the home, making chimney cleaning a more difficult task. Simultaneously, coal became a popular source of fuel for the fires, as such, sweeping became a more sought after commodity. Without regular cleaning, coal’s sticky soot deposits would clog flues and pollute the home itself with fumes. Queen Victoria mandated that all chimneys must be cleaned regularly and the chimney sweep began to be associated with the idea of bringing clean and fresh air back to the home. They became associated with good hearth and good health.

During the Industrial Revolution, an urban housing explosion (people, not via fireplace) occurred across the western world, and the number of chimneys grew vastly with it, creating quite a demand for chimney cleaning and a new level of job security for the sweeper.

Buildings became taller and chimneys more complex, grouped together on the roof of multi-unit dwellings. Often containing more than two right angles with both vertical and horizontal angled sections, the flues and their grates were substantially more difficult to keep clean than in standard straight chimneys. Chimney cleaning and the job of the chimney sweep were looked upon as very dangerous. Even with the high-risk job, chimney sweeps were not paid well amongst other tradesmen of the time.

Today’s chimney sweep has studied local codes and scientific functioning with regard to chimneys. Chimney sweeps diagnose and ultimately service what they find within a chimney, making repairs and installations. The chimney sweep remains an important profession that will continue on. These respected professionals help homeowners and businesses maintain safe operation of their chimneys. Our chimney sweep is certified, licensed or organized in: 

•         National Chimney Sweep Guild
•         Chimney Safety Institute of America
•         National Fire Protection Agency
•         NJ Division of Consumer Affairs
•         Better Business Bureau

For more information on chimney cleaning in Hackensack, call Guardian Chimney at 888-688-1388 or contact us to Schedule an Appointment.