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Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The Dirty Job Done Again

One of the dirty jobs required each summer is cleaning the chimney, wind cap and wood stove. It is one of those jobs that I put off until I have worked up my courage to climb up the ladder 30+ feet to take the wind cap off. Since our house is A Frame construction that is almost a vertical climb. I wear a safety harness but none the less I can't attach the safety rope to the top of the ladder until I get to the top. Then I have to turn around facing out to reach the wind cap and there is nothing in front of me except air and my heels hooked on the ladder rung. I always give a sigh of relief when I make that climb and the wind cap having been cleaned is back up and in place.

 I can do the remainder of the cleaning from the ground but that climb is daunting to say the least. I've been doing it for 17 years so I have to guard from being over confident. The photo above is scaling the soot and creosote from the inside of the wind cap. Then I also have to run a wire brush up through the chimney from below to clean the chimney. Clean the wood stove which collects a lot of ash in its tight  spaces and put everything back together again.

It is always a relief to have this 2-3 hour job done each year because no matter how careful you are it is a dirty job. Now it won't be required again until next year. Whew!!!!!!!

3 comments:

Bruce said...

Comment by Jane: GOOD job, Bruce! You got er done J

Carol said...

I stand on the ground and take pictures...and pray hard!

Unknown said...

Bruce, what an entertaining item (read in Mother Jones) this week. I am linking it to our Chimney Safety Institute of America Facebook page. Can I ask a favor? We are a nonprofit that certifies chimney sweeps - have since 1983. Since there's no national or federal standard, we do have peer-driven ethics and education. Our certified sweeps are listed on csia.org and it's free and searchable by zip code. If you could add us, our 1,450+ chimney sweep population would appreciate it! Thanks -- Tom Spalding, CSIA, tspalding@csia.org and @spaldobusiness on twitter