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:
Comment by Jane: GOOD job, Bruce! You got er done J
I stand on the ground and take pictures...and pray hard!
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
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