Chimney Sweep in Dunwoody, GA

Chimney Sweep for Dunwoody Homeowners

Dunwoody's housing is dominated by two-storey building from the 1970s and 1980s, and the height changes the physics. A tall flue in a well-sealed house frequently has a draft problem rather than a dirt problem: the chimney is competing with kitchen and bathroom extraction in a house tight enough that air cannot easily replace what is being drawn out, and the fireplace loses. Homeowners read that as a dirty chimney and book a sweep, which sometimes helps and sometimes does not touch the real cause. We would rather diagnose it properly than clean a flue that was not the problem.

Tall two-storey 1970s-1980s flues in relatively tight houses; negative pressure and draft competition are as common as creosote.

Wood smoke cools as it climbs, and what condenses on the way out is creosote — a black, tarry residue that hardens into a fuel lining the inside of your flue. Past about an eighth of an inch it will carry a fire, and a flue fire moves through a chimney in seconds. Atlanta makes this worse in its own way: nobody here burns steadily for four months, we burn hard for a fortnight in January and then abandon the fireplace until Thanksgiving. Cold masonry, damp masonry, smouldering fires and unseasoned oak all lay creosote down faster than steady daily burning would. Sweeping is the one piece of maintenance that removes the fuel rather than managing it.