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When wintertime rolls around, you want to do whatever it takes to create a warm, comfortable home, which is why a wood burning fireplace is so beneficial. This type of fireplace can keep your home warm for hours while creating a cozy, inviting environment. A wood burning fireplace is convenient and extremely efficient but to ensure safety of your home and family must be maintained properly.
For starters, if you have recently purchased a home that features a wood burning fireplace, you should make a small investment to have it checked for any defects. With this, a professional would look at the connections, vent, and every aspect of the wood burning fireplace to ensure that when you light your first fire you have nothing to fear. In addition, you want to get the most heat out of your wood burning fireplace, which is why the safety check is essential. Some of the things the professional would check with your wood burning fireplace include the chimney caps. For this, the cap is fitted with wire mesh on the sides, covering the hold at the top of the chimney, which helps keep animals such as raccoons and birds out. The chimney cap also blocks rain from coming into the home. If there is damage to this part of the wood burning fireplace, chances are the professional would recommend it be replaced since the part is inexpensive. The masonry chimney for the wood burning fireplace should also be checked. For this, the individual would check the outer mortar in between the stone or bricks to make sure it is intact and not crumbled or damaged. In addition, a flashlight would be shown down the chimney on the inside, again checking for any type of damage. If the chimney were metal, the inspector would look for things such as missing screws, rusted metal, rusted out areas, and so on. One of the most important things to check for when it comes to a wood burning fireplace or any fireplace for that matter is creosote. This flammable substance is the product of too much smoke in the chimney, which builds up becoming hard, dark, and crusty. Unfortunately, when creosote lines the chimney, it becomes combustible, meaning that while you are enjoying a fire in the wood burning fireplace, you could experience a dangerous fire. Therefore, the creosote must be removed to prevent this type of danger. Next, the inspection of your wood burning fireplace would include checking for soot, which is a flammable deposit. Although dark like creosote, it is also softer. In most cases, once the soot accumulates to one-eighth of an inch, it would need to be cleaned. Then, creosote glaze is another problem that might be found. In this case, the substance is also flammable but looks like shiny tar. The challenge in this case is that the glaze is difficult to remove. As you can see, having a wood burning fireplace is a wonderful thing but if not maintained properly, it could present a serious risk. |
