What to do before we visit
You have arranged for a chimney sweep soon and so will need to prepare the day or the morning before.
1) Make sure that your stove, fireplace and chimney has time to cool for at least 10 hours before we sweep it. Let it burn out at
9pm for a breakfast time sweep;
10pm for a morning sweep or
2am for an afternoon sweep.
If it has not cooled enough, we may not be able to get all the soot out. If it is too hot to safely sweep you will still be charged a call out fee.
2) Check your appointment time. You will not be able to light the fire until we have finished so if your appliance runs your central heating system, you should book a breakfast appointment which guarantees us to arrive before 9am. This will enable you to get the fire back on as quickly as possible. Contact us on office@chimneysweep.info if you need to alter the time of your appointment.
3) Check whether you have a bird guard or cowling attached to your chimney pot before and after our visit. If your chimney has been capped; please make sure that our engineer knows before sweeping. If you suspect yours is loose / of a push-fit design or would like one fitting, please speak with our engineer when he arrives.
4) Clear the area around the fireplace before we arrive so that we can easily access the fireplace and an electrical socket to plug in our vacuum cleaner. Remove any knick-knacks from the fireplace, away from the working area.
5) We will cover the fireplace and working area with dust sheets. We should not leave any dust/soot on your furniture after your sweep, but we advise covering expensive, white, or cream coloured furniture and carpet, just to be safe.
Please note that if your chimney is taller or wider than average or is blocked, we charge a little more if it takes longer to service than a regular sized fireplace and flue.
Removal of a bird’s nest may increase the cost of the service depending on how long it takes to remove.
We are unable to sweep a chimney with an active bird nest inside following the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. If you think you may have birds nesting or are seeing a lot of twigs dropping into your fireplace please let us know before our visit, as we may need to postpone until the birds have left the nest. We recommend fitting a bird guard to prevent birds nesting in your chimney or flue.
