Some questions for those with a fireplace in their home...

[Anonymous]

Okay, so my new (well, new to me, it's almost 100 years old) house has a fireplace. I want to have it cleaned this summer so it's ready to use by fall/winter.  However, I haven't a clue what this entails and approximately what it would cost to do so.

Anyone able to give me a rough idea of what to expect costwise and if this is a big to do (i.e. need to clear furniture from room, how long it takes, etc.).

Thanks much.

[fishbjc]

Use the wood for one season, then switch to gas.  Wood is so expensive & the house stinks afterward.

I don't know how much it would cost to have a Chimney Sweet come out though.  On the safe side, definitely get it checked out.

Where are the pix of This Old House??????????  I really enjoy old houses.  New homes just suck.

[Anonymous]

A regular open fireplace will cost anywhere from $80 - $200.  If the shape of the flue is irregular or if there is a really bad creasote build up or if they do a camera inspection the price can double.

If you go to this website you can find registered chimney sweeps in your area (they have all their safety qualifications and stuff)

http://www.csia.org/

I have had it cost as little as $90 in one house and as much as $350 in another *sigh* but the people who came out were always great

[Anonymous]

Great..... Now you all know which song I have stuck in my head, right?

Chim Chimney Chim Chim Chimney Chim Chim Cherooo....

[Anonymous]

We use our fireplace all the time and have it cleaned every September for about 100.00. I highly recommend this because they look for any problems with the chimney and caps etc.

[haulingthescoreup]

The first time we had ours cleaned, it was about $200, because the previous owners had never cleaned it, and it was full of creosote. Follow-ups have been $100 - 120, something like that.

All our sweeps have been great. As this is East Tennessee, they wear bib overalls with a top hat, which I think is pretty dang special. They take care to keep the inside of the house clean, but as a precaution (and to make it easier on them), I moved all the furniture and odds and ends away from the fireplace. If you have a lot of white stuff, you might want to cover it, but our guys bring their own covers.

[MattH]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
We use our fireplace all the time and have it cleaned every September for about 100.00. I highly recommend this because they look for any problems with the chimney and caps etc.

---

In some communities, if the Fire Department has to put out a chimney fire they will fine the homeowner because a chimney fire usually means it wasn't maintained.

[Anonymous]

Wow, you guys are great. I just remembered I had posted about this and came back to look and lots of replies. Thanks.

Pricewise, since there seems to be some variation depending on how dirty it is, I expect that this first time will be on the higher end. Even though I know nothing about having a fireplace there was leftover crap in the fireplace which included circulars from the Sunday newspaper, etc. (and I'm not talking a little bit, it looked like half a darn paper was in there when we cleaned it out). I'm not sure what a normal fireplace looks like after a bit of use but there is a decent amount of creosote inside from what I can see. Our home inspector was pretty darn thorough though and he said all looked pretty well and to just have it cleaned. 

I'll be sure to take care of it, fiance used to be a volunteer firefighter and cousin is a firefighter...

Oh, here's one pic of the house.I'll post more, but we have it torn up right now. 

It had laminate floors in the living room which we ripped out to replace with hardwood. After removing the laminate and 2 subfloors (yep, two, one with cement on it too!) we discover the original hardwood floors. Talk about heartbreaking. I'm the type to salvage anything old just to keep the old charm and character of the house. In fact, I spent 4 hours removing paint from an old brass doorknob on 5 panel closet door in our bedroom because I just HAD to save it. LOL.  But, these floors were pretty bad. The paint and glue/liquid nails all over it could have probably been sanded off, but there were two subfloors worth of nail holes going through it and even if we patched the holes we figured it would have likely looked pretty bad. So, we put in new floor. I'm still sad over it though. 

We also spent the entire weekend landscaping. Or rather, moving, edging, weedwacking, ripping up old landscaping fabric that ran halfway through the front lawn, raking leaves, trimming hedges, etc. That was done AFTER this picture. We've only been in for 4 weeks and right now only on weekends until my son is out of school. So, things are moving slower than I'd like.

Chim-chim, cher-ee!

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 05-18-2009 10:24 PM

[Anonymous]

Suzyq, thanks for the link. It's great.

Argh, Fish, the house is gonna stink? Hope it doesn't stink up my new couch!

Message Edited by UpUpUp on 05-18-2009 10:30 PM

[Anonymous]

Your house is beautiful...........If they only had victorians in my area that I could afford.

I suggest, cleaning it about $100 to $120 for the quotes the old homeowners got that I wanted..........

Then switch to gas.........conversion probably less than $1,200 in your area since I assume it gets cold.