This week I met a Flue Enemist.
An enemist ....da da der rada, an enemist da -da-da dar....tempting to hum along with the Muppets in my head....However there was something I discovered, something that, to put it dramatically could have made us all really ill or worse....
An Enemist, is a Chimney Sweep and I haven't had my chimney swept since one of my boys was about 4 and was asked by the Sweep to go int the garden and shout when he saw the brush appearing out of the Chimney. I hadn't had it swept because I had a gas fire fitted soon after that date and I didn't think you needed to get it swept unless you had a real fire.....
Fast forward to recent events. Last year we had intermittant problems with the ignition on the gas fire, some times it would light easily, other times it took some persuading. A few weeks back, we tried to light the fire on one particularly cold evening and it just wouldn't light. Ignition defunct. Time for someone to check it out and replace offending button.
Along came Gas engineer, yep ignition not responding, out comes gas fire, dead bird at base of chimney behind fire; plus loads of soot, mortar..... Hmm. Advised to get chimney swept first " fire probably done you a favour by not working".
This week we had the chimney swept. Apparently cobwebs can build a thick barrier within chimneys and prevent airflow, this combined with the fact that we don't have a cowl on the chimney (hence bird) twigs and nests can also be a problem. Large industrial vacumn cleaner sucked upwards in my chimney... The next day we no longer had condensation on our french windows, the next day our room stopped smelling damp....
Today the gas engineer (with whom I am now on first name terms) cleaned and replaced the fire in its original position. The ignition worked perfectly again and smoke was seen curling up from our chimney when he did the smoke test.
We have been advised to get a carbonmonoxide monitor which can sit on a shelf , plus of course sort the chimney out, which was in the plan anyway.
Hope this helps anyone else who, like me, would not have considered an Enemist......
da-da-da-der!
An enemist ....da da der rada, an enemist da -da-da dar....tempting to hum along with the Muppets in my head....However there was something I discovered, something that, to put it dramatically could have made us all really ill or worse....
An Enemist, is a Chimney Sweep and I haven't had my chimney swept since one of my boys was about 4 and was asked by the Sweep to go int the garden and shout when he saw the brush appearing out of the Chimney. I hadn't had it swept because I had a gas fire fitted soon after that date and I didn't think you needed to get it swept unless you had a real fire.....
Fast forward to recent events. Last year we had intermittant problems with the ignition on the gas fire, some times it would light easily, other times it took some persuading. A few weeks back, we tried to light the fire on one particularly cold evening and it just wouldn't light. Ignition defunct. Time for someone to check it out and replace offending button.
Along came Gas engineer, yep ignition not responding, out comes gas fire, dead bird at base of chimney behind fire; plus loads of soot, mortar..... Hmm. Advised to get chimney swept first " fire probably done you a favour by not working".
This week we had the chimney swept. Apparently cobwebs can build a thick barrier within chimneys and prevent airflow, this combined with the fact that we don't have a cowl on the chimney (hence bird) twigs and nests can also be a problem. Large industrial vacumn cleaner sucked upwards in my chimney... The next day we no longer had condensation on our french windows, the next day our room stopped smelling damp....
Today the gas engineer (with whom I am now on first name terms) cleaned and replaced the fire in its original position. The ignition worked perfectly again and smoke was seen curling up from our chimney when he did the smoke test.
We have been advised to get a carbonmonoxide monitor which can sit on a shelf , plus of course sort the chimney out, which was in the plan anyway.
Hope this helps anyone else who, like me, would not have considered an Enemist......
da-da-da-der!
