Diy chimney sweeping
- Thread starter Jamouk
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Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
Just keep twisting clockwise as you rod... Father drilled that into me as soon as he handed me the set of rods when I was 12 to sweep the chimney... if you lose the brush up the flue you'll have to climb up on the roof and drop a brick down on a rope he said...
it happened once 
Had considered the cert aspect ! May send one of my guys on the course looks easy enough !
Always sweep from the top down,with the bottom sealed of if it’s a stove take the throat plate out and close all the vents and the door to let all the soot fall inside the stove,then sweep in an up and down motion (you will feel when it’s clean )then open the vents for a few minutes before opening the doors,I always think that when a chimney is swept from the bottom the person doing the job looks like someone of the black and white minstrels show,w
A couple of pages from the daily rag lit and stuck up to the lum with a good draught job done and as plus you can go outside and watch the display.
WH308
Well-Known Member
The guy who fitted my log burner told me a grate (see what I did there..) tale.
“I fitted a stove for one of your elderly farmer neighbours once. I said to him before we line the chimney, get it swept really well as it’s best for the job and makes less mess in the front room. When I got there to do the job the chimney was like new, not a bit of soot or mess to be seen. Wow, you’ve done a good job on this, what did you do?”
“Well says the farmer, it turns out the chimney is the same size a the slurry tanker pipe. So I backed the tanker up to the window when the missus was out, shoved the pipe up the chimney and set the tanker to suck. Then I climbed on the roof and brushed the chimney”
“I fitted a stove for one of your elderly farmer neighbours once. I said to him before we line the chimney, get it swept really well as it’s best for the job and makes less mess in the front room. When I got there to do the job the chimney was like new, not a bit of soot or mess to be seen. Wow, you’ve done a good job on this, what did you do?”
“Well says the farmer, it turns out the chimney is the same size a the slurry tanker pipe. So I backed the tanker up to the window when the missus was out, shoved the pipe up the chimney and set the tanker to suck. Then I climbed on the roof and brushed the chimney”
Fosbery Holster
Well-Known Member
Not to digress from the original post…….another friend’s father, a farmer, was asked to empty a septic tank and he went along with his tractor and slurry tanker, now this farmer wasn’t the sharpest chisel in the bag, he dropped the slurry tanker pipe into the septic tank and set the tanker in motion but instead of sucking he set it to blow the result was every toilet in the house exploded with excrement and slurry……..resulting in a very expensive cleanup for the farmer.
So the moral of the story is suck don’t blow !!
So the moral of the story is suck don’t blow !!
doing your own is great , right until you mess up and fill your own home with soot or have to claim on a chimney fire . Most honest sweeps will tell you they have had an odd disaster , but at least they have insurance and its not their Mrs given them grief for months on end eh ? LOL
Smellydog
Well-Known Member
Cold wet windy night. I put a paper bag up the chimney and light it. Been doing that for years.
Last spring I got a professional in.
When I told him they have not been cleaned for over a decade he frowned and said he may not be able to do both today.....an hour later both were done and hardly two carrier bags of soot!
Last spring I got a professional in.
When I told him they have not been cleaned for over a decade he frowned and said he may not be able to do both today.....an hour later both were done and hardly two carrier bags of soot!
Not so good if you've got a chimney top cowlI just get the biggest firework rocket I can find and fire it up the chimney works a treat best done at night for full effect
Have always swept from the top down, section of plywood to fit hearth opening and tape up with masking tape, prop grate against it at an angle, (just in case) 
Up on the roof and sit on the stack and rods and brush down and back up twice, turning clockwise.
Many Years ago when I was serving my time with an old chap from Caithness he told me that when he was a "loon" and stayed up a glen between Helmsdale and Lybster he used to lend a hand to the estates he worked on. (would have been in the late 1940s)
Anyway this day he was dispatched to Dunbeath Castle with an old chap who was going to sweep a chimney.
They arrived at the castle and were shown to the room that had the chimney needing swept. The old chap said in a broad Caithness accent, "will ye go out there loon and gie me a shout when the brush comes oot the lum and come in here to let me know"
Out he goes and up the bank at the back of the castle sitting there for a good few minutes and gazing up at the cans on the roof. A few more minutes passed and still nothing and the old chap appears shouting "anything there yet loon?" "No" he replied.
The old chap disappeared again and he continued watching for another while.
The old chap comes out again and up the bank thinking he was not seeing the brush or taking the mickey and half expecting to see a brush and rods sticking yards out the top.
Still nothing. "Ok I'll try a few more rods but it is hard going" Away he goes and another 10 minutes passed and he was out again.
Still nothing to be seen. Lots of head scratching and the old chap said, we'd better go inside for a look.
Off they went inside and ended up in a room a couple of floors above the room the old chap was sweeping.
By this time in the story the old chap I served my time with was near bent over double in hysterics
He recovered after a bit and said that the brush and rods had pushed a grill/hatch off the wall in the room 2 floors up and he (with arms waving about, this way and that) was describing how the brush and rods had left very little of the room unscathed.
The room had some historical significance apparently as some dignitary had stayed there in the past
I still have a laugh if I am down by the harbour in Dunbeath looking across to the castle.
Cheers
Up on the roof and sit on the stack and rods and brush down and back up twice, turning clockwise.
Many Years ago when I was serving my time with an old chap from Caithness he told me that when he was a "loon" and stayed up a glen between Helmsdale and Lybster he used to lend a hand to the estates he worked on. (would have been in the late 1940s)
Anyway this day he was dispatched to Dunbeath Castle with an old chap who was going to sweep a chimney.
They arrived at the castle and were shown to the room that had the chimney needing swept. The old chap said in a broad Caithness accent, "will ye go out there loon and gie me a shout when the brush comes oot the lum and come in here to let me know"
Out he goes and up the bank at the back of the castle sitting there for a good few minutes and gazing up at the cans on the roof. A few more minutes passed and still nothing and the old chap appears shouting "anything there yet loon?" "No" he replied.
The old chap disappeared again and he continued watching for another while.
The old chap comes out again and up the bank thinking he was not seeing the brush or taking the mickey and half expecting to see a brush and rods sticking yards out the top.
Still nothing. "Ok I'll try a few more rods but it is hard going" Away he goes and another 10 minutes passed and he was out again.
Still nothing to be seen. Lots of head scratching and the old chap said, we'd better go inside for a look.
Off they went inside and ended up in a room a couple of floors above the room the old chap was sweeping.
By this time in the story the old chap I served my time with was near bent over double in hysterics
He recovered after a bit and said that the brush and rods had pushed a grill/hatch off the wall in the room 2 floors up and he (with arms waving about, this way and that) was describing how the brush and rods had left very little of the room unscathed.
The room had some historical significance apparently as some dignitary had stayed there in the past
I still have a laugh if I am down by the harbour in Dunbeath looking across to the castle.
Cheers
Re sweeping from the top down. Scandinavian sweeps have such a high cancer rate due to this they are now starting to sweep from the bottom up.
As to getting rods stuck. I refused to go out to DIY disasters when I was a chimney sweep.
As to getting rods stuck. I refused to go out to DIY disasters when I was a chimney sweep.
Something to think about indeed, all the dust flying about, usually upwards with the draught from the chimney.
Cheers
Bavarianbrit
Well-Known Member
The law over here in Germany is to get it done by a professional once a year it is a forced job creator imo but it stops the tightwads from causing house fires, there is even a sweeps training school run by the Bavarian authorities near to me, maybe 100 plus cars are in the car park as I drove past it yesterday.
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K
K
enfieldspares
Well-Known Member
As a child at the bag of the garage for my parent's house was a double stacked row of bag after bag of soot from when the chimneys were swept. With almost the same number of bags of lime. It was a big garden of about an acre. Odd thing is that when the house was sold those bags of soot were still there! They were kept to be used on the garden but never ever were. The lime was. But I never remember the soot being used. Or if they were not much ever was used.
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