Chimney Sweep Survey - Who Cleans Who Hires?

[woodjack]

$175 for a self employed person- drives to your house (15 mins) does the job (20 mins) drives to the next job (10 mins), subtract insurance (!!), vehicle expenses, wear and tear on tools, time and money spent advertising, power-heat-rent for a shop if they have one, the fact that they may or may not have 8h of actual time at a customer site in a day, risk of climbing ladders all day, the fact that they know what they're doing (we hope) so that they do it right and faster than you might...

Sorry about that- I just know contractors, and what you pay covers a lot more than the time of the job. OK- $175 still sounds a bit steep, but if it was after lunch then the guy may have a few drinkiepoos in him- and the risk part goes up

This is true, except that he sent his $10/hour, eighteen year old worker to do the job. Nice guy, good job, but this season I'll pay someone in the family - me.

 

[woodjack]

Don't get me wrong, my guy is a real professional too.

 

[N/A N/A]

Removing the cap took the longest.

When I was up on my roof at the end of last season to sweep the chimney I couldn't get my cap off. It appears that some creosote may have solidified between where the cap seats to the top of the flue pipe. I'll be needing to get that cap off. I was thinking of using a hand-held propane torch to heat the area around the cap. Do you folks think that will work?

Thats what I would try. Even to this day, I cant get my cap back on correctly. To much build-up. I can get it back on well enough to do the job. Its only the cap and it has weathered some good wind storms so far with no issues. Its now easy to get off so I dont see the need to mess with it further.

 

[fossil]

Don't get me wrong, my guy is a real professional too.

There are brushes and rods available which are much easier to handle than that particular model. Rick

 

[Jags]

Don't get me wrong, my guy is a real professional too.

I don't know if that would be considered a top to bottom cleaning or a bottom to top??

 

[myzamboni]

Removing the cap took the longest.

When I was up on my roof at the end of last season to sweep the chimney I couldn't get my cap off. It appears that some creosote may have solidified between where the cap seats to the top of the flue pipe. I'll be needing to get that cap off. I was thinking of using a hand-held propane torch to heat the area around the cap. Do you folks think that will work?

Have you tried a rubber mallet?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

My guys put 2 sheet metal screws through mine- had to climb back down and get a vice grips.

Make sure they didn't hack it somehow like that.

 

[fossil]

Dunno what kind of pipe you got, or how it's sectioned, so I'll just throw this out there for what (if anything) it's worth. When I swept my shop stove chimney (Simpson Dura Vent), I found the cap was reluctant to unlock...but that the top 18" section of chimney pipe was quite cooperative. So, I just took the whole thing down and cleaned it all up on the ground, which actually made it a lot easier to complete the rest of the sweeping anyway. Rick

 

[isuphipsi1052]

Have you tried a rubber mallet?

In fact I did. Beat the crap out of it, and it wouldn't budge. That's why I'm thinking the best way to go is to heat it up.

 

[unit40]

I have made quite a few calls to chimney sweeps in the past couple of weeks. Not ONE has called me back