Jarvis House Chimney Gets a Cleaning

The Jarvis House is getting ready for winter.  The chimney and wood burning stove need to be cleaned and readied.

Fortunately for us, Kevin Kepler is up to the challenge of climbing to the lower roof and cleaning out the chimney with our set of chimney brushes.

When you live in a house like this you need ladders,

and brushes.

And other ladders, and brushes that have extension poles at screw together as you clean the chimney.

You might need a Phillips head screwdriver to open the chimney cap.

As the brush goes down the chimney and is twisted to loosen the creosote from the flue, additional poles are added.

When the brush is finished down below, it is removed, unscrewing sections of the brush poles as it is pulled up from the chimney.

The cap is secured to the top of the stack.

The brush and the extension sections are gathered.

Now it is time to go inside the house and clean out the chimney from that direction, and the wood burning stove.

 This is a Great Northern stove unit that is inserted, following local codes, into the flue which was added to the rebuilt chimney in 1973.  The metal shield is leaning on the side of the stove.  It adds additional fire protection.

Kevin vacuums up the soot from the hearth

that  has fallen in from the outside cleaning.

 He cleans the rear opening of the stove where the stove pipe will be replaced.

The shop vac comes in handy and spares the Electrolux.

This is a piece of creosote that collected on a ledge in the chimney.  It is quite light and porous and can burn if not removed in a timely way.

There is a metal edge that he cleans with the hose nozzle.

He finds another piece.

Generally speaking, a wood burning stove heats up the fire to a higher degree than a fireplace, and burns off most of the matter in that way.  But it is a serious procedure and cleaning out the chimney should be done after each cord of wood is burned.  

Soot in the shop vac.

We vacuum up that hearth so that we can replace the stove and the stove pipe.

Kevin screws back

the metal shield.

After cleaning out the pipe, Kevin carefully begins to replace the pipe.

Inside the pipe section is the damper with the handle on the outside.  This regulates the air intake.

He attaches the elbow of the stove pipe.

He slides the stove back into position,

and adjusts the stove.

He tweaks the position a bit to make sure the stove is level.

The stove pipe is attached to the stove.

Checking it some more,

and again.  We take this stove cleaning very seriously.

Back in its spot, the wood burning stove is ready to be put to use on a chilly evening.  The Jarvis House has a natural gas/steam heating system.  The wood burning stove is a back up, just in case something goes wrong with the furnace. 

I had to add this picture of Dick Van Dyke as the chimney sweep in the film Mary Poppins.