Continuing this week with the theme of emergency call outs, I will be describing an incidence of a blocked chimney I cleared at a property in Glemsford. As can be observed from the photographs, the customer has a Hamlet 5 Multi-Fuel Stove and he was complaining about smoke coming from the stove into the room and that both his Carbon monoxide alarms had gone off. I noticed upon entering the room that the surrounding brick work of the fireplace above the stove, which was painted white, was stained black by smoke. I judged from this evidence and what the customer had told me, that his chimney was potentially blocked. I asked him about his burning practices, and he told me that in the evenings before he went to bed, he shut the stove down completely and let it smolder overnight. I explained to him at some length why this was far from best practice, describing how incomplete combustion through starving the fire of oxygen would lead to tar build up in his chimney and pollution being released into the atmosphere. I pointed out that this was probably the cause of the blockage in his chimney and I advised him regarding the correct use of his stove and optimum burning practices.

I found that he had managed to block the flue with a solid tar build up for the length of the flue from two and a half meters up the chimney right to the top. I removed this blockage using power sweeping equipment. I removed so much tar that I was able to fill an entire large heavy-duty waste sack with unburnt material. As can be observed in the second photograh the tar was solid and when broken up by the power sweeping equipment came out of the flue in large solid lumps. To ensure that the flue was completely clear of tar I checked the liner using my CCTV equipment and I concluded by completing a smoke test. The customer was happy that he was again able to use his appliance safely. I suggested if he was ever in doubt about what he was doing he could look at the ‘useful tips’ page on my website.