Chimney and Stove Service in Payson, Utah

Payson sits where Utah Valley narrows and the mountains come down to meet it, with a canyon mouth right at the town's edge. It is further from the center of the valley than most of the places we work, the ground around it is drier and more open, and both of those turn up in the work.

Chimneys older than the fuel they were built for

Around the original town grid there is housing that is genuinely old rather than merely dated. Some of those stacks were laid for coal, in soft brick set with lime mortar that was deliberately made weaker than the brick around it. That is not a defect. Lime mortar is sacrificial by design. It gives, it weathers, and it is meant to be renewed every few decades while the brick itself carries on.

The damage gets done when somebody repoints one of those chimneys with a hard modern cement mix. Now the joints are stronger than the units they sit between, so when the wall moves with the seasons the brick faces spall off instead. We have taken down stacks that were sound right up until they were repaired. If yours is old, ask whoever quotes the job what mortar they intend to use, and treat a blank look as an answer.

How the fire is run matters more than how often

Wood is real heat for a good many households out here, and the usual pattern is a stove loaded and damped down for the night. Starving a fire of air makes it last until morning, and it also makes creosote faster than anything else a person can do on purpose. A few habits change the outcome:

• Burn it hot, then let it go out. A short bright fire leaves far less behind than a long smoldering one.
• Give the wood two summers, not one. Particularly anything split from green rounds.
• Keep a screened cap up top. With this much dry ground around town, the spark arrestor is doing a real job rather than a decorative one.