Pleasant Grove · Utah County
Sweeping Chimneys Across Pleasant Grove
Pleasant Grove is really two towns for our purposes. The original grid and the bench above it were built a century apart, and the chimneys tell us which one we are standing in before we open anything.
What we find in the older part of town
Around the original center, the housing is old enough that the chimney was structural and the fireplace was heat rather than decoration. Those stacks are brick, they are often tall relative to the roof, and a good number of them have been through more than one conversion: coal, then oil or gas, then in some cases back to a wood stove when somebody wanted the look. Each conversion left something behind. We find abandoned thimbles, flues that now serve nothing, and clay tile joints that opened decades ago.
Sweeping those is careful work rather than fast work. A brush sized wrong for an old flue will take mortar with it, and on a chimney with open joints there is a real question about whether it should be in service at all until it is lined. We photograph what we find and say so.
The bench homes, and a different set of problems
Up toward the mountain the housing is newer and the fireplaces are mostly factory-built: a steel firebox in a framed chase, venting through metal pipe. Those need a poly brush rather than a wire one, because wire scores the stainless liner and gives creosote a surface to hold onto. What we spend our time on in those houses is different too. The flue itself is often relatively clean, because these fireplaces get used a dozen times a winter, and the real findings are at the top: chase covers pooling water, terminations that have loosened, and caps that a season of weather has worked on.
Light use is not the same as no maintenance
The most common thing we hear on this side of the city is that the fireplace hardly gets used, so surely it does not need attention. Creosote is only one of the reasons to look at a chimney. Water, animals, storm damage, deteriorating components and a chase cover quietly rusting through all happen at exactly the same rate whether you light a fire or not. A once-a-year look at a lightly used chimney usually finds nothing in the flue and something at the top.
Either way, the visit runs the same: the opening sealed, a HEPA-filtered vacuum going the whole time, and photographs of the liner, the firebox and the crown or chase top when we are done.
Questions
Chimney Sweep in Pleasant Grove — common questions
We use our fireplace maybe five times a winter. Do we need it swept?
Possibly not swept, but it should still be looked at annually. Most of what goes wrong on a lightly used chimney is water and weather at the top, and none of that depends on how often you light a fire. We will tell you honestly if there is nothing to clean.
Our house is one of the older ones near the middle of town. Anything different about it?
Usually yes. Older chimneys here have often served several different appliances over their life and carry the leftovers of each conversion. We scan them rather than assume, because abandoned openings and separated tile joints are common and neither is visible from the room.
How long does a sweep take?
A straightforward single fireplace is usually about an hour, longer if there are multiple flues or if we find something that needs documenting. We would rather spend the extra twenty minutes photographing a defect properly than mention it in passing on the way out.
Do you need access to the roof?
For most chimneys yes, at least to look at the top. On a steep or icy roof we will use what access is safe and reschedule the rest rather than take a risk, and we will tell you which parts we were able to see.
Also in Pleasant Grove
Our other services here
Inspection Chimney Repair Fireplace Repair Installation Gas Fireplace Caps & Dampers Dryer Vents All Pleasant Grove services
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