Salt Lake City · Salt Lake County
Sweeping Century-Old Chimneys in Salt Lake City
A chimney built in this city before the war was designed around a fuel nobody burns anymore. That single fact explains most of what we find inside them.
Coal was the heating fuel here for a long time, and it left its mark on how houses were built. Chimneys were tall, they were often built with more than one flue in a single stack, and the flue itself was frequently just the inside face of the brickwork with no clay tile at all. Coal soot is fine, dry and largely non-combustible, so a rough unlined shaft was an acceptable place to send it.
Why that matters when you burn wood in one
Wood smoke behaves nothing like coal smoke. It carries tars that condense on any cool surface, and a rough, porous brick interior gives that condensate far more surface to grab and far more texture to hold onto than a smooth tile liner would. The deposit also soaks into the brick rather than sitting on it, which is why an old unlined flue can smell of smoke long after it has been swept and why it never quite looks clean.
Sweeping one properly means accepting what it is. We remove what is removable, we document what is embedded, and we tell you honestly if you have reached the point where the flue needs lining rather than cleaning.
Knowing which flue is which
Stacks in the older Salt Lake City neighborhoods regularly carry two, three or four flues side by side, serving fireplaces on different floors and appliances that may or may not still exist. Before anything gets swept we establish which flue serves what, because sweeping a flue that turns out to be connected to a furnace, or missing a fireplace flue entirely because it shares a stack with three others, is a straightforward way to do a useless job well.
The visit
Opening sealed, HEPA vacuum running throughout, drop protection on floors that are usually original, sweep from the firebox through the smoke chamber and up the flue, then photographs of what we found. In houses of this age we pay particular attention to the smoke chamber and the first several feet above it, because that is where deteriorated mortar shows up first.
Frequency
Annually for regular burners. For an unlined flue we would rather see it every year regardless of use, because on those chimneys the condition of the masonry is the thing being monitored and the sweeping is almost secondary.
Questions
Chimney Sweep in Salt Lake City — common questions
Our chimney has never had a liner. Is it safe to use?
Possibly, and it needs a camera inspection before anyone tells you either way. Unlined masonry is common in older Salt Lake City houses and some of it is in sound condition. What rules it out is deteriorated mortar between the brick, gaps into an adjacent flue, or missing clearance to framing.
Why does our chimney smell of smoke even after sweeping?
Because in an unlined flue the residue has soaked into porous brick rather than sitting on the surface, so removing the loose material does not remove the source. A top-sealing damper cuts off the airflow that carries the smell into the room, and lining the flue addresses it properly.
There are several flues in our chimney. Do they all need sweeping?
Only the ones in use, but all of them need identifying. We work out what each flue serves before starting, because abandoned flues and flues connected to other appliances turn up regularly in stacks of this age and they change what the sweep should cover.
We burn only in the shoulder seasons. Does that change anything?
It usually means milder fires, which sounds better and is not. Cool fires in a tall old flue deposit more per fire than hot ones, so light seasonal use in a century-old chimney does not buy you as long an interval as people expect.
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Inspection Chimney Repair Fireplace Repair Installation Gas Fireplace Caps & Dampers Dryer Vents All Salt Lake City services
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