Chimney sweep and inspection
Annual · typically August–September
Why it matters
If you burned wood last winter, your flue has creosote in it — that's not a maybe, it's chemistry. The only questions are how much and what stage.
One more thing your climate does: freeze-thaw cycles work on chimney masonry from the outside — around 60–120 freeze days a year prying at every mortar joint and the crown. The inspection covers that too; a $300 crown seal now beats a $4,000 rebuild later. Book in late summer — every sweep in town is slammed from October through January, and you want this done before the first cold night, not discovered undone on it.
What skipping it costs
$0–$30,000
Creosote — the tar your fires leave in the flue — is fuel, sitting in a chimney waiting for a spark. The US logs over 20,000 chimney fires a year; the quiet ones crack the flue so the NEXT fire reaches the house framing. A sweep is $200. A chimney fire that gets into the walls starts around $30,000, and that's when everyone gets out fine.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Flashlight, Phone camera, Fireplace shovel.
The sweep itself isn't your job, but the ownership part is:
- Empty the firebox of ash once cooled (leave an inch — it insulates the next fire's coals). Ash goes in a metal can with a lid, outside, away from the house — never a plastic bin or paper bag. "Cold" ashes start fires days later.
- Before the season's first fire, open the damper and shine a light up: you should see daylight or clean flue, not shaggy black buildup or a bird's nest.
- Shine the light on the firebox walls — cracked firebrick or gaps in mortar joints are worth mentioning to the sweep.
- Outside, eyeball the chimney: white staining (efflorescence — moisture moving through masonry), missing mortar, or a tilted/missing rain cap.
- Check your smoke and CO detectors — a fireplace house runs on working detectors.
Hire it out
$150–$350National fair range — local labor moves this number.
A sweep with a Level 1 inspection runs $150–$350 and takes about an hour; good outfits show you before/after photos of your flue without being asked. CSIA certification is the filter — it thins out the coupon-and-scare operators fast.
The economics of the scare: sweeping pays the truck's gas money, relining pays the mortgage, so the incentive to find relining work is structural. Real reline triggers exist — cracked tiles after a chimney fire, gaps a camera can show you, an unlined old flue — but every one of them photographs. No photos of your actual flue, no check. And if a tech finds stage-3 glazed creosote, that's legitimate — expect a second visit with different chemistry and a couple hundred more, not a $6,000 emergency.
Ask the tech
- Is this a Level 1 inspection with the sweep, and will I get photos or video of the flue?
- Are you CSIA-certified? (Chimney Safety Institute of America — the credential that actually means something.)
- How much creosote came out, and what stage was it? (Stage 1 is powdery and normal; stage 3 is glazed and serious.)
Red flags you're being upsold
- A 'your chimney could burn your house down tonight' pitch with a $5,000+ relining quote on the first visit. Relining is real work that's really needed sometimes — and it's also the industry's signature scare-sell.
- Coupon companies ($49 sweep!) whose techs reliably discover four-figure emergencies. The coupon is the fishing lure.
- Any major repair quote without photo or video evidence from inside YOUR flue.
Second opinion time: Every relining or rebuild quote, no exceptions — it's a $3,000–$7,000 decision and honest sweeps expect you to verify. A second Level 2 inspection costs ~$150–400 and settles it.
The call
Hire this one — sweeping is genuinely a pro job with pro brushes and a camera. Your DIY role is the ash cleanout and knowing enough to smell a scare-sell.