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When Animals Live in Your Chimney

Animals in Chimney

There is nothing cute or cuddly about animals in chimneys. Thankfully, the vast majority of homeowners realize that, even if they are not fully aware of the danger that animal intrusions pose to a fireplace system. Unfortunately, too many undertake the removal of animals from their chimneys themselves, placing themselves in harm’s way and often inadvertently causing more damage.

Removing Animals from your Chimney - Ann Arbor MI - Clean Sweeps

Removing Animals from your Chimney – Ann Arbor MI – Clean Sweeps

A Difficult and Dangerous Position to Be In

Extracting a live animal from a place like a chimney, where it is completely cornered and surrounded, is extremely difficult and dangerous. Removing a dead one, along with associated debris, droppings, and snagged tufts of fur, is difficult and altogether unpleasant. Both are difficult and both are hazardous for your chimney as well if you do not know what you are doing.

Animal extraction for chimneys should always be handled by certified chimney professionals. If the animal is alive, its humane handling is guaranteed and all involved are less likely to be injured. Homeowners worried about what happens after removal can relax as well, because animals not ready to be released back into the wild are first taken to vets or local shelters.

Concern for the animals in their chimneys is often the reason homeowners do not call for professional help. Certified chimney sweeps, however, are specifically skilled in this, have experience and love animals as much as you do! Furthermore, they are highly trained to examine the condition of your chimney once the animal has been removed, and this is critical.

Now the Animal is Gone, What Now?

The same claws that can scratch you up so badly may have done the same thing to the interior of your chimney. Even the animal’s movement and tight turns in such a small space could have damaged your flue. Extracting the animal – dead or alive – is first. After that, a professional sweep can inspect if any impairment was caused by the animal and what can be done to restore maximum safety and efficiency to your chimney.

Proper Chimney Care

Worth being clear about, proper chimney maintenance involves:

Proper Chimney Care - Ann Arbor MI - Clean Sweeps of MI

  • the fireplace
  • the flue liner
  • the mortar
  • the chase
  • the crown
  • the flashing
  • the cap
  • the whole kit and caboodle

The entire system has to be kept clean, in largely undamaged condition, and up to speed with current codes. It is not a simple task, and it is one that homeowners are absolutely advised to turn over to CSIA certified chimney sweeps. Critical to home safety, proper chimney care is worth every penny, and most homeowners are surprised by how few it takes.

Chimneys are significant expenditures in any budget they fit into, and repairs and replacements can be costly. When labor alone can run from $60 to $150 per linear foot, even pre-fab components and above-roofline work gets expensive. Maintaining chimneys properly is well worth the amount spent by home owners on the regularly scheduled services of chimney sweeps.

Chimney Inspections

If a clean chimney in good condition were not essential to home safety, homeowners could let it slide. As it is, though, chimney fires account for too many house fires, and poor draft accounts for too much carbon monoxide poisoning. Regular inspections of chimneys by qualified professionals plays a huge part in their proper maintenance and safe use.

It is often the inability to inspect the condition of the flue liner or the cause of warping that gives away an incompetent sweep. In all likelihood, virtually anyone can be simply trained to just “sweep” the chimney, but it is the experience and expertise of a professional that enables them to quite a bit more than just the tedious task of cleaning a chimney. Responsible homeowners need to find a certified sweep to handle both the regular cleaning and the competent inspection of their chimneys.

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