Serving Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Surrounding Communities
In the realm of home heating and ambiance, the age-old debate between the classic fireplace and the modern wood stove continues to intrigue homeowners seeking warmth and comfort during colder months. In this post, we aim to dissect the difference between the traditional fireplace and choosing a contemporary wood stove installation in Edina, shedding light on their respective advantages and encouraging you to consider the benefits of wood stoves.
It’s the holiday season, and that means you’ve probably seen a flood of images of people relaxing in rooms lit with the warm glow of a yuletide blaze in a fireplace. It’s one of the classic images of the winter holidays.
Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “I’d really like that experience here in my home, and turning on a video fireplace from YouTube on the living room television screen just isn’t the same.”
We’re glad you showed up here, because we’re the experts when it comes to fireplace installation in Minneapolis, MN. We handle installing wood inserts, wood stoves, electric inserts, and electric fireplaces. We know what fireplaces can bring to a home, and here’s our list of the top reasons you should think about getting a fireplace.
Using a fireplace in a home is one of the great joys of the winter season, and we’re certain you’re looking forward to spending time with your family around the roaring hearth. But before we get too deep into the fireplace season, we want to talk to you about some of the dangers that might lurk in your chimney.
Chimneys and fireplaces need special attention, and it’s our job to provide our customers with the best in chimney inspections and chimney cleaning in Minneapolis, MN to ensure they can stay safe and cozy each year.
Let’s look at several of the common issues that might make your chimney unsafe and the best ways to deal with them or prevent them.
If you have a fireplace in your home, you’ll need to have it routinely cleaned. This is an essential job because it helps keep the chimney working both effectively and safely. Allowing too much buildup to develop in a chimney will lead to bad venting and fire hazards.
But when it’s time for chimney cleaning in Bloomington, MN, who do you hire for the job? You have several options, but only one is the correct on:
The correct answer is “C.” We’ll explain why professional chimney sweeps stand apart from DIY and amateurs. Why they are the only people to consider hiring for your regular chimney and fireplace cleaning needs.
Chimney cleaning in Minneapolis, MN is a job we recommend homeowners have scheduled regularly, especially for wood-burning fireplaces that leave behind creosote. But creosote isn’t the only reason you may need to have chimney cleaning: animals often get inside chimneys to nest.
Animals will not only create blockages, they can also be dangerous—and removing them often must be left to expert chimney cleaners. We have a lot of experience with the types of critters that like to set up homes inside Minnesota chimneys. Here are the most common ones that might choose your chimney for a temporary home.
On this site, we emphasize the importance of having regular chimney and chimney flue cleaning in Minneapolis, MN. We recommend a yearly cleaning along with a Level 1 chimney inspection to ensure the chimney is free of buildup of creosote and anything that may block it, and to check for possible damage and wear that needs repairs.
But are professionals like ours really necessary? You might wonder if you can clean the chimney yourself. Maybe you can find an online video tutorial. With a face mask, a set of old clothes, tarps on the ground, a few scrubbers on long handles, and a bit of elbow grease, you should be able to get the job done. Right…?
Although we encourage you to handle some chimney maintenance tasks on your own, the actual job of cleaning a chimney is something to leave to the professionals. We’ll explain why below.
Most people’s ideas of chimney sweeping come straight from Mary Poppins. That’s definitely a romantic image, and it does reflect something of what this job was like in the Victorian era, when combustion fires were used everywhere and had such efficiency problems that cleaning was an almost continual job.
Chimney sweeping is still necessary today for homes with fireplaces, but unfortunately most people have a limited understanding of the job, how it’s done, why it’s done, and when it needs to be done.
We’re long-time experts when it comes to chimney sweeping in Minneapolis, MN, and we’d like to go through some of the common misunderstandings people have about this job.
In our previous blog, we discussed when you need a chimney inspection and the three different levels of inspection. These levels are established by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) and are standardized to ensure that homeowners receive the inspections necessary for the situation and to protect their households.
When you’re looking to have a chimney inspection in Minneapolis, MN, you’ll probably only need a Level 1 inspection, which is the standard inspection for a chimney that hasn’t experienced any major problems and is receiving regular use. It consists of inspections of all accessible parts of the chimney to look for cracks, creosote, and structural damage—anything that might trigger a repair need or a higher level of inspection.
In this post, we’re going to look at the highest level of inspection, Level 3, because people want to know more about how in-depth it goes and why it’s often necessary.
We often recommend that customers call us for a chimney inspection in Minneapolis, MN in the fall, before the winter arrives and the fireplace sees extensive use.
However, if you didn’t arrange for a chimney inspection before the winter, it isn’t too late to have it done. This isn’t a service you need to “catch” in time or just forget about—it’s vital you have your home’s chimney inspected by professionals annually. This helps to keep your fireplace and chimney safe, energy efficient, and working the way it should.
What happens when our experts come to your home for a chimney inspection? We’ll go over what you can expect.
We’ve all seen those pretty paintings of cottages with thatched roofs and brick chimneys with a slight tilt to them. In those pictures, things look picturesque and peaceful and they very well may be. Part of that peacefulness comes with a problem though.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking a tilting chimney is quaint because it is actually dangerous for you and everyone in your home.
Professionals know that a variety of problems can lead to a tilt in your chimney. We also know that this is an issue that can be righted with chimney repair in Minneapolis. Learn more about the issue and the solution here.