Serving Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Surrounding Communities
When was the last time you checked your chimney crown? If you’re like most homeowners, the answer is probably “never.” The chimney crown is one of the most important parts of your chimney, yet it often goes unnoticed — until something goes wrong. A damaged or missing crown can lead to serious problems, from water damage to structural deterioration. Let’s take a closer look at what a chimney crown does and why you might need to have yours replaced.
A fireplace is more than just a source of warmth — it’s the heart of your home during the colder months. However, like any part of your home, your fireplace requires regular care and attention to make sure it functions safely and efficiently. Ignoring issues can lead to bigger problems, from poor performance to potential safety hazards. If you notice any of the following signs, it may be time for a fireplace repair in Minneapolis, MN.
As a homeowner, you take pride in maintaining your home in top-notch condition. However, one area that often gets overlooked is the chimney. A leaky chimney in Minneapolis might seem like a minor inconvenience, but it can lead to significant issues if not addressed promptly. At 2nd Generation Chimneys, we’ve seen firsthand how unchecked chimney leaks can wreak havoc on a home. Here’s why it’s crucial to get that leak repaired as soon as possible.
As a homeowner, maintaining your chimney is crucial to ensuring the safety and longevity of your home. One vital component that often goes overlooked is the chimney crown. We’ve seen firsthand how essential a well-maintained chimney crown is for the overall health of your chimney system. In this blog post, we’ll delve into what a chimney crown is, how it can sustain damage over the years, and how to determine when it’s time for a chimney crown replacement in Minneapolis.
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.
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.