CARING FOR YOUR #1 INVESTMENT

Hearth Aches Chimney Services specializes in all phases of fireplace and chimney care from the basic visual inspection and routine cleaning to catastrophic events (damage from earthquakes, tornadoes, and chimney fires).

The key is finding a competent chimney specialist to take care of your specific needs. Why would you want to engage the services of a basic chimney sweep who has little understanding of the way a fireplace and chimney is designed to function? Example: Anyone can take a written test and become a "certified" inspector. There is no state certification to become a chimney inspector. There are several courses offered that give a certification with a written exam. Is that what you want?

Experience counts for EVERYTHING in this trade! Our chimney inspector is also a licensed contractor which has specialized in chimney restoration, rebuilds, and new construction who hasadditionally taken the certification course to learn the codes and NFPA standards. He works in the field daily troubleshooting drafting/venting problems, smoke and odor problems, water leaks, and performing real estate inspections for sales. He has demolished and rebuilt masonry as well as prefabricated fireplace and chimneys as well as hybrid fireplaces and chimneys (part masonry-part prefab). Safety and technical meetings are held weekly to explore new technology and techniques as well as continually reinforce the basics. Many years of experience has left him with a solid understanding of alternative therapies for problem chimneys --the old adage that there is more than one way to skin a cat certainly applies here... Many "certified" sweeps will know enough to know when something obviously looks wrong but will they know the proper ways to resolve problems other than "looks like it needs a rebuild"? You would not want to hire a person who has never taken apart a chimney and rebuilt it to give you advice on what to do with it.

The solution is to find an experienced person with integrity that has a thorough and complete understanding of fireplace design and construction. According to the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), a recent study titled "Home fires involving heating equipment-chimney and chimney connectors " the most recent year where data was available was 2005, gave the following statistics: 62,200 reported home structure fires, 670 deaths, 1550 civilian injuries, over $909 million dollars in property damages. Of that total 36% of fires were due to chimney connectors, nearly half (44%) of all home fires occurred in December, January, and February in the years 2002-2005, more than 1/3rd of the structure fires were attributed to installation, construction, or design and manufacturing errors collectively, and improper sweeping or lack of cleaning accounted for 2/3rds of the chimney and chimney connector fires.