The 3 Stages of Creosote

1st stage - fine black powder

2nd stage - drippy tar / crunchy chunks

3rd stage - shiny glazed hard material

A Large Flue

When an older fireplace insert is vented into a masonry chimney, often times the flue is too large. This increases the smoke’s “residence time” and decreases draw.

• modern specifications call for a 6″ round flue.
• older inserts may be vented into a 13″ x 17″ flue.

In these cases, the flue rapidly builds up creosote, as the large air space cannot get hot enough.  This causes rapid creosote condensation.  

Restricted Air Supply

Simply put, the longer the smoke is in the flue, the more likely creosote will form. If the air supply of a fireplace is restricted by closed glass doors, or by failure to open the damper wide enough, creosote will build up rapidly.   

Wet or Unseasoned Wood

As rule of thumb, never use wet wood to fuel your fire, it creates a lot less heat, and it doesn’t do a very good job of burning the available fuel in the wood.  The “smoke” of unseasoned wood is heavily laden with unburned creosote.  Because unseasoned wood causes the whole system to burn cool, the creosote laden flue gas quickly condenses on the surface of the flue.  Dry, well seasoned wood is the only wood that should be used in any chimney system.  Tar-like creosote found in an open chimney system is more often than not ,caused by burning wet or unseasoned wood.

Cooler Flue Temperatures

Believe it or not, the main cause of creosote in your chimney is a cool flue temperature.  Metal, prefabricated zero clearance fireplace chimney’s are extremely prone to creosote build up.   Their light sheet metal construction actually causes the interior flue temperature to be abnormally cool.  Due to this, creosote condenses inside a prefabricated chimney at rapid rate.

Getting Rid of Creosote

Around 25,000 fires a year occur in homes with chimney problems.  Much of this has to do with creosote buildup.  These fires can easily be prevented with a simple chimney cleaning.

If you’re concerned about the creosote in your chimney, please feel free to contact Atlanta Air Duct Cleaning, your premier choice for Atlanta chimney cleaning!

“Rule of Thumb” Chimney Cleaning

Many people set a specific rule on chimney cleaning: “once every 50 uses”. This is a common rule of thumb, and it’s a decent way of keeping your chimney in working order.  However, to get the most out of your fireplace, you should gauge exactly how dirty the chimney flue is.

Freshly-Cut Wood and Slow-Cool Fires

The things that are going to make your fireplace the dirtiest is if you are burning fires using green wood (freshly cut wood that hasn’t had time to dry), slow cool fires, or slow cool small fires in conjunction with green wood.  With these fireplace practices, you can clog up the chimney with creosote, which can actually catch on fire if enough accumulates, and it can burn the whole house down.

Insects and Rodents

Even a chimney that has not been used for a wood burning appliance can become blocked by dead rodents or insects, such a hornet’s nest.  Don’t forget to inspect the flue before lighting the first fire of the season, because animals and insects could have obstructed the flue over the summer. If you have a properly screened cap on your chimney top, you’ll keep out the animals but unfortunately not the insects.  

Oil & Gas-Fired Chimneys

Part of regular oil-fired heating service includes dis-assembly and cleaning of the flue vent connector. Ask your heating service tech to check the chimney itself and order a cleaning if needed.  Gas fired heating appliance chimneys ought to be inspected regularly.  A blocked off gas-fired chimney can create a serious risk of improper gas appliance operation, which is likely to produce dangerous, potentially fatal carbon monoxide.

Future Cleanings

Once you’ve had your chimney cleaned, future cleanings can be scheduled based on how many fires you’ve had, and the type of wood you’re burning.  

Whether you want a simple inspection, or you’re chimney is in desperate need of a cleaning, please Contact Us Today. We’re the authority in Atlanta chimney sweep service!

When you buy a house you probably don’t know much about who was living in it before you, and you know even less things that may have been done in the house.  Going back through all of the people who previously lived in the house, a lot of living may have been done there, and you never know what could have been stashed, stored, or thrown away up in the air ducts.

Right now, as you sit in front of your computer reading this article, there could be a fortune stashed up in your air ducts.  Maybe someone who lived in your house back in 1910 was an eccentric millionaire who didn’t trust banks.  He could have put his life savings up in the air ducts and not told anyone.  If you had your aid ducts cleaned regularly by a bonded and insured air duct technician, you would be rich right now, and you could afford to move from that old house!

Only kidding, but we have found some valuables in people’s air ducts before.  But the things that I’m really talking about are mold, dust, animal droppings, bacteria, and other allergens and contaminants.  When you are moving into a house that is new to you, there is no way for you to know when, or if, the last owners had the air ducts cleaned.  There could be mold up there that has been growing for years, or dust deposits and inch thick.  Aside from mold and dust, there can be living pest of a larger nature in your ducts, like insects and rodents, and it is a good idea to have a professional make sure that the ducts are free of pests.  It is common sense to start off on a clean slate and get your air ducts cleaned when you move into a different residence.

Now you might say that this makes sense if you are moving into a house that has been previously lived in, but my house is brand new so there is no reason to have the air ducts cleaned.  This is not necessarily true.  During construction, there could have been supplies left up in the ducts that can deteriorate and blow around in the air that you are breathing.  It is a good idea to have the ducts nice and clean from the time that you move in to your new home, and keep up a regular cleaning schedule so they stay that way.

You never know what may be lurking in your air ducts….until you call Atlanta Air Duct Cleaning.  Our experienced technicians use state-of-the-art duct cleaning equipment and organic, eco-friendly cleaning solutions that will leave your ducts safe and clean.  Call us at (770) 806-6006 for an estimate or to set up an appointment, and you will no longer have to wonder about what may be lurking in your ducts.

Word of mouth is always the best way to know for sure that you are dealing with a reputable Atlanta air duct cleaner. If family members or friends recommend someone, you can logically expect that you will like their work as well. This is true of air duct cleaners, but it is true of any type of service. Always ask a few friends and family members if they have any recommendations before you make a commitment to a service company.

Experience in the area is another key thing to consider before you enlist the services of an air duct cleaner. If you just ask them over the phone how long they have been in business in Atlanta, that will tell you a lot about how trustworthy they are. In fairness it should be noted that all new businesses are not necessarily dishonest or incompetent. But if you work with a company who has been successful for many years, you can be absolutely certain that you will get what you are paying for, because there is no substitute for experience. Plus, that longevity is telling you that this company’s customers keep coming back, so they must be satisfied.

Licensing and certifications are the last factor that we would like to highlight. Georgia air duct cleaners are required to be licensed by the state, so when you are talking to an air duct cleaning company you should ask them if the have a currently valid license. You might also ask them if they are insured and bonded.

If you are looking for an air duct cleaner in Atlanta who meets all of the qualifications above, look no further than Atlanta Air Duct Cleaners. We have been in business for over twenty years, and we have countless loyal customers to thank for that. They recommend us to their families and friends, and we have built our longevity on word of mouth advertising. All of our technicians are insured, licenses, certified and bonded, and they are committed to excellence. For top quality air duct cleaning in Atlanta at prices you can afford, there is only one logical choice: Atlanta Air Duct Cleaners.

Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a public health situation that occurs as a result of spending time in a particular building.  According to the EPA, some of the symptoms of SBS are headaches; eye, nose and throat irritation; itchy or dry skin; fatigue; dizziness; nausea; and difficulty maintaining your concentration.  When people experience these types of symptoms when they are in a particular building, but there is no specific cause that can be identified as the origin of their discomfort, such as a particular airborne contaminant, they are said to be suffering from SBS.

Building related illness (BRI), on the other hand, is the term that is used when an identifiable illness can be specifically diagnosed as being caused by an airborne contaminant that is present in a particular building.  Inadequate ventilation is the primary cause of these public health problems.

Atlanta air duct cleaning is our business, so we are well aware of SBS and BRI, and we are thoroughly trained and equipped to identify sources of airborne contaminants and eliminate them quickly and efficiently, restoring indoor air quality.  These acronyms and diagnostic terms sound very clinical and complicated, but in the end, it is all a matter of common sense that “officialdom” has only recently decided to name and catalog.

When you spend a lot of time in a closed building that utilizes temperature control technologies to keep the building at a constant temperature throughout the year, particulates circulate throughout the building.  Molds, pollen, dirt, dust, viruses, hair, dead skin, and just about anything that can collect on carpets, walls, floors, furniture, ceiling, fixtures, etc. is wafting around in the air that you breath.  The ventilation systems in many buildings are simply inadequate to cleanse the density of this matter, and even the best ventilation systems in Atlanta need cleaning and regular maintenance. That is where Atlanta duct cleaning specialists come in.

“Closed buildings” and “temperature control technologies” sound kind of modern and high tech, but once again, it is just old fashioned common sense we are talking about here.  What is “spring cleaning” all about?  Your home has been all closed up to keep out the cold for a few months, and a winter’s worth of dust, fireplace soot, carpet dirt, and whatever is up in the heating ducts has been blowing around the house up for a few months.  Come spring, you need to clean out the ducts, shampoo the carpet, and get the clean air circulating again..  That is what Atlanta duct cleaners and carpet people do to maintain indoor air quality for our customers.

An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure when you are talking about indoor air quality.    To stop health problems before they happen, get in touch and we will make sure that the air that you breathe is fresh, clean, healthy and free of air borne contaminants.

Duct cleaners 101

When I was first started learning how to clean air ducts, I figured I would for the most part be eliminating the build-of dust so that the customer could breathe cleaner air.  Why would anything else be up there?  After a few months of Atlanta air duct cleaning, I learned that duct cleaning was a lot closer to a box of chocolates than I would have ever imagined.

One time I went out on an air duct job, and when I got there, the customer was complaining that there was not enough air coming through the vents.  I asked her how long she had been living in the house, because it looked like new construction.  She said that it was a newly built house and that she had been living there for about two years, and that the air flow from the vents was never very good, even when she first moved in.

I checked the vents around the house, and it was like a landfill up there.  There were paper wrappers and half eaten burgers from every fast food joint in town, empty soda and coffee cups, chicken bones…even beer bottles (empty, unfortunately) and a spent bottle of Cuervo Gold.  I let the customer know that a lot of construction crews just toss their garbage in the vents, and the home inspectors don’t notice it because they never look in the vents.

Routine duct cleaning

Another time I had a customer who wanted a routine duct cleaning.  They didn’t feel like there was anything wrong with the flow, they just wanted to perform some routine maintenance like all homeowners should.  As I was working on the ducts, I saw something unusual, and when I got closer, I could see that it was a .44-caliber pistol.  I guess the previous owner of the house must have hid it up there.  I let the owner know and left the rest up to him.  At least I didn’t find any bodies up there, but when you do this job, you never know what you might see next.

Cleaning an old house

Then there was the time when I had a client who had bought a house that was about thirty years old.  She got a hold of me because she was looking for Atlanta carpet cleaning, but when she found out that I did duct cleaning too, she asked me to do both.

So I was cleaning the ducts, and when I opened one of the vents, I found a cloth that seemed to have something wrapped inside of it.  I opened the cloth and it was full of jewelry.  There was a diamond ring in there, an elaborate gold bracelet, and a couple of really nice pairs of diamond earrings.  I told the owner what I had found, and she was thrilled.  She figured that the house was now hers, so the jewelry belonged to her, too.

I kind of agreed, and since I was honest enough to let her know about the jewelry, someone might think that this story has a happy ending.  They might logically assume that she gave me the bracelet or a pair of earrings for my partner as a token of her appreciation.  But they would be wrong.  She didn’t give me any of the jewelry.  But she did recommend me to a friend who called me about a week later.

Invoice for duct cleaning

I went to her house.  It was an older home, and the woman said that she had been living there for about ten years.  She told me that she wanted me to clean her ducts like I had done for her friend.  I did the job, put away my gear, and presented her with the invoice.

“Well?” she said.

“Uh…that’s the invoice, Ma’am, for the duct cleaning,” I answered.

“I know that,”  she relied, suspiciously, “but what else have you got for me?”

Oh, I get it, I thought.

“Nothing,” I said.  “Your ducts were pretty dusty, but that was it.”

She handed me a check looking kind of disappointed, like part of my job was to find valuables in everybody’s ducts and that I had somehow failed her.

“The people who I bought this house from were very well to do, you know,” she said I as was leaving, with a trace of annoyance in her voice.  Maybe they were, but they were apparently smart enough to take their jewelry with them when they left.

The last story I want to share involves a call we got from a client who was having a lot of trouble breathing in her house.  She was okay everywhere else, but something was going on at the house.  When she got home she would become short of breath, and often get a headache and feel tired and achy.  We checked the air ducts, and then we opened the furnace.  It was incredibly dirty, just filthy, and remember, I clean dirty carpets and air ducts for a living, and I though that I had seen it all.  Upon closer inspection, there was living stuff in there, some nasty mold, and we let her know that she was breathing this mold and that was probably why she was feeling so poorly.

Breathing mold is very bad for you, so we had to disinfect the entire system with an organic solution and that kills all the mold throughout the ducts in a non-toxic manner.  Our mold training and certification came in handy, because about a week later, our client called us to say thanks because she was feeling great because we had done such a good job on her ducts.  I have to admit that it is a very good feeling when you hear that type of feedback from your customers.

You never know what you’re going to get when you are an intrepid Atlanta air duct cleaning company, but the strange things that happen make the job more fun.  And, when your work helps people to overcome health problems that are caused by dirty ducts or carpets, it can be a very rewarding job.  The next time you are looking for Atlanta air duct cleaning, or thorough, affordable Atlanta carpet cleaning, give us a call.  With us, you do know what you’re gonna get: great service, clean air ducts, and spotless carpets at unbelievably low prices.