Home Heating Appliance Chimney Sweeping
Chimney sweeping is suspended throughout the winter months, pending frost and snow accumulation on rooftops.
Access indoors to the heating appliance(s) is required; a clear path to and from the heating system and where appliance vent pipes enter the chimney base/thimble are also necessary to facilitate service. Personal effects and other items, which block and obstruct the pathway to the heating system, must be removed prior to arrival. Snow must be cleared off of walkways and driveways.
Heating system "red switches" are turned off, and water tanks are set to pilot or vacation; if an appliance fails to re-fire or turn on, the home owner must contact an HVAC specialist, as this is indicative of an appliance malfunction not related to the chimney.
NOTICE TO HOME OWNERS: Mt Freedom Chimney is not a licensed plumber or certified HVAC specialist. Boiler, burner, and furnace repair are not provided services; plumbing/mechanical installations and fuel conversions are also not provided. Pilot lights will not be relit.
After the heating appliance has been prepped, roof access is required for sweeping. Once swept, soot and other combustion byproducts are vacuumed and removed from the chimney base and thimble area before vent pipes are reconnected. Heating appliances are returned to their previous settings.
Violations in ICC IRC building code will be documented and disclosed. All invoices are remitted with line-by-line citations taken directly from the building code. Technicians may annotate the appliance(s) and chimney are "not suitable for continued use until necessary repairs are completed."
Insufficient work space: indoor access to the chimney breach and appliance(s) is required - no exceptions. Technicians will not remove and reorganize a customer's items and belongings. A cleared path to the heating appliance(s) with adequate room to work and to stage equipment must be arranged prior to arrival, otherwise a service charge will be issued, and the appointment canceled.
Heating system chimneys will not be serviced if access to the appliance is located in a dirt-floor crawlspace.
Rooftop Considerations
While not uncommon, stone caps are becoming less frequent due to no longer being permissible under building code (R1003.9.3). Free-standing wood stove and home-heating appliance chimneys with stone caps cannot be serviced from the roof with this type of cap configuration, and services will be retracted.
Temporary fan emplacement up top and/or the usage of a heat gun at the bottom are sometimes deployed to counter down-draft. A down-draft will stop me in my tracks due to soot spillage concerns. Plan accordingly for appointment rescheduling if your chimney has a down-draft and if your roof is snow-covered.
Roofs comprised of slate, Spanish tile, wood shake, metal, or roofs with solar panels will not be accessed due to safety and damage considerations. Slate and solar panels are fragile and expensive; excluding asphalt shingles, these listed roof types have poor traction, especially when slightly damp or wet.
Certificates For Heating Appliances & Fuel Conversions
When:
1) converting a home-heating application from oil to gas,
2) replacing a furnace or a hot water tank,
3) installing a new heating appliance,
4) converting a wood fireplace to gas:
Licensed plumbers and HVAC/mechanical specialists are required to apply for permits for any fuel conversion and/or appliance replacement/installation (to include water tanks), and the municipality's building department will attach a "Chimney Verification Certificate" to the permit application.
If chimney relining is required, an additional permit for relining must be filed with your municipality's building department, as per N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.14; all permits require a municipal inspection to be closed.
Given the chimney is of masonry construction and the home was built prior to 1996, the chimney's interior flue lining will fail the inspection due to not meeting the criteria outlined in IRC Chapter 10 R1003.12. The chimney flue will require relining to satisfy all applicable plumbing, mechanical, and chimney building codes. Below is the excerpt from IRC Chapter 10 regarding flue lining construction.
Inspection and sweeping services do not automatically yield a passing certificate.
ICC IRC Chapter 10 R1003.12
For homes built prior to New Jersey's 1996 adoption of the IRC, invoices will cite R1003.12 being in violation, thus requiring the installation of a new chimney liner for current code compliance. Before 1996, jointing medium at every 2-foot flue tile interval was conventional sand-mortar cement mix. No longer permissible, the current required jointing medium is refractory mortar conforming to ASTM C199 standards, which is water insoluble, and able to expand and contract with rapid heating and rapid cooling.
ICC IRC Chapter 10 R1003.12
Even without habitual usage, conventional cement flue tile joints eventually turn sandy and gritty over the years, rupturing and falling out, causing gaps and spaces. This allows for exhaust and byproduct to circumvent the flue lining.
Adoption of...
N.J.A.C. 5:23 (1996)
New Jersey adopted the ICC's IRC as its, state-wide building code standard in 1996. Grandfathering is permitted for no greater than a 6 month period after the release of a new publication. The latest publication of "Chapter 10: Chimneys & Fireplaces" is January 2024. Code violations are cited/documented on invoices.