Availability As Early As The First Week Of December
Appointment Arrival
A competent person at least 18 yrs old and who can represent the household must be available on-site to grant access indoors. Payment is due upon completion.
Arrival times are approximated, and clients are expected to be available in the event I'm either early or late. Late afternoon and evening appointment arrivals can be as late as 7pm. Same-day cancelations "because it's too late" are unacceptable, and a second retainer will be required to reschedule.
Work Space
1) A clear path from the point of entry to the work area must be made prior to arrival. I will not place my dirty hands on your furniture.
2) Obstructing furniture and personal effects on floor level within a 5' x 7' area must be moved prior to arrival to lay down a tarp. If area rugs are rolled back, they still must remain 7 feet back.
3) Ceiling fans, A/C, and attic fans must be turned off for the duration of the appointment. All windows and doors must be closed.
4) Two electrical outlets are required - one local to the room where work is being performed and one on a separate circuit in another room, so breakers aren't tripped. The vacuum cannot be allowed to accidentally shut off mid-service due to a tripped breaker.
Weather & Access
Appointments are weather-permitting, and rain and snow will unfortunately result in rescheduling. Driveways and walkways are expected to be cleared of snow.
Recent Usage
Servicing for wood-burning fireplaces, inserts, and stoves will be terminated if it's been discovered to have been used within 48 hours of the appointment. A service charge will be applied for the appointment, and second retainer is necessary to reschedule.
Equipment Damage
The cost of melted brushes and other damages as a result of not allowing wood-burning chimneys to cool for 48 hours will be added to the invoice. Ex: these brushes cost about $90 each; my vacuum (if the filters catch fire in your living room) costs $2,200.
Renovations
Call back to cancel your appointment until remodeling is completed. Appointments will be terminated if the work space is in an unfinished, dirty room currently being remodeled.
Dryer Vent Servicing
Dyer appliances must be functional, and connected to a duct which vents outdoors. If not, the dryer vent is unserviceable, and the appointment will be terminated. A service charge will be applied.
Tutorials
Test fires will not be performed post-servicing.
Ash Removal
Cleaning out ash is user-level maintenance, and is expected to be *mostly* removed. A heat-gun is used to counter down-draft, and can only be placed on a clean surface.
Ineligible For Service
Illegal installations which violate building code and UL appliance listings will not be serviced, and the invoice will state to cease usage (pictured: wood stove inserted inside a pre-fab fireplace).
Selling Your Home
Observable defects and violations in building code will be annotated on the invoice, and clients will assume responsibility for disclosure to all parties and liability for continued use post-servicing.
Cooties!
Households with sneezy-coughy-drippy children and adults are expected to call to reschedule. I service up to six households a day, and I could have elderly or immuno-compromised clients.
Animal & Pet Care
Household pets must be separated and secured from the work space (the area from your front door to your chimney) to prevent them from wandering on to my sooty tarps, and to prevent escape.
If your dog displays what is perceived as threatening behavior, and if a home owner fails to adequately compartmentalize their aggressive dog from the work area, I will leave your house, but not before remitting an invoice with a service charge.
These guidelines aren't intended to inconvenience clients, but are to keep both of our interests secure. I don't want to get bitten again, and you don't want your pet to get chemical burns from soot exposure on their paws.
Veteran Discount
Veterans furnishing their Dept of VA identification card will receive $20.00 off their bill for chimney sweeping services. Expired CAC will not be accepted.
Fireplace Grates & Dampers
I'll remove your heavy and dirty grate after laying down a clean tarp. Pictured above is a Thermo-Rite grate. These are integral to some models of glass door sets, and usually cannot be removed. These may cause the price to increase due to hindered access, additional labor, and time spent.
Large recirculators and heat exchanger grates (above) obstruct access to the damper, and chimney brushes cannot pass unless the recirculator is removed. These cause the price to increase due to hindered access and increased labor as well.
Dampers are extracted for masonry fireplaces. The retaining pin holding the damper handle to the damper blade is removed to gain access to the fireplace's smoke chamber. This is necessary prep-work, and is required to pass chimney brushes into the smoke chamber.
Occasionally, the cotter pin may be seized, or instead of a pin, a nut/bolt or bent nail will be present. Seized cotter pins and nut/bolt hardware will be cut out using an angle grinder, and replaced with a new, stainless steel cotter pin. Price is subject to increase.
Replacement of these retention pins is sometimes subject to a price increase due to additional time and labor spent on the service. A functions check is performed after reinstalling all dampers.
Damper cables for these aftermarket solutions sometimes have to be retracted from above for fireplace chimney sweeping services. This is performed by accessing the top of the chimney. Price is subject to increase.
Be advised, a follow-up service post-season may be required if you're scheduling during the winter, if your roof and chimney top cannot be safely accessed. Weather-related conditions will restrict roof and ladder access.
While fireplaces can still be serviced by means of conventional, static sweeping brushes, occasionally it yields sub-par results compared to the preferred method of rotary sweeping.
Gas Fireplaces
MFC is not a licensed plumber, and will not work on malfunctioning gas appliances, to include lighting pilot lights.
LEFT Open-faced gas logs: the chimney is usually swept one last time prior to conversion from wood-burning, as it will no longer require sweeping post-conversion. For evaluations, the pilot light must be OFF for at least two hours prior to arrival.
RIGHT Sealed gas inserts: a licensed plumber (preferably the installer) must be called for servicing and maintenance.
Rooftop & Other Considerations
While not uncommon, stone caps are becoming more infrequent 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.
Electric fireplaces do not burn any type of fuel, and therefore don't vent exhaust into a chimney. Most are stood up against a wall, nowhere close to an actual chimney structure. This means there is no such thing as chimney sweeping for these "appliances," as they're nothing more than bougie space heaters.
Unlined Masonry Fireplace with Wood Insert-Stove
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Free-Standing Stove
Unlined Masonry Fireplace with Wood Insert-Stove
Both NFPA-211 regulation and IRC R1003.12 building code require this application to have a stainless, insulated chimney lining system installed throughout the entirety of the chimney height.
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Wood Insert-Stove
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Free-Standing Stove
Unlined Masonry Fireplace with Wood Insert-Stove
Not permitted under NFPA-211 regulation and IRC R1004.1 and R1005.1, as UL-1777 compliance for the lining system isn't achieved and UL-127 is violated according to both the fireplace and liner manufacturers.
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Free-Standing Stove
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Free-Standing Stove
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Free-Standing Stove
Not permitted under NFPA-211 regulation and IRC R1004.1 and R1005.1, as UL-1777 compliance for the lining system isn't achieved and UL-127 is violated according to both the fireplace and liner manufacturers.
Heat-form Steel Box Fireplaces
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Free-Standing Stove
Factory-Prefab Fireplace with Free-Standing Stove
The installation of any insert or stove inside a heat-form style fireplace violates UL-1390 and NFPA-211. Correct installation requires the entire steel box assembly to be cut and removed, and high-heat rated fire brick used to reconstruct.
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.
Privacy
Policy
Construction deficiencies and building code violations are disclosed only to the property owner. Investigative agencies (home owners insurance adjustors, etc) require a subpoena, which is then forwarded to MFC's attorneys for review, before inspection reports are disclosed to other parties.
Services Not Supported
Sealed Gas Fireplaces
1st Gen Heat-Form Fireplaces
Pellet Inserts & Stoves
Pellet Inserts & Stoves
1st Gen Heat-Form Fireplaces
Pellet Inserts & Stoves
1st Gen Heat-Form Fireplaces
1st Gen Heat-Form Fireplaces
1st Gen Heat-Form Fireplaces
Wood Furnaces
Wood Ovens (Anything Food-Grade)
1st Gen Heat-Form Fireplaces
Unlined Fireplace Inserts
Wood Ovens (Anything Food-Grade)
Wood Ovens (Anything Food-Grade)