Veteran Discount
Veterans furnishing their Dept of VA identification card will receive $20.00 off their bill for chimney sweeping services. Expired CACs will not be accepted.
TOS & Appointment Inforamtion
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. Requests to reschedule must be submitted to the MFC office no later than 12:00pm noon the day before the appointment.
Arrival times are approximated, and clients are expected to be available in the event I'm either early or late, especially for appointments past noon.
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'x7' area must be moved prior to arrival so I can lay down a tarp. If area rugs are rolled back, they still must remain 7 feet back.
3) 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.
4) Ceiling fans, A/C, and attic fans must be turned off for the duration of the appointment. All windows and doors must be closed.
5) Failure to accommodate may result in either the termination of your appointment, or your furniture and personal effects may become contaminated (soot exposure and staining). If opting to continue service, and if furniture and personal effects are contaminated, clients waive all rights to reclaim damages.
Weather & Access
Appointments are weather-permitting, and active rain and snow will result in rescheduling. Driveways and walkways are expected to be mostly cleared of snow to facilitate entry. I make several trips back and forth from my work truck with tools and equipment.
Recent Usage
Wood-burning fireplaces, inserts, and stoves cannot be used for at least 48 hours prior to an appointment to allow for adequate cool-off. Services cannot be performed if the chimney has been used within 48 hours of the appointment, as this could cause burns, injury, and damages.
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 $2,200.00.
Renovations
Call back to cancel your appointment if remodeling is not complete. Services cannot be performed if the work space is in an unfinished, dirty, and dusty room currently being remodeled. The condition of my tarps, power cords, equipment, and footwear must be preserved for my next customer and their flooring and carpet.
Dryer Vent Servicing
Dyer appliances must be functional, and connected to a duct which vents outdoors. If not, the dryer vent is unserviceable, and services cannot be performed.
Damages
Older-model wood stoves are not unassailable, and chimney sweeping can be an evasive service. MFC will not be responsible for stove parts and components which may become damaged during service. Additionally, test fires will not be performed post-servicing.
Ash Removal
Cleaning out ash is user-level maintenance, and is expected to be removed. A heat-gun is used to counter severe wintertime down-draft, and can only be placed on a clean surface. Down-draft will cause soot contamination and staining.
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 of a pre-fab fireplace). An additional reason I ask for a photo submission is to save homeowners from a service charge for an in-person consultation and evaluation.
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. I will not generate a second invoice stating only chimney sweeping was performed, while omitting safety concerns from continual usage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Most factory fireplace models have grates fixed in place, against the rear wall, and cannot be removed. These seldom cause an issue in timely service, as there is still an abundance of open space on the fireplace floor. There is no price increase for these variants.
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.
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 retaining 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 "top-sealing" 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.
Heating system chimneys will not be serviced if access to the appliance is located in a dirt-floor crawlspace.
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.