Fireplace & Chimney Safety
Two real risks, explained without the scare tactics: a chimney fire and carbon monoxide. Here's what actually causes each one and what to check before your first fire.
on site
included
Risk one: a chimney fire
A chimney fire is creosote burning inside the flue. Creosote is the tarry residue that wood smoke leaves on a cool flue wall, and it accumulates every time you burn. A serious chimney fire burns hot enough to crack a clay tile liner, and a cracked liner lets heat reach the framing that the chimney passes through.
What raises your risk: burning unseasoned or wet wood, burning often in a cold exterior flue, damping the fire down so it smolders rather than burns cleanly, and going years between sweeps. What lowers it: dry seasoned hardwood, hot clean fires, and getting the flue brushed before each season.
Risk two: carbon monoxide
This is the quieter one and, in the housing we work on, the more common one. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless product of combustion. Your chimney's job is to carry it outside. If the flue is blocked — by a nest, by fallen liner tile, by decades of debris on the smoke shelf — it comes back into the house instead.
This is why we care so much about verifying appliance venting in Paterson, Belleville and the Ironbound. A furnace and a water heater improperly combined into an undersized flue, in an occupied three-family, is the most dangerous thing we routinely find.
Whatever you do about your chimney, put a working CO alarm on every level of the house. It costs about twenty dollars and it's the single most effective thing you can do.
Before you light the first fire
- Open the damper fully and check that it moves freely
- Look up with a flashlight for daylight and for obvious blockage
- Check outside for a cap on the flue
- Look for fallen debris on the smoke shelf
- Check your CO and smoke alarms
- Burn only seasoned, dry hardwood — never treated or painted wood
- If it has been more than a year, get the flue scanned before you burn
What we don't do
We don't tell people their chimney is about to burn their house down in order to sell a liner. The industry has a real problem with that, and it's the reason a lot of people distrust low advertised prices. If your chimney is safe, our report will say it's safe. If it's not, you'll get photographs showing you exactly why.
What happens on the visit
- We protect your floor and hearth before anything else
- A camera goes in the flue, bottom to top — not a flashlight
- We check the firebox, damper, smoke shelf and the crown above the roofline
- We confirm which appliances vent into which flue
- You get a written report with photographs the same day
Book Fireplace & Safety
Inspection $49 · Cleaning $99
Fireplace & Safety questions
Straight answers
What causes a chimney fire?
Creosote. It condenses out of wood smoke onto a cool flue wall, and once there's enough of it a hot fire can set it alight inside the flue. Sweeping removes the fuel.
Where does carbon monoxide come from in a fireplace?
From combustion gases that don't leave the building - a blocked flue, a closed or rusted damper, or a liner that has failed. A CO alarm on every floor is the backstop; a clear flue is the fix.
Is it safe to use the fireplace if I smell smoke in the room?
Stop using it and get the flue looked at. Smoke coming back into the room means the flue is not drawing, and whatever is stopping the smoke is stopping the carbon monoxide too.
What should I check before the first fire of the season?
That the damper opens fully, that nothing has nested in the flue over the summer, and that your CO alarms still work. The $49 inspection covers the first two properly.
Where we work
New Jersey
Statewide