Home Maintenance 101: How To Take Care Of Your Fireplace?
For most homes out there, the fireplace tends to be the focal point. It helps in providing not only warmth to the entire homely environment but also keeps your house cosy, especially during the winter season. If you want to ensure that your good old fireplace stays relevant for multiple years to come, then you also have to maintain it properly as well.
Thus, in this extensive guide, we’ll be taking a good look at the various suggestions that you can follow to ensure that your fireplace stays in good shape over an extended period.
Proper Methods To Take Care Of Your Fireplace
- Always Clean Your Fireplace’s Interiors
Even though a wood-burning fireplace will help in providing a great ambience at your home, it can still produce a lot of by-products from burning wood every time, which needs to be cleaned regularly. According to a professional service provider offering a thorough home inspection in Georgetown, cleaning the interiors of a fireplace will not only help in enhancing the aesthetics but also will make your fireplace more efficient.
Additionally, you can use those leftover ashes from the fireplace for your plants, as they’re an excellent source of nutrients. Just remember to always use a dust mask when trying to clean your fireplace.
- Don’t Forget To Install Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarms
The fireplace is not only a place to provide warmth inside your home but it can also be a potential source of health endangerment. Generally, if a fireplace has been installed properly, then it shouldn’t lead to any issues. But, if you have a clogged vent or chimney, then carbon monoxide poisoning can easily take place inside your home. Carbon monoxide is caused due to incomplete burning of fossil fuels, which in this case is wood. And the reason why carbon monoxide is very dangerous is that it’s odourless and it’s challenging for human beings to detect its presence unless they have a carbon monoxide detector.
Another health hazard that you have to steer clear of when having a fireplace, is smoke. If the chimney system has too much build-up of dirt, then the smoke will revert into the insides of your home, instead of getting released into the exterior environment. If you want to ensure the safety of yourself and your family, then you have to install carbon monoxide as well as smoke alarms inside your home.
- Remove Any Build-Up Of Creosote & Smoke
One of the major by-products of burning wood is creosote, especially if you’re using wooden planks which aren’t dried & stored properly. Creosote is denoted by black or brown residues and can be found on the inside walls of your chimney.
Creosote is highly flammable and can lead to chimney fires.
