What Can I Expect During My Cleaning Appointment?
The Village Chimney Sweep Inc. offers several standard cleaning services along with several custom services. Below is a glimpse into what our customers might expect at one of our standard service appointments.
Chimney Sweeping
Each appointment is a little different based upon the needs of your chimney. However, we try to schedule as accurately as possible. You can expect an arrival window of anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. When your technician is on his way, he will either give you a call or send you a text with a more accurate arrival time.
When your technician arrives, he is going to check out your chimney before doing any work. If you have any specific questions or problems, this is a great time to bring them up. If you haven’t done so already, now is also a good time to remove any breakables from the immediate area. Your technician will be looking for any obvious structural issues, blockages, and at the general condition of the chimney.
After the initial assessment, your technician will prepare your home to avoid making a mess. We would really like you to call us again, so he will be setting up in order to leave no trace. He will place tarps all around the hearth area and he will be taping tarps to the face of you firebox. The technician also runs a very powerful vacuum with a HEPA filter while he sweeps. This will keep the particulates stirred up in the process from getting into the air.
Once the hearth area is set up to keep the mess out of the living area, your technician will begin the sweeping process. Depending on the accessibility of the roof and your technician’s personal preference, the sweeping can take place either from your living area or the roof. Between the vacuum running and potentially a drill or any number of tools being used this part can be kind of loud. He will be sweeping all creosote buildup into your firebox.
After the chimney is swept, your technician will sweep the firebox and smoke shelf. At each stage of the process, he will be inspecting the chimney system. Your technician will clear the area of all combustible fire byproduct. Once the firebox is swept too, he will clean up everything that was in the firebox. He will be bagging it all up to dispose of and then he will finish his inspection.
Inspections are an important part of the chimney sweeping process. Not only is your technician checking the structural integrity of your chimney system, but he is also checking his work. We don’t want to leave any parts of the chimney unswept. Throughout the process, your technician will be taking pictures of your chimney and it’s surrounding areas so that he can show you what he sees. He will be putting those pictures into a document that tells the story of your chimney. Also, if you have a pre-fabricated chimney, he will need to reference the manufacturer’s specifications about the installation. Don’t be alarmed if you see your technician referencing technical information on his phone. Please remember, a chimney inspection is a snapshot in time. It is a representation of the structure of your chimney as it is on the date of your service. If anything changes after your appointment causing you to experience any sort of problems, please stop using your fireplace until we can inspect it again.
Once your technician has concluded his inspection he will pack his equipment and load it into his vehicle. He will want to check in with you before he leaves in order to discuss his findings. Our goals is to educate you about your chimney and to make sure you are comfortable with the work provided. Your report will be delivered via email once your technician has finished it up. We are always available to answer any question you might have and can reach us by phone at (760)436-0086 or via email at info@villagesweep.com.
Dryer Vent
Much like a chimney sweeping appointment, a dryer vent cleaning appointment can have many different variables. Also, like a chimney sweeping appointment we try to schedule as accurately as possible. Our arrival window will be anywhere from 1 to 2 hours, but you technician will contact you when he is on his way in order to give you a more accurate arrival time.
When he arrives, your technician will evaluate what needs to be done to clean your dryer vent. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask him. We love to teach! This is a good time to let your technician know if you have any allergies to dust or lint. While we vacuum up our mess, this process is not as easily contained as a chimney sweep. If you have concerns about allergens in your home, we have techniques that can help mitigate their spread.
Your technician will be moving your dryer away from the wall in order to gain access to the back of the appliance. Please don’t worry about moving it yourself. Your technician knows what to do. Once he is behind the unit, he will disconnect the dryer exhaust from the appliance.
Depending on accessibility, your technician will either clean from inside your house or from outside or both. He will be using flexible rods that attach to a soft round brush and an electric drill to remove all lint from the dryer exhaust. Our goal with each service we provide is to make it seem that we were never there so he will clean up all lint that he removes. He will also vacuum the area behind the dryer and all accessible parts of the dryer that collect lint.
While your technician is behind your dryer, he checks all of the connections for you. (He even checks your washer’s hose connections.) Once he has completed his cleaning and checks, he will put your appliance right back where he found it. Before he goes, your technician will check in with you and give you his recommendation for when to schedule your next service. He can even schedule it for you while he is still there. If you have any questions after your appointment please give the office a call at (760)436-0086 or send an email to info@villagesweep.com.
Service Call or Inspection
The one thing that works for each chimney appointment is how we schedule. We give our customers an arrival window of 1 to 2 hours, but your technician will always give you a call or send you a text when he is on his way.
Depending on the type of service required, he may or may not need to set up tarps to keep from leaving a mess. Because we choose the “better safe than sorry” option, your technician will always put a tarp down in front of the hearth when doing any work on the interior of the chimney system. We value you as a customer so we will treat your home with the utmost care.
For all inspections, expect to see your technician taking a lot of pictures. He will use these photos in the report that he is generating about your chimney. He will also be checking manufacturer installation instructions if you have a pre-fabricated metal fireplace system. Every chimney has its own specifications for installations and as inspectors there is no way to know all of those specifications. However, as inspectors, we are expected to know where to find this information.
Please keep in mind your technician is a certified chimney maintenance professional. He is held to a code of ethics as a part of this certification process and it is our company’s policy to identify all issues that the inspector sees within the chimney system. Also keep in mind that chimneys are in a constant state of deterioration. It is not uncommon to find major changes within a chimney even if it has only been one or two years since it was last serviced. There are many factors that contribute to a chimney’s state and it is your inspector’s job to evaluate its overall well being.
Once the inspection is complete, your inspector will share his findings with you. As the chimney report is your property, he will not discuss his findings with anyone else. Please remember, a chimney inspection is a snapshot in time. It is a representation of the structure of your chimney as it is on the date of your service. If anything changes after your appointment causing you to experience any sort of problems, please stop using your fireplace until we can inspect it again. Your inspector’s contact information will be on your report but if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact the office at (760)436-0086 or info@villagesweep.com.
If you have already booked an appointment with us, I would like to thank you for doing so. We really appreciate the opportunity to work with you and we welcome you to our fabulous community of customers! If you have yet to book an appointment with us, I hope that we have earned your trust and you might consider scheduling with us.