Hi
A quick question. When the sweep makes his/her annual visit, are they supposed to use the chimney vac to do out the inside of the stove? If it’s not their job I’ll shut up (it’s not like we have a choice of sweep round here) but I’ll leave a picture of how much ash I took out of our stove after the chimney had been cleaned and you can draw your own conclusions.
#dontcallmesooty
Our sweep dismantles the woodburner as well as the flue… and cleans from ground level to chimney pot… and beyond… 
Ours brought there own vacuum cleaner and left all the fireplaces/wood burners spotless.
Our stove is the type where you leave a layer of ash in the base. So he cleans it - well there’s usually a bit of soot/creosote come down from chimney - and then replaces some ‘clean’ ash in the base.
As long as he cleans the chimney properly - that’ the important bit!!
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Call me old fashioned, I still preferred it when they went up on the roof with the brush on a rope- the way we used to do it in Scotland!
#watchamarypoppins
Yes ours cleans from top down……we also feel it is better that way.
I know our chimney sweep does an excellent job because it’s me!
During the burning season, which with the current warm weather and our extremely well insulated house hasn’t started yet, I clean the flue about every 8 weeks which takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.
We have a Brosley Evo woodburner which provides all our hot water and heating which is very efficient and even more so with the TLC I lavish upon it.
And before people mention validity of insurance I have spoken with our insurers Aviva and my chimney sweeping regime is totally in order.
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I think they’d need a crane to get onto the roof…
around here, it’s always up, up and away… until we can see the brush coming out of the top.
It’s funny you should say that. When I grew up in Edinburgh it was quite normal for the sweep to come with long ladders which would reach to the roofs of the three/four storey tenements in which most city dwellers lived. It was not until we owned our first house in England that the sweep invited me outside to see the brush pop out of the chimney pot and observe, correctly, that it was the first time I had ever seen this as the Scots would “sweep down!”
The thought of our little old chap clambering over the tiles… just doesn’t bear thinking about.
The job is done to perfection from ground level and thus avoids any need to risk life and limb…
Hi
When our chimney was first swept here I wondered if it was part of the “auld alliance” the ancient link been Scotland and France that saw it swept top down. Ancient? Today I bought a gigot of lamb which i may well serve on an ashet!
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Pah, send a child up 
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If they do it bottom up how do they clean round the cap? And how do they look inside the flue to check for damage?
No way I am getting on our roof, but our sweep also does a quick check for problems while he’s up there. And once spotted damage that was leaking into the attic that we can’t access - so saved us a lot of grief later on.
Personally, I’m very disappointed that they no longer send a small orphan up the chimney, Fings ain’t wot they used to be - and where will it all end?
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Our chimneys are lined so it would have to be a very thin orphan…
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Health and safety is an issue, climb on your own roof and clean it if you want it done that way
I feel a bit like Dr Frankenstein- there’s a thesis in all of this! (And don’t you dare forget to put me in the Acknowledgments…)
Every woman needs a man like you!
My stove likes a couple of inches of ash, but the sweep insisted on cleaning it all out!
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