Insight To Keep Your Home's Chimney And Roof Well-Maintained
Your home's roof and chimney may be out of your view most of the day, but they are essential to the protection and quality of your home's interior. Here is some insight to help you keep your roof and chimney, and its fireplace, well maintained and in good working order.
Clean and Maintain Your Chimney
Using your fireplace regularly to keep your home warm can require you to take additional care of your chimney with regular cleaning and inspections. Burning wood in your fireplace causes a build-up of soot and creosote in your chimney liner, damper, firebox, and smoke chamber.
This accumulation can cause your fireplace to not work as effectively and not exhaust fumes out of your home from the fire, and can lead to dangerous conditions in your chimney. Cleaning of your fireplace is essential, as any creosote glazing within your chimney can lead to a fire, and the more you use your fireplace, the more accumulation of soot and other fire-burning build-up will collect inside your fireplace and chimney.
An inspection of your chimney and fireplace will help you discover any problems that exist in your fireplace system and have them repaired before they cause damage, inefficient burning and heating, or a fire. It is recommended to inspect your chimney each year and have it cleaned, as needed, such as by a company like Chimneys Unlimited. Once the inspection is completed, your chimney professional can recommend when to clean its interior to prevent fires. Then, be sure to select and burn wood that is not pine, as pine can cause an excessive build-up of creosote in your fireplace and chimney.
Inspect and Maintain Your Roof and Drainage
Also on the exterior of your home is your roof and its drainage system. This area on your home keeps your home's interior protected from the elements and needs to be checked and repaired, as needed. Snow and ice build-up on your roof can loosen your shingles and cause them to wear prematurely. Heavy wind storms can also loosen your shingles and cause them to come free of your roof, exposing your roofing deck to the elements. This type of damage can lead to interior moisture damage in your home.
Inspect your roof each year to look for any signs of excessive wear and damage. You can complete this by safely accessing your roof top to inspect for damage, or you can hire a roofing professional to help you. Then, have your gutters cleaned and checked for damage to make sure they drain water from your roof and your home effectively to further prevent interior water damage.
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