We understand that for most people, if you've not had a chimney sweep before, your only point of reference might well be Mary Poppins. So here's a few pointers so that you can know what to expect:

• Regardless of whether you have a stove or an open fire, all the work happens from beside the fireplace, inside your home - no access to the roof required.

• Despite the nature of fireplaces and soot, a Stovely sweep is clean and non-invasive. We use specialised sheeting to close up your stove or fireplace, and vacuum any loose soot before it becomes airborne.

• If we discover anything that causes us concern or we feel should be flagged, we will let you know on the day of your sweep.

• When we leave you'll receive a Visit Report with a complete rundown of your sweep and any advisories.

• Although the time required greatly depends on your chimney, a standard sweep generally lasts about an hour per chimney, with complications like birds’ nests adding on average, an extra hour.
  

Please bear in mind: we are only able to work on a cold appliance, so if your sweep is booked during the fire-burning season, we would recommend not lighting your stove the evening before our visit, to avoid a situation where we are unable to complete the job.

There are two main things you can do to ready your home for our visit. Firstly, we will need access to power reasonably close to the stove / fireplace. It is of great help to us if you can provide clear access to a plug socket, to avoid negotiating furniture.

Secondly, any coffee tables / dining tables / children's toys or other obstacles within 2m of your stove or fireplace will need to be temporarily moved aside for us to lay out our hearth sheet.

And that's it! We can take care of everything else.

The best time to have your stove or chimney swept is at the end of the cold season, when your fire is likely to remain untouched for an extended period of time. For most people, this lands between April-September.

Please bear in mind that the busy season for the chimney sweep industry runs from September-December, with days booking up several months in advance. If you think you'd like your sweep before the festive period, it's best to get in touch with us in the summer. If you have noticed that your stove needs a repair, please don’t wait until the fire-burning season begins to address it, as we can’t always prioritise repair work during this time.

To book a sweep you will need to get in touch with us, either via email, phone call, or by filling in the online form, and telling us a bit about your stove:

• When was it installed?

• When was the last time it was swept?

• Does it have a flue liner?

• Do you have a HETAS certificate?

• How often do you use it and what do you burn?

Or open fireplace:

• Roughly how big is the opening?

• When was the last time it was swept?

• Do you have a bird and rain cowl (a little hat on top of the chimney pot)?

• What type of property are you in? i.e thatched, victorian terrace, new build etc.

• How often do you use it and what do you burn?

We will use this information to determine the appropriate service, and give you a quote for the job. Although we keep our prices as uncomplicated as possible, it isn’t always possible to tell beforehand what surprises a chimney may be hiding. After your sweep, Thomas will discuss whether he recommends a yearly / every-other-year / no return schedule, and a provisional follow up date will be emailed out to you within three days.

You are not alone; this is probably the most recurring cry for help we hear from stove owners.

During the colder months the flue liner can become too cold to draw. This is particularly likely if your stove hasn’t been lit in a few days, if the chimney is constructed on the exterior of the house, or if your stove is freestanding with a twin wall flue that exits through the wall of the room it’s in.

When you first light your fire, using paper / kindling / firelighters etc. a fair bit of smoke is produced. The stove (with all air vents open) draws the air (and smoke) up and out of the top into the liner. However the cold air inside the liner acts as a blockage, stopping the smoke from continuing up, instead forcing it back into the stove, and out through the seals.

Please don’t panic. Take some time to open the windows and let the smoke evacuate as quickly as possible, before having another go. There are two techniques to help avoid this problem, and both involve gently warming the flue before the fire gets going:

• Light a firelighter or two in the stove and let them burn through. Alternatively, to save on firelighters, you can put a couple of lit tea lights inside the stove for 5-10 minutes.

• Use the Top-Down method of lighting your fire, by stacking your kindling in a grid on top of a log, and placing the firelighters on top of everything. Now the firelighters will burn through first, warming the flue, before lighting the kindling, and eventually the log.

It’s worth bearing in mind that burning paper tends to produce a large amount of smoke relative to the small amount of heat it generates before quickly burning out. If you know your stove struggles with cold plugs, try to avoid using paper to light your fires.

Here at Stovely we are equipt for removing nests, and other buildups of debris, with little drama, however there are a few things that are useful to know if you think you have a nest:

While a number of common birds use the eaves, roof space, and crevices around the house to nest in, it’s really only jackdaws that nest in chimneys, with their nesting season falling from March to September.

If you have an active nest in a chimney, it is against the law to remove it during this season under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Once a jackdaw has identified your chimney as a safe place to nest, they are likely to return year after year. For this reason, if we know your chimney is a hotspot for jackdaws, we will likely request that you look into having a bird and rain cowl fitted on top of your chimney pot.

The Heat Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme is a not-for-profit working to make burning fires in your home as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible.

They do this in several ways; by grading stove models according to their efficiency, by testing and approving solid fuels for burning at home, by training and certifying installers and sweeps to ensure the standardisation of the work, and lastly, by certifying installations as meeting all appropriate building regulations.

This is useful to you in several ways. If you need a sweep or installer to come out and have a look at your stove, finding someone who is HETAS certified means you know you will be receiving a reliable, and professional service.

Being able to let us know whether or not your stove is HETAS registered also means that we will have a much better idea of what to expect and how best to prepare for your job. For example, all HETAS stoves have a flue liner, knowing this enables us to give you an accurate quote for a sweep ahead of time, and plan our schedule appropriately.

There are a few ways to tell this:

• You may have the pink registration certificate that would have been left with you on the day your stove was installed.

• You may be able to see the stainless steel data plate fitted by the installer. You will find this either next to the main fuse box of your house, or on the closure plate that seals off your chimney above your stove.

• You can also call HETAS directly and ask them if they have a stove installation registered at your address.

When buying a house that has a stove already in situ, the more information you can glean, the better. If the house has multiple stoves, you should expect the same information for each, regardless of how frequently or infrequently they describe its use.

Here are questions to consider:

• Did the sellers have the stove installed?

• When was the last sweep and stove inspection?

• How often did they use it?

• What have they been burning?
  

Here is the documentation you can request as part of the conveyancing process:

• Sales invoice for the stove, flue parts, and installation

• HETAS registration certificate (see above for other ways to check HETAS status)

• The installer's HETAS certification number

• Building Regulations sign off in relation to Document J (only if the stove was installed by a builder as part of other building renovation works)

• Copies of all sweep records and any records of repair work

If instead you’re discussing an open fireplace, ask for the chimney sweep certificates, and any information about the sellers use of the fireplaces during their ownership of the property.

Most importantly; before you begin using a stove you’ve inherited, make sure there is a functioning carbon monoxide alarm in the same room as the appliance.

Getting a professional to sweep and inspect the general condition of the stoves or open fireplaces that you’re inheriting is always the best way to begin life in your new home. They will be able to determine the safety of the installation and provide guidance on lighting fires safely.

We know that the sheer amount of heat a stove can pump out can be overwhelming sometimes. However, when you burn your stove at a lower temperature, creosote tar is produced.

Tar is highly flammable and over time can build up in your stove and chimney, creating a dangerous fire risk. Once there it is very difficult to remove and in some cases we may have to declare your stove unsafe to use. With this in mind, it is crucial to burn your stove at full capacity whenever possible.

Overnight slumbering is the practice of stoking up the firebox and turning the airflow all the way down. There is no way of slumbering that doesn't both damage your stove and liner, and also create a high risk of chimney fires or carbon monoxide build up.

Persistent slumbering leads to a build up of clinker solids in the flue, which in some cases can almost entirely close up sections of the flue. This happens much faster than you would expect, in some of our customers' cases, within the space of one annual sweep cycle.

Over time some parts of your stove will deteriorate with use. It's important to know what you're looking at and what can go wrong, as some parts are more obvious than others.

• The firebricks are the slabs lining the inside of your stove; these can crack and come apart. They often won’t require replacing until they are broken, but it’s good to keep an eye out for cracks

• The baffle sits below the opening to the stovepipe, in most cases they're cast iron which can warp, or vermiculite which can crack

• The rope seal on the inside of the door can fray, come loose, or become compacted

• The glass gasket seal can also become compacted or degrade

• The door glass can crack. In this case, we will always ask you to check whether or not the screw fixings securing the glass can still be loosened and removed

All of these things are repairable, but it's important to clean out your stove and have a good look at it from time to time, to ensure you catch any problems developing.

We are always happy to have a look at photos of your stove and let you know what our opinion is regarding the urgency and safety of the situation.

The single best thing you can do to ensure the continuing health and efficiency of your stove is have it swept regularly.

The HETAS recommendation for woodburning appliances is once a year. Having your stove swept regularly is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of chimney fires, it's also an opportunity to flag anything that is causing you concern with a professional. You can find Stovely on the HETAS list of approved chimney sweep technicians.

Remember: if you do see something that worries you, or you have a question about the behaviour of your stove, you can always give us a call, or send us an email with a picture.