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Installed A New Wood Burning Fireplace? 2 Tips To Keep It Maintained

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Having a wood-burning fireplace in your home offers you many benefits. It can heat a room and more if the power goes out or add warmth on cold days. Hearing the fire crackling can be relaxing. One thing you must do, however, is keep the fireplace maintained. Below are two tips on how you can do this. 

Clean the Interior

A wood-burning fireplace produces a lot of ashes from burning the wood. Because of this, you need to clean the interior regularly. This keeps your new fireplace looking new. It also helps keep the fireplace efficient so it will provide heat for you and your family. 

Wear a mask to protect yourself from the ashes to prevent the dust from getting into your lungs. Put the fire out completely and use a cleaning solution to clean it. Purchase a cleaning solution made to clean wood-burning fireplaces. Remove the grate and use a broom and a dustpan to sweep the ash. Use a stiff-bristled brush along with the cleaning solution you purchased to clean inside the fireplace. 

Purchase a pumice stone to clean the bricks that surround the fireplace. Mix some dish soap and water and put them in a bowl. Dip the pumice stone in the bowl before you use it. Clean the doors with glass cleaner and clean the tools that you use with mild soap and water. Let everything completely dry before you start a fire again. 

Remove Creosote

When wood burns it leaves behind creosote in the chimney. Creosote is dangerous because it is very flammable and can start a fire when you burn your wood. In the beginning, creosote is easy to remove by simply wiping it. Over time, the creosote gets thicker and ends up like sticky tar that is almost impossible to remove. If you see a lot of creosote buildup and it has already turned into tar, you should have a professional clean the fireplace for you. 

If it has not turned to tar, you can clean some of it yourself as you can reach inside the chimney from inside. Do this and use a stiff-bristled brush to remove the creosote. This will also remove soot from the chimney which is important as the soot is what turns into creosote. 

If you notice creosote buildup far up the chimney, hire a chimney sweep to clean the entire chimney for you. This will ensure all creosote is removed. Ask the chimney sweep how often you should have this done. 

The chimney sweep that you hire can give you many more fireplace maintenance tips so you can enjoy your new fireplace for a long time. 


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