Chimney sweeping

In detail

Sweeping a chimney removes the deposits combustion leaves in the flue, and it comes with a warning attached: it is a fire-safety requirement rather than a matter of appearance, and it is not a domestic job. The UK approval body sets the interval by fuel rather than by appliance — at least twice a year when burning wood, and at least once a year on smokeless fuel — and specifies timing separately from frequency: sweep just before the start of the heating season, and again after the appliance has stood unused for a prolonged period. Where a chimney is swept twice, the second sweep belongs after the peak of the heating season rather than at an even six-month spacing. It recommends an approved sweep, names four associated trade bodies and notes that an approved sweep can produce an identity card. The context it gives is 2,540 chimney fires in England between April 2022 and March 2023. Two things it deliberately does not say are worth recording: it does not explain what sweeping removes, and it gives no interval for bituminous house coal, oil or gas. The body's own guidance carries no coal figure, whatever a general summary may attribute to it.

What works

• Chimney sweeping is effective against Soot Strongly supported

• Chimney sweeping is effective against Creosote Supported

Why

• Chimney sweeping is explained by Classifying a stain by its origin
• Chimney sweeping is explained by The risk sits with the cleaner

  The trade whose history is the clearest record of what cleaning has cost the people doing it.