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Cleaning Your Fireplace in 7 Steps

12/03/2011 14:56

Regardless of methods often you use your home's fireplace, it's important to keep it clean since minute particles of soot and ash can drift and fall throughout your home much like a light dusting of snow. Safety measures should be in place, however, when you choose to give your fireplace an excellent cleaning, particularly if you have recently burned a fire. Give your fireplace a complete cleaning at least once each year and use the following guidelines for this admittedly dirty job:

1. Be certain that the fire is completely extinguished (including coals and embers) before trying to clean. It's wise to have to wait at least two days for the reason that last fire.

2. Close the home's windows and doors. Doing so will keep wind gusts from blowing soot and ash at home or into your face.

3. Wear protective clothing. An apron or old work shirt will protect your clothes, and gloves will protect both. Additionally, goggles as well as a surgical mask will protect up your eyes and breathing passages through the ashes and soot.

4. Use the shovel from your andiron set or some other scooping tool. Use this scooping device to transfer ashes through the fireplace into a bucket. Go ahead and take bucket outdoors before emptying it to keep ashes from floating in to the home's atmosphere. In case you have a compost heap and have soil that tends to be acidic, consider dumping your ashes in to the compost heap to reduce the soil's acidic pH level. Also when dumping your ash, be mindful of wind and dry climate conditions. You don't want to be dumping an active ember into your trash receptacle.

5. Vacuum the leftover ashes that you simply were unable to scoop out. Again, keep in mind that you should wait 48 hours before cleaning your fireplace and grow resigned to the fact that you may not be able to vacuum every amount of ash. Most vacuums aren't built to do this.

6. If you wish, you can wash out of the fireplace with soap and water. If your fireplace is brick, you possibly can give it a vigorous scrubbing. You have to be gentler when cleaning adobe, stucco, or wallboard. When your fireplace material is marble, cement, stone, tile, or slate, utilize a soft cloth and clean by using a mixture of water, baking soda, and lemon juice.

7. Remember to clean your accessories, grate, and irons. Clean this stuff just as you would clean the racks in your grill. Take the items outside and wash these with soap and water or a cleansing solution while using water hose. Accessories made of brass, however, will require a milder approach. Clean brass pieces by using a soft cloth as well as the same mixture as described above: water, baking soda, and lemon juice.

As a safety measure, engage a chimney sweep to wash the inside of your chimney to remove dangerous build-up of soot and dirt.

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