I saw this chimney this past weekend, and thought I just had to post it. If you look at the first photo, it does not look too unusual other than there is no rain cap. But, when you look down the flue, it has more creosote than any chimney I have ever seen before. The creosote was about an inch thick and caked from the top clear down to the inside of the stove. I got a pretty clear shot top to bottom and I am sure that everyone at AR, working in this industry, knows that this is a real fire hazard. And besides, it would ruin Santa's whole trip next year. Can you imagine how black he would be coming out of this thing? In fact, this was not a hard call to make as an inspector: Get a chimney sweep in to clean it, the wood stove and do a full safety inspection. Sometimes these conditions are borderline, it is fairly clean and might be fine for some time. That was sure not the case here. This was a fire waiting to happen and with shakes below it could have been really out of control.
First glance
The view down below
I thank you, and Santa thanks you, for the comments,
Steven L. Smith
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Steven,
Yikes, so how old is this house? Is this normal?
Thank you for the second picture! The few times I have been up on a roof, curiousity had me going to the chimneys, but they always had a rain cap on.
ooooh .. Santa would say Yikes!
Carolin Benjamin
Bob and Carolin Benjamin
The Benjamin Team
Keller Williams Integrity First Realty
Gold Canyon Arizona
David,
Thanks for answering Lynda's question. One can always count on another BTC inspection instructor to pop in with some good advice while I am straying.
Lynda,
If you, or the other masterminds (great name), ever have any inspection questions shoot them this way. Between David, Charles Buell and myself, all here at AR, and the resources we have through the inspection training curriculum at Bellingham Technical College where we all teach, along with working in the field, we can usually give a pretty good answer or at least get the answer for you. We enjoy doing that as, finding things out for other people, is part of where knowledge comes from.