With a tip of his top hat and a twirl of his tailcoat, black-clad chimney sweep Bill Gilchrist announces himself. He appears like a puff of whimsy in the midst of the no-nonsense northwest suburbs. Gilchrist poses at the front door of one of six Barrington homes whose chimneys he’ll clean this sunny fall day.
Traditional wire-bristled brushes, tools, extension poles and ladders await in Gilchrist’s capped pickup truck, emblazoned with its No-Mess Chimney Sweep emblem.
But also stowed in the sweep’s truck is high-tech, computerized gear that Bert, the chimney sweep in the Mary Poppins story, would have thought was the stuff of fairy tales: high-powered chimney vacuums, video cameras, work uniforms, safety ropes, soot suits (head-to-toe disposable outfits for super-sooty jobs), elbow-length leather gloves, goggles, hoods and respirators.
Respirators? How prosaic. Yes, respirators, and not just face masks either. Today’s most technologically oriented sweeps wear high-powered air-purifiers: a lightweight disposable, poly-coated hood that’s attached to a turbo unit powered by a rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery pack worn on the belt.
Sweeps have come a long way from pulling stocking caps over their faces to protect themselves from the harmful things found in tar, soot and smoke.
So after greeting the homeowner, Gilchrist retires to his truck, where he undergoes a Bert-to-spaceman transformation and steps out ready to sweep.
This change of clothes represents the seriousness of the task. Gone are the happy-go-lucky chimney sweeps of legend and film. Today’s sweeps trust technology and training rather than luck to clean chimneys and survive the hazards.
And the hazards are very real, for the sweep as well as for the chimney owners.
According to John Hall, assistant vice president for fire analysis and research for the National Fire Protection Association, a not-for-profit group based in Quincy, Mass., figures for 1991 show that one in six home fires related to a heat source, or 14,900, started in chimneys. That figure is down dramatically from the 59,600 in 1981, a drop he attributes to preventive measures, such as those performed by sweeps.
“All the fire safety organizations have been emphasizing education in fire prevention, and using chimney sweeps is part of that,” Hall said. “The kinds of problems they deal with are heavily involved in fire prevention.”
Much of the hour to two hours that sweeps spend at each house consists of lugging vacuums, brushes, tarpaulins, ladders, and gear in and out.
Gilchrist, who has been in business 16 years, said he calls his business “No Mess” because that’s his promise. First he spreads the fireside with disposable plastic drop cloths or washable tarps. Then he fits together two or more of his 12 brushes to match the flue size, plugs in his super vac, dons his safety gear and commences to “scrub” the chimney from the bottom up.
Then up to the house top with ladders, safety ropes and brushes to check the chimney pot for cracks and rid the upper chimney of soot and bird and animal nests. Time on the roof depends on how thorough the homeowner wants the inspection, the type and height of chimney and the severity of the soot.
Prices for inspection and cleaning vary with the complexity of the job and the completeness of the inspection, usually between $60 and $80.
“There are three questions homeowners should ask chimney sweeps,” said Chris Larson, 39, owner of Tom’s Chimney Sweep Service based in Schaumburg. “Are you certified? Do you have insurance? May I have some references?”
Larson is a certified sweep and has been in the business for six years. “I learned from a previous sweep,” he said, “then became certified through the Chimney Safety Institute of America,” the only group that certifies chimney sweeps.
Larson runs three trucks with four full and part-time sweeps who also are certified. Although none of Larson’s crews has ever found leftover presents from Santa in chimneys, they have found the usual nests, birds, animals and creosote, especially from unseasoned wood.
“Folks should only burn hard, seasoned wood that’s been dead around one year,” Larson said. “Order wood now for next year and stack it out back, then you’ll be sure.”
“I’m indebted to Chris Larson and his knowledge about chimneys and fires,” said Dale Kuester of unincorporated Palatine. “My wife and I had a chimney fire about two weeks before Christmas last year. We had lit the fire and were just settling in when we heard this roaring sound. I ran outside in the snow barefoot and saw sparks and flames shooting out the chimney. Within a 10-minute span it was over. The fire department checked the roof and attic and told us to get the chimney inspected. They said the second or third fires do house damage. People usually aren’t aware of fires the first or second times.
“I called Chris of Tom’s Chimney Sweep Service for an inspection,” Kuester said. “He determined we had no structural damage but an extensive buildup of creosote. We’d had the chimney cleaned when we moved in three years before, but we burn two to three full cords of wood a winter. So now we get the chimney cleaned every year.”
For some chimney sweeps, the business is seasonal, concentrated on late summer, fall and early winter. Those who also rebuild, repair and reline chimneys are kept busy year-round.
The basic task of a chimney sweep is to clean creosote from chimney flues. Creosote is the highly flammable residue that results from burning wood and wood products. Creosote builds up faster in fireplaces where there is lack of sufficient air for combustion, where soft woods such as pine are burned regularly, where the fireplace is used to burn garbage, or where certain types of artificial logs containing waxes are burned repeatedly.
Good sweeps also will check for damage in the flashing where the chimney meets the roof, for cracks in the chimney liner as well as above and below the roof line. The sweep will check for debris on the smoke shelf, check the damper and either repair the damage if qualified or refer the homeowner to a qualified repair person.
Steve Jackson of Elgin, the Village Sweep, doesn’t wear a top hat and tails. “I prefer to have people take me seriously for my work,” the 36-year-old sweep said.
What Jackson does wear on his work uniform are certification badges indicating his professionalism. He’s a certified member of the National Chimney Sweep Guild; a certified installer of wood stoves; and a certified member of the Masonry Heater Association of North America, among other credentials.
“I didn’t care about magic hats and legends,” said Pat Miller of South Elgin, whose chimney Jackson rebuilt. “I just wanted the job done.”
Miller had lived in his 50-year-old house for five years and had used the fireplace only a couple of times. “It had cracked tile and was falling down,” he said. “I was afraid it was going to fall on someone. Jackson completely took it down from the top and rebuilt it. It’s flagstone, and he literally took it apart by hand. He’s good.”
While Jackson is a professional, he’s not all seriousness, either. “I do have a German chimney sweep uniform,” Jackson said. “It’s a black leather jacket, long black leather pants, a skullcap and a big black belt with a silver buckle. I wear it for parades and home shows.”
Jackson’s costume is a gift from a German sweep whom he met a few years ago while on vacation in Germany. “I told the guy at the hotel desk in Koblenz who I was,” Jackson said. “Well, he got on the phone and pretty soon three guys walked through the front door and started shaking my hand. I wound up spending three weeks in Germany and Austria living and working with sweeps.”
Jackson learned that it takes about 15 years to become a full-fledged sweep in Germany.
“Of the 6,500 to 6,700 companies of sweeps in the U.S., 800 companies are members of the guild,” said John Bitner, executive director of both the National Chimney Sweep Guild and its educational arm, the Chimney Safety Institute of America in Gaithersburg, Md. “We don’t know how many sweeps are out there, but 1,200 sweeps are certified by us.”
Certification is growing, he said, as homeowners demand it and as insurance companies increasingly look for proof that certified sweeps serviced the chimneys of houses subsequently damaged by fire. Satisfactory completion of a test is required for certification.
“This office is a lightning rod for people with problems,” Bitner said. “There’s the couple who built a fire the first night they stayed in their new house. The chimney caught on fire and their house burned to the ground. Apparently the worker ran out of material to finish the top of the chimney, so he finished with wood (instead of brick). Then there’s the subdivision of 220 homes that all began to catch fire after seven years because of mis-installation of chimneys.
“Even people who hire building inspectors to check out the house they’re planning to buy can suffer,” Bitner said. “After an inspector had approved her 116-year-old house (that she had bought), a woman called a sweep to inspect the woodburning stove. The sweep discovered the stove was not safe and not built according to code. Reinstallation cost the woman $8,000. The inspector only had to refund her the $200 inspection fee.”
Nels Hornstrom, director of building for Schaumburg, said Illinois requires no specific license for chimney sweeps. He said sweeps just bring in proof that they have liability insurance, and if there are no outstanding complaints against them, the village will issue them a business license.
Bill Pones, an inspector with Schaumburg’s Fire Prevention Bureau, said he has handouts on the safe use of fireplaces. “Sometimes homeowner associations give us a call,” he said, “and we come out and give a talk on fireplace safety.”
That may not be enough, according to the National Chimney Sweep Guild’s Bitner. “As a nation we’ve lost touch with chimney safety. Our latest figures are from 1990, and they document more than 4,500 residential fires due to (coal and wood) equipment and chimney fires. As a result, 110 people died, 310 were injured and total property losses were set at more than $200.1 million.”
Larson, owner of Tom’s Chimney Sweep Service, said regular chimney inspections are essential for fireplace safety. “If a full cord of wood is burned each year, the chimney must at least be inspected each year,” he said.
And, does he believe in the chimney-sweep legends and costume?
“No, my sweeps and I don’t wear tails,” he said with a smile, trying not to look like chimney-sweep actor Dick Van Dyke. “We’re service-oriented. Besides, we couldn’t find any.”
For a list of certified chimney sweeps in Illinois, send a self-addressed, stamped business envelope to the National Chimney Sweep Guild, 16021 Industrial Dr., Suite 8, Gaithersburg, Md. 20877.CAPTION
