Thorough chimney sweep services in Stourport and Worcester

Keeping your chimneys clean all year round

Jack The Sweep offers a professional, clean and customer focused chimney sweeping service in Stourport, Worcester, Kidderminster, Bewdley and the surrounding areas. He utilises the latest and most effective industry-approved power sweeping methods to ensure that the chimney is both clean and safe to use. Jack The Sweep is fully ensured, uniformed and trained to a high standard to provide a comprehensive service at an affordable price.

Jack The Sweep can help you with:

• Thorough and clean power chimney sweeping
• Full smoke testing
• CCTV Chimney Inspections
• Chimney pots supplied and fitted
• Bird nests / Blockages removed
• Bird guards supplied and fitted
• Cowls supplied and fitted
• Capping of disused chimneys
• Stove installations

Chimney smoke tests in Worcester

If there is any doubt about the condition of a chimney, or an old chimney is to be put in use after a long period of disuse, it is advisable to have it smoke tested. It is also recommended that a smoke test is carried out during the construction of masonry chimneys and on completion of all chimney installations. It must be remembered that the purpose of the smoke test is to identify any faults which would cause fumes to escape during the normal operation of the appliance and chimney.

We cover the following areas:

• Stourport
• Kidderminster
• Bewdley
• Bromsgrove
• Droitwich
• Redditch
• Dudley
• Worcester
• Alcester

Assessment of the flue

Jack The Sweep offers two different types of smoke test depending on your requirements, to ensure that the chimney is in satisfactory working order.

The first is a cold smoke test to ensure that the chimney has a sufficient draw and that dangerous gases are being carried up the flue and not remaining in the room of origin. A smoke pellet is burned in the fire opening, to ensure that smoke emerges from the correct terminal only (usually the chimney pot). There should be no spillage/leakage into any of the rooms that the flue passes through, and the smoke should be carried up the flue and not remain at the fire opening. This is usually a good indication that your flue is sound.

Other problems might be that the flue is capped or that it is filled with cold, moist air meaning that the air is heavier than the air in the room. Warming or priming the flue can aid the travel of smoke up the flue.

The second smoke test is a pressure test that ensures that smoke is not escaping through any of the brickwork that makes up the flue. Closing the bottom and top of the chimney during the test generates a positive pressure in the flue. This forces the smoke, generated by the pellet, to escape through gaps in the joints in a masonry chimney, or connections between pre-fabricated metal chimneys and flue pipes.

Minor leakage detected during this test, would not be a major risk when the installation is used during normal operating conditions, providing the point of leakage does not indicate a fault that could get worse. However, if significant or heavy smoke leakage is seen, the cause must be investigated and rectified and Jack The Sweep can advise on the necessary remedial work required. Broken components, incorrect fitting and incomplete jointing of flue liners are the most common problems which cause major leakage and require corrective action.