Certified
Craftsmen, LLC cleans and repairs chimneys throughout
Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties. All chimney
cleanings come with a NFPA 211 Level One inspection.
(for more information on the National Fire Protection
Association please visit (NFPA.org).
This is a basic maintenance inspection that should be
done annually any cleaning. According to the NFPA and
the CDC (Center for Disease Control - for more information visit
CDC.gov) all chimneys, fireplaces, and vents shall be
inspected at least once a year by a qualified expert.
Many
times our company is
called for an inspection when the homeowner actually
notices a problem such as having a chimney fire, a leak,
smoke coming in the house, structural failure, loose
bricks/mortar etc. When the customer waits until these
problems arise, many times significant damage has
already occurred. With proper yearly maintenance and
inspections many of these costly problems can be
avoided. All of our cleanings come with a NFPA 211
Level one inspection.
Inspected
items can include:
Connectors, spark arrestors, cleanouts, tee fittings,
hearth, hearth extension, visible clearances, brick and
mortar condition, visible smoke chamber condition,
visible liner condition, crown, flashing, damper
operation, and other important items accessible during a
level one inspection will be observed during a routine
cleaning. This is an important process that should take
place in every home yearly.
Cleanings:
Certified
Craftsmen cleans fireplaces, woodstoves, woodstove
inserts, gas or oil-fired furnace or boiler flues, dryer
vents and HVAC systems. Cleaning and proper maintenance
of your fireplace, chimney and venting systems in your
home help remove the hazards associated with the burning
off all fuels. More and pore people are maintaining
their
systems in the US. Look at some of the quotes below from
an article of the NFPA website.
Repairs:
Certified
Craftsmen can handle any repair; from a minor repair, relining
or leak repair to major repairs and whole
fireplace & chimney rebuilds. For a complete
detailed list of repairs visit our online repair center.
Information from the
National Fire
Protection Association:
"In
1999, the most recent year for which statistics are
available, home heating fires killed 301 people in the
United States, by far the lowest number since NFPA
started collecting such data in 1980. In contrast, the
highest number of home-heating deaths in that 20-year
span was 979 in 1985."
"People are heeding our safety
messages and the fire problem continues to decline,"
said John R. Hall, Jr., Ph.D., of NFPA's fire analysis
and research division. "But data from the United Kingdom
and Canada, where the death rates are lower, show that
we can do better. If everyone followed NFPA's codes,
standards, and safety recommendations, we could prevent
most home-heating fire deaths."
"In the United Kingdom and
Canada, where the heating season is longer, the number
of home-heating fire deaths, relative to population, is
considerably lower than in the United States. This is
particularly noteworthy for Canada, a country like the
United States in many ways and with a similar overall
fire death rate".
"Room gas heaters,
portable kerosene heaters and portable electric heaters
have the greatest risk of death. Wood stoves or
fireplaces with inserts have the greatest risk of
property damage from fire. Although kerosene heaters are
illegal in some states, the data do not show that they
are clearly or consistently more dangerous than other
kinds of space heaters"
More words of advice:
-
When buying a new unit, make sure
that a qualified technician installs the unit or
checks that the unit has been installed properly.
-
For wood or coal stoves or
fireplaces, have a professional inspect the chimney,
chimney connector and other related equipment every
year. Have them cleaned as often as the
inspections indicate.
For more
info the National Fire Protection Association visit
NFPA.org.
To
order a cleaning please
call us.
