Your chimney is an important part of your home’s overall functionality, whether it vents smoke from a wood fireplace or fumes from gas appliances. This means that regular chimney maintenance for your Nashville chimney should be a central part of your home maintenance schedule, no matter what kind of climate you live in. In this article, we’ll take a look at the various parts of chimney maintenance and why they’re important to your home’s overall safety and comfort.

The Importance of Regular Chimney Maintenance in Any Climate
Chimney maintenance includes all of the steps needed to keep your chimney operating properly. Some of these tasks need to be handled once or twice a year, while others are on an as-needed basis as your chimney ages over time.
Chimney Inspection
A chimney inspection for your Nashville home’s chimney is a solid look at what’s going on with your chimney system, including checking for any blockages, buildup, or necessary repairs. This process involves a chimney contractor looking into the interior of your chimney, as well as the exterior, to ensure that it will continue operating properly and often is required annually as part of your homeowner’s insurance policy. The chimney technician will let you know about any issues that will need to be addressed.
Chimney Sweeping
Chimney sweeping is the most basic type of chimney maintenance and cleaning, and involves using a stiff brush of either plastic or metal to scrub the interior of your chimney free of creosote and other buildup. Chimney sweeping allows your Nashville home’s chimney to continue having good draft and airflow, which are vital to safe operations, as well as providing chimney fire prevention by removing flammable creosote from your chimney.
Chimney Cleaning
Beyond a simple sweep, chimneys that have been neglected or not swept for a length of time may require a chimney cleaning service. This is a more in-depth process that takes more time to remove a larger layer of buildup that may be sticking more tightly to the interior walls of your chimney, called the liner or flue. Following this process, you can usually return to a regular chimney sweeping schedule rather than continued one-time cleanings.
Chimney Leak Repair
Whether it’s because of something shifting in your home, a new roof being put on, or similar activities, chimney flashing repair is often needed when your chimney begins to leak water. This is important not only to the proper functioning of your chimney, but also for your home’s interior, as the excess water can cause a lot of issues with your health through mold and mildew exposure and can also damage your interior finishes.
Chimney Relining
In some cases, a more efficient appliance may not produce enough heat to draft effectively and efficiently in your existing chimney. Chimney relining involves placing a liner within the chimney to improve airflow and draft, and it’s fairly common when new appliances are installed that have different demands than old ones. This can involve adding a stainless steel or other metallic liner into the chimney to improve its performance.
Chimney Parging
More often an issue for historic homes, chimney parging involves sealing the interior surface of the smoke chamber to lower cleaning needs, improve chimney safety, and improve draft. The smoke chamber is located above the fireplace, where smoke collects to exit the chimney. In older chimneys, this chamber can have rough surfaces that can collect creosote or other compounds, creating potential for a chimney fire.
Chimney Repointing
When your chimney’s exterior begins to fail, it’s often the cause of mortar that is aging and falling out, or that has been damaged in storms or through an accidental blow. In these cases, the kind of exterior chimney repair that you need is called repointing or tuckpointing, where the existing mortar is removed and replaced to provide many years of reliable service. This ensures that your chimney will not receive additional freeze and thaw damage from water leaking into the interior.
Chimney Cap Replacement
Your chimney’s cap is a large piece of masonry or cement that extends beyond the edges of your chimney at the very top. The purpose of this cap is to direct rainwater away from the sides of your chimney, reducing its impact on your chimney masonry and chimney flashing. Over time, this masonry can age due to weather, or a blow from a falling tree or similar issues can cause a crack or damage to occur, requiring chimney repair.
Chimney repair and maintenance covers a wide range of issues that can seem confusing to the average homeowner but are often easy to manage when the time comes. If you’re concerned about getting regular chimney maintenance for your Nashville home or don’t have time to handle the process, the experienced chimney contractors at Allegiance Chimney Solutions in Nashville offer exceptional regular chimney maintenance solutions and are always happy to help. Why not contact us today to get started?
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