Chimney Sweeping in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Suburbs

Hardly anyone in the metro heats with wood. In the Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 survey, wood is the main heating fuel in well under 1% of homes in every Twin Cities city we serve. The fireplace gets used on weekends, over the holidays and on the coldest nights, and those short fires matter. A flue that never gets fully hot lets smoke cool and condense on its walls, and that residue is the creosote a sweep removes.

We do not quote a sweep over the phone because the job varies. A lightly used fireplace in a Golden Valley rambler and a well-fed insert in a north metro house can look nothing alike inside. So we inspect first, for free, show you what is in the flue, and put a price in writing. If the flue does not need sweeping this year, we say so.

Signs you need this

• You can scrape a black layer off the inside of the damper with a fingernail
• The room smells like an old campfire on humid summer days
• Fires are harder to start or smoke rolls out past the opening
• Black flakes drop onto the grate or hearth
• It has been a full burning season or more since the last sweep

How we do it

1. Free inspection firstWe look at the flue, smoke chamber and firebox and tell you whether a sweep is worth doing now.
2. Written priceIf it is, the sweep price is on paper before anything starts. No surprises at the end.
3. Cover and containDrop cloths go down, the opening is sealed off and a vacuum runs during the work so the dust stays put.
4. Brush the whole runWe clean the flue, smoke chamber, smoke shelf and firebox, and the damper as we pass it.
5. Show you the resultYou see before and after photos, and we point out anything that needs a closer look.

How often a chimney in the Twin Cities needs sweeping

CSIA's homeowner guidance is to sweep a masonry fireplace once about an eighth of an inch of sooty buildup has collected, and sooner if any glaze is present. NFPA 211 adds a yearly inspection. In practice a fireplace lit a dozen times a winter may go two seasons between sweeps, while a stove or insert used most evenings needs one every year.

The length of our heating season pushes the numbers up. MSP averages about 7,400 heating degree days in NOAA's normals, and Andover in the north metro about 8,300, so stoves there run longer and harder.

Why our sweep price is set at the inspection

Sweep prices posted online are averages across houses that have nothing in common. A clay-lined flue with loose soot, a smoke chamber caked with glaze and an insert that has to come out are three different jobs. Setting the price after a free look means you pay for the work your chimney needs and nothing more.

What you can do between sweeps

• Burn split hardwood that has dried for at least a season
• Build hotter, shorter fires rather than slow smoldering ones
• Keep the damper fully open until the ashes are cold
• Close the damper or a top-sealing damper once the fire is out so warm air and odors stay in place