Safety of Fireplaces, Wood Stoves and Fireplaces

Here in the Pacific Northwest, where many people burn wood for warmth, there are many scary and unsafe fireplaces and wood burning appliances. I’d like to believe that almost anyone could guess that a fireplace and wood stove or chimney will eventually require cleaning, maintenance, and servicing. That advice applies to masonry and assorted metal fireplaces.

I want to believe that people can figure this out, but obviously that’s not the situation. I recently witnessed a neglected masonry chimney. The oozing black creosote was an inch thick and caked on the inside from the top to the inefficient homemade wood stove below. The system wasn’t pulling anything but waste products up the chimney. Creosote is flammable, so it is important to clean and maintain a chimney.

It seems that most people with wood stoves, fireplaces and pellet stoves do not pay enough attention to them. Many people make the situation worse by burning green wood that is not seasoned. The average consumer may take these basic systems for granted, but they are dangerous to life, limb, and property if neglected. As a home inspector who doesn’t work on fireplaces or wood burning appliances but sees a lot of them, I know it’s important to have these devices cleaned and checked regularly by a specialist. In fact, the National Fire Protection Association has stated that a Level 2 chimney inspection should be a part of every sale or transfer of property. The scope of this inspection is intrusive, well beyond any inspection by a home inspector, and is performed by a licensed and trained chimney professional.