Author: admin

Ring in the New Year with a Clean and Safe Chimney

As the year winds down and we pre­pare to wel­come a fresh start, it’s the per­fect time to reflect on the warmth and com­fort your fire­place has brought to your home. Whether it’s been the cen­ter­piece for fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, a source of cozy nights by the fire, or sim­ply a way to keep the chill at bay, your […]

Sweeping Safety This Holiday Season: A Warm Welcome for Guests and Old St. Nick

The hol­i­days are a time for warmth, laugh­ter, and gath­er­ing with loved ones around a crack­ling fire. But as you pre­pare your home for guests and, per­haps, a vis­it from San­ta, it’s impor­tant to ensure your chim­ney is in tip-top shape. After all, nobody wants their guests — or jol­ly old St. Nick — deal­ing with a smoky fire­place or, worse, a chim­ney haz­ard. […]

Keep the Fire Burning Bright This Thanksgiving: The Importance of Chimney Maintenance

Thanks­giv­ing is a time to gath­er with fam­i­ly, share a hearty meal, and reflect on every­thing we’re grate­ful for. As the chill of late Novem­ber set­tles in, many of us find com­fort in cozy­ing up by the fire­place. The crack­ling flames bring warmth to the room, cre­at­ing the per­fect set­ting for hol­i­day cheer. But before you light […]

3 Home Maintenance To-Do’s for November: Prepare Your Home for Gatherings

As win­ter and hol­i­day gath­er­ings draw near, Novem­ber is an ide­al time to make sure your home is warm, safe, and ready for the cold­er months. Here are three essen­tial home main­te­nance tasks that can help you avoid issues this winter. 1. Sched­ule a Chim­ney Sweep and Inspection A fire­place adds a won­der­ful, cozy touch to chilly nights. But […]

Protecting Your Home and Family: The Importance of Regular Dryer Vent Cleaning

Dry­er vent clean­ing may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of home main­te­nance, but it’s one of the most impor­tant tasks for ensur­ing the safe­ty and effi­cien­cy of your home. Over time, dry­er vents become clogged with lint and debris, which can lead to a vari­ety of prob­lems rang­ing from reduced […]

Top 5 October Home Maintenance Tips: Prepare Your Home for Fall

Octo­ber is the per­fect time to take care of home main­te­nance tasks before win­ter sets in. Prepar­ing your home in the fall helps avoid poten­tial haz­ards and keeps every­thing run­ning smooth­ly. Whether you’re a home­own­er look­ing to cozy up for the cold­er months or a dili­gent prop­er­ty man­ag­er, here are the top five home main­te­nance tips to […]

5 Essential Tips to Keep Your Chimney Safe During the Fall Season

As the crisp air of fall rolls in, many home­own­ers start prepar­ing for the cozy warmth of a crack­ling fire. Before you light up your fire­place, it’s cru­cial to ensure your chim­ney is safe and ready for the sea­son. A well-main­tained chim­ney is essen­tial for pre­vent­ing fire haz­ards. Here are five key tips to keep your chim­ney […]

Prepare Your Home for Fall: Why September is the Perfect Month for Your Chimney Inspection

As the days grow short­er and the tem­per­a­tures begin to drop, the cozy warmth of a crack­ling fire starts to sound more and more appeal­ing. Fall is just around the cor­ner, and while you might be focus­ing on rak­ing leaves and pulling out your favorite sweaters, there’s one cru­cial home main­te­nance task you shouldn’t over­look: your chim­ney inspection. […]

Why Annual Chimney Inspections Are Essential for Home Safety

When it comes to home main­te­nance, chim­ney inspec­tions might not be the first thing on your to-do list. How­ev­er, neglect­ing this vital task can lead to seri­ous safe­ty risks for your home and fam­i­ly. Annu­al chim­ney inspec­tions are cru­cial in pre­vent­ing fires, detect­ing struc­tur­al dam­age, and ensur­ing that your fire­place or heat­ing sys­tem oper­ates effi­cient­ly. […]

Three Signs You Need to Book a Chimney Sweep Before Autumn

As the crisp air of autumn approach­es, many home­own­ers look for­ward to cozy evenings by the fire­place. But before you light that first fire of the sea­son, it’s cru­cial to ensure your chim­ney is clean and safe. A well-main­tained chim­ney not only improves effi­cien­cy but also reduces the risk of dan­ger­ous fires and harm­ful gas­es enter­ing […]

Top 5 Signs Your Chimney Needs to Be Cleaned This Summer

As sum­mer heats up, it might seem like an odd time to think about your chim­ney. How­ev­er, sum­mer is actu­al­ly an ide­al time for chim­ney main­te­nance, ensur­ing it’s ready for safe use when the cold­er months arrive. Here are the top five signs that your chim­ney needs clean­ing this summer. 1. Cre­osote Buildup Cre­osote is a high­ly flam­ma­ble […]

Three Essential Chimney Maintenance Tips for the Summer

Sum­mer is the per­fect time to give your chim­ney the atten­tion it needs. While it might not be top of mind dur­ing the warm months, tak­ing care of your chim­ney now ensures it’s ready for use when the cold­er weath­er arrives. Here are three essen­tial chim­ney main­te­nance tips to keep in mind this summer: 1. Sched­ule […]

Is Your Chimney Leaking?

When your home is tak­ing on water, the to do list to repair it can seem nev­er end­ing. At the top of that list is fig­ur­ing out who can help you resolve the sit­u­a­tion, which is not always a clear nor easy task. It is under­stand­able then when most peo­ple are not aware of all the repairs and […]

Staying True to Our Namesake

As Flo­ri­ans our­selves, we want­ed to share some inter­est­ing his­to­ry about the patron saint Flo­ri­an who shares our last name. Although many peo­ple may have not heard of him, his lega­cy is still very vis­i­ble in cer­tain indus­tries today. Saint Flo­ri­an was born in 250 A.D. to a Chris­t­ian fam­i­ly in Ancient Rome, present day Aus­tria. When he […]

Keep the Sweeps – Ditch the Swifts

You might have seen them around. Small and cig­ar shaped, dart­ing in between homes or around tree branch­es con­stant­ly hunt­ing for their next meal. Mat­ter of fact, that’s the only place you’ve prob­a­bly seen them since they spend the major­i­ty of their lives in flight. Unless you’re one of the unlucky homes that a Chim­ney Swift […]

Sweep Chimney Cleaning Off Your To-do List

Many home­own­ers wait until the end of Novem­ber or begin­ning of Decem­ber before they call to get their chim­ney cleaned. That can lead to an over­whelm­ing num­ber of cus­tomers request­ing the same ser­vice at the same time, which caus­es longer wait times for every­one. Beat the win­ter rush and save a lit­tle mon­ey while you’re at […]

How often should you clean your chimney?

Here at Safe­way Chim­ney Sweeps, your safe­ty is our main con­cern. We are in busi­ness to keep you, your fam­i­ly and your home safe when it comes to your fire­place. Here’s an excerpt from a Today article. “Before the cool, crisp days of autumn make cozy evenings in front of the fire­place irre­sistible, take time to […]

Winters are hard on chimneys

This Chica­go win­ters have no short­age of freez­ing and thaw­ing cycles, snow on rooftops, and result­ing dam­age to chim­neys. Yet many peo­ple over­look the need for main­te­nance of their chim­neys. Expand­ing and con­tract­ing of the chim­ney caused by weath­er con­di­tions result in gaps, cracks, and crum­bling mor­tar. If these mois­ture issues aren’t addressed, using the […]

Prevent dryer vent fires

15,000 house fires each year are caused by dirty dry­er vents. It’s no secret that dry­er vent clean­ing can pre­vent fires — it can even help you save on your elec­tric bill, pre­vent expen­sive appli­ance repair and extend the life of your dryer. Vis­it the dry­er vent clean­ing page on our web­site and read an arti­cle we have on when […]

Waterproofing your chimney

Mate­ri­als used to con­struct a mason­ry chim­ney are usu­al­ly porous and can absorb large amounts of mois­ture. Water­proof­ing mate­ri­als are avail­able which allow the chim­ney to breathe and yet pre­vent water from enter­ing from the out­side. Apply­ing water­proof­ing should only be done to a unit that is sound; any repairs that are need­ed should be made before […]