Sweeping chimneys in Alderley Edge
Alderley Edge has some of the most demanding chimneys we work on. When the railway arrived in the 1840s, Manchester’s merchant families built substantial villas along the roads leading up towards the Edge, and many of those houses are still standing — with tall, complex stacks serving four, five or six separate flues.
Chimneys of that age tend to be unlined, with wide throats and long runs, and they behave very differently to a modern stove installation. They also tend to have flues that have not been used in decades sitting alongside ones in daily use, which is where blockages, nesting and cross-leakage between flues become a real concern.
Alongside those period properties there is a good deal of newer high-value housing in the village, much of it with woodburners and multi fuel stoves fitted into purpose-built or lined flues. Those are quicker jobs, but they need sweeping more often than most owners expect — twice a season if you are burning wood in a stove.