Sweeping chimneys in Knutsford
Knutsford has an unusually high proportion of old property for a town its size, and that shapes the work. The centre around King Street and Princess Street is a conservation area with a large number of listed buildings. Behind the frontages there are Georgian and early Victorian houses with tall stacks, multiple flues and — in many cases — chimneys that predate any notion of a liner.
Old flues like these need treating carefully rather than quickly. Parging can be failing, flues can run at odd angles, and in terraced arrangements it is not unusual to find flues that cross or share with the property next door. We check the stack before we start and sweep to suit what is actually there, rather than putting the same rods up every chimney in town.
Out towards Mobberley, Plumley, Ollerton and Over Peover the picture shifts to farmhouses, cottages and converted barns, where a woodburner is often doing real heating work rather than sitting decorative. Those need sweeping twice a season, not once.