NACS registered · Fully insured · Free smoke draw test and certificate included
★★★★★ Rated 5 stars from Google reviews
NACS registered · Fully insured · Free smoke draw test and certificate included
★★★★★ Rated 5 stars from Google reviews
NACS registered · Fully insured
NACS registered log burner and woodburner sweeping across Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Free smoke draw test, certificate issued on the day, and honest advice on your fuel. From £75.
Log burner, woodburner, wood burning stove — they are the same appliance, and whatever you call yours it needs sweeping twice a season when it is in use. Not once a year. Stoves run cooler flue gases than open fires, so deposits form sooner, and wood is the fuel most likely to leave tar.
Tar is highly flammable, and it is the single biggest cause of the chimney fires we see. Once it is properly established it cannot be removed by normal sweeping — taking it out is specialist, expensive work, and where the build-up is severe it is often easier to pull the liner and fit a new one.
The good news is that tar is almost entirely avoidable, and it comes down to two things: your fuel and how you run the stove.
Be wary of the word seasoned. Plenty of suppliers use it freely. The only thing that actually matters is moisture content, and it needs to be under 20%. Wet logs give you less heat, more smoke and far more tar.
Storage matters as much as buying well. Logs need a dry store with air moving round them — stack them, do not pile them. Good ventilation matters more than keeping the rain off, though the best store has a roof.
And do not slumber the stove overnight. It is dangerous, it is costly, it is highly polluting, and it lays tar down faster than almost anything else you can do.
Sheets down before we start and a HEPA filtered industrial vacuum running throughout. Every job includes a free smoke draw test and a NACS Certificate of Chimney Sweeping — which matters, because most insurers will no longer pay out on chimney fire damage without one.
Twice a season while it is in use. If the log burner is your main source of heat rather than an occasional evening fire, twice is the minimum rather than the target — and we would rather see it more often than find tar in it next autumn.
If your flue is tarring up, get it looked at rather than waiting for the next scheduled sweep. We will tell you straight if the cause is the fuel.
There is more on fuels, moisture content and ventilation on our safety advice page.
Whichever appliance you have, the standard is the same.
Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Lancashire. Give us your postcode and we will tell you straight away whether we can reach you.
Yes — log burner, woodburner and wood burning stove all mean the same appliance. Whichever you call yours, it needs sweeping twice a season when in use, and the same things go wrong with it.
From £75, including the free smoke draw test and the NACS certificate. The price depends on the flue and how many need doing — give us your postcode and we will confirm before we come out.
Buy a moisture meter — they cost very little. Split a log and test the freshly exposed inside face, because the outside dries long before the middle. It needs to be under 20%.
A shiny black deposit, sometimes sticky and sometimes hardened, usually visible around the stove door or flue entrance. If you are seeing it, do not leave it another season.
Yes. Shutting the air right down to slumber a fire is one of the fastest ways to lay tar down in a flue, and it is highly polluting as well as costly.
Tell us your postcode and what you burn — and we will give you a price, a slot, and an honest answer about your logs.
