Tuesday 22 July 2014

Getting the Chimney Swept

Earlier this month I made an appointment for Pascal the plumber to come and sweep our chimney. We are obliged to get the chimney swept by a professional once a year in order to ensure our house insurance is valid. The professional group entrusted with chimney sweeping in France are the plumbers. Pascal commented that we didn't have a lot of material accumulated in the chimney and was surprised to learn we use the wood stove every day in the winter.

Curiously, in the spring right at the end of the firelighting season, we had a couple of instances of something catching fire in the flue (at least, that's what we assume was happening -- there was a lot of noise of rushing air, and a few sparks and flakes of black material coming out the top). Probably birds dropping twigs down the chimney which then catch fire according to our neighbour.

We asked Pascal about the possibility of fitting a self-regulating trap on the flue, to slow down the draw. He said we could install such a thing, but the payoff is that they rattle.

4 comments:

Ken Broadhurst said...

It's funny, Susan, but around Saint-Aignan it seems to be roofers, not plumbers, who sweep chimneys. We've had 3 or 4 different roofers in to do the job over the past 10 years.The only plumber I've ever asked about ramonage is one who has done a lot of plumbing work for us since 2003, and he told me that he doesn't sweep chimneys.

Susan said...

Ken: How interesting! It never occurred to me that it wasn't universally plumbers, especially as to get the tax refund for installing a wood stove you have to get the plumber to install it professionally.

Colin and Elizabeth said...

It is roofers around us as well not the plumbers C

the fly in the web said...

We had ramonneurs....who couldn't touch the chimney running from the boiler as that was the province of the chap who installed the boiler...

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