Friday 20 July 2012

Operation Sweep...

We have decided to invest in our own chimney sweeping set for the wood-burner. A normal bamboo cane set won't be good as they don't normally have enough bend and are generally too beefed up for the job and you can risk tearing your stainless steel flexi-liner.

Investment is the right word as they were not cheap but they are very, very flexible and should pay for themselves in around 4-5 years. We thought we had chosen the correct size medium stiffness brush (5 inches) but think a 6 inch soft one would have been better.

When we informed people we would in future, be sweeping our own wood-burner chimney, they all assumed OH would be doing it. Not so. This year is the year I start to take action on some of his household tasks.

We forgot to take a photograph before starting. Couldn't take any during as OH was outside waiting for the brush to pop out the top of the chimney.


Anyway, it took less than 10 minutes to sweep plus another 15 or so wrapping and unwrapping the protective things so we didn't get soot everywhere. Not too much debris considering this was its first sweep in 3 years, probably around one pound in weight. Tut tut! Anyway, it will now have at least an annual sweep or a bi-annual one. 

Here goes:

Cue Mission Impossible Music!

Change clothes - check.

Protect area - check.

Remember to keep turning brushes anti-clockwise so they don't come undone up the chimney - check.

Pull out and undo - ah - call for help. Each rod is 1.5 metres long and we hadn't put enough protection down to enable me to lie them down whilst undoing them - check.

Remove rods - check.

Remove protective board to undo sweep head - check.

Hoover up and put away protective sheets etc. - check (OH did this for me).

Herewith a few photographs.





Sorry about the slightly blurred last done, obviously got too close in my excitement!

Also today, I have just finished baking two loaves of bread and made 900 ml of yoghurt using semi-skimmed milk. Last time using whole milk, it came out very thick after boiling the milk to begin with. Wonder what it will do this time?

1 comment:

  1. we have someone come in to do ours, costs around $125.

    I should get my yogurt maker out and make yogurt...

    Gill in Canada

    ReplyDelete

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