Chimney sweep Mayfair

Chimney Sweep in Mayfair

Sooty & Sweeps are a family-run business with over 40 years’ experience, and we offer chimney sweeping and chimney cleaning in Mayfair for homes, offices and period properties. We sweep and inspect open fires, wood-burning stoves and gas fires, and our sweeps are HETAS approved and accredited with APICS.

We’ll give you a final quote before any work starts, and you’ll get a HETAS certificate afterwards that your home insurer will accept.

Chimneys in Mayfair’s period homes

Mayfair is mostly Georgian townhouses and early twentieth-century mansion blocks, and many of them have been split into flats or turned into offices over the years. In buildings like these, a single stack often serves several flues, and plenty of fireplaces have been closed up, boarded over or fitted with a gas fire. Before you light one again, it is worth having the flue swept and checked, and a camera inspection will show whether the liner is intact.

Much of Mayfair sits in a conservation area, and many buildings are listed. Sweeping and inspection are routine, but if you are thinking of changing a chimney stack, pot or cowl, check with Westminster City Council first, because external changes may need consent.

What a Mayfair sweep includes

• Visual inspection of the chimney stack, chimney pot and cowl
• Visual inspection of any appliance and installation for safety and compliance (HETAS)
• Chimney sweeping (ensuring no blockages are present)
• Smoke evacuation test of chimney flue
• Visual inspection of CO alarm
• HETAS approved certificate of Chimney Sweeping (home insurance approved)

In addition to the above service, we offer additional chimney inspection and chimney maintenance services including:

• Chimney fault finding
• Chimney integrity tests
• Camera inspections of chimney flue
• Supply and installation of chimney cowls
• Supply and installation of chimney caps
• Supply and installation of chimney bird guards
• Down draft and all-weather solutions
• Chimney stack repair

We also install wood-burning stoves and line flues; our flue liner and log burner installation pages have the detail. We also work in nearby Soho, Marylebone and Fitzrovia. See all our London areas, or contact us for a quote.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How often should I have my flue swept?

HETAS recommends yearly when burning smokeless fuels, twice a year when burning wood or bituminous coal. The reason it is recommended to have a chimney sweep regularly is because soot builds up inside your flue which can cause a fire hazard, leaving your chimney sweeps too long can cause buildups of soot to the point where smoke can instead of leaving through the chimney leave through your fireplace. This is dangerous as your house can then have a build up of carbon monoxide.

What is involved in Sweeping?

Sweeping a chimney usually requires a good amount of patience and plenty of time to devote to the task (at least half a day to a full day) as well as the having the correct equipment and the right attitude! Chimney sweeping is undoubtedly a messy job so a good amount of pre-planning is paramount, make sure your room is covered in any type of sheet you can find, making sure your furniture is covered too. If you look up your chimney and can’t see straight up it, you may have a blockage, though we recommend hiring a professional if this is the case sometimes the debris is just built up soot or a birds nest. Sometimes though it can be a structural integrity issue such as a misplaced brick that will need professional attention.

If choosing to maintain your own chimney instead of hiring professionals, you will need to be aware that it is important to check for structural damage on a regular basis, small cracks and chips can be patched up alone but large cracks will need the aid of a DIY manual or hiring a professional. Sooty and Sweeps have years of experience in dealing with structural problems in chimneys, our expert advice may be what you need!

Sooty and Sweeps for all your flue sweeping needs in Mayfair and across London.