When you own a commercial building, it’s important to pay attention to the state of your chimney because it can affect your tenants’ health and the building’s safety. We understand that it can be difficult to tell if your commercial chimney needs repair, especially if you don’t notice any problems with its functionality. However, it’s dangerous and costly if your chimney goes without necessary repairs.

At Best Chimney Services, our chimney technicians have been working on commercial and residential buildings since 1989. Our technicians have years of knowledge and experience, and offer a variety of commercial chimney services. We encourage you to book a routine commercial chimney inspection with us so we can help you get ahead of future problems. To learn how to detect if there might be an issue with your chimney, read our blog. 

Signs That You Should Schedule Commercial Chimney Repairs

Read to learn some of the signs that your commercial chimney needs repair and should be assessed by a team of chimney professionals. 

Visible Rust

When you start to notice rust forming on the exterior of your chimney or the inside of your fireplace, you shouldn’t ignore it. Rust shouldn’t appear anywhere on your chimney because it will most likely continue to spread and then accelerate the deterioration of the structure. The appearance of rust could be a sign of larger problems like water damage, environmental damage, and insufficient maintenance. Schedule a commercial chimney inspection with us as soon as possible so we can determine what’s going on and the required repairs.

Worn Mortar Joints

Mortar joints are responsible for holding the bricks of your chimney together, while also taking on any cracks and deterioration before the bricks can be affected. When the mortar joints begin to loosen, then it’s time for you to book a commercial chimney repair. Repair is needed because worn mortar joints will expose the bricks and make them susceptible to moisture, causing the entirety of the chimney to weaken. During the winter, that moisture can freeze and cause cracks inside the masonry as well, which can make the chimney vulnerable to collapsing. What seems like a small aesthetic issue can actually become a major problem. Call a professional chimney technician before damages can become dangerous and expensive. 

Loose or Cracked Bricks

Loose and cracked bricks, also known as spalling, in your chimney may seem normal. They occur from a variety of factors like water damage, lightning strikes, and lack of maintenance. However, you should be concerned about a cracked chimney because it can lead to costly problems. With cracks in your bricks, you’re allowing harmful gasses to seep back into your building when your chimney is trying to dispose of them. Over time, these cracks will only worsen and lead to the structure of your chimney deteriorating. After that, it will slowly start to lean and potentially collapse. When your chimney’s mortar and brick are beginning to crumble, book an appointment with our Boston, MA area chimney team for chimney masonry services.

Leaning Chimney

A leaning chimney is the most evident sign that your commercial chimney is in need of repair. When you notice that your chimney is beginning to lean, you should call a chimney technician immediately to diagnose the problem. A leaning chimney puts pressure on the flue, which is responsible for protecting you from harmful gasses and chimney fires. If your chimney ultimately collapses, not only will the flue crack, but falling bricks will become a danger to anyone in or around the building. There are a number of reasons your chimney may be leaning, so it is best to consult with a chimney expert for a professional diagnosis and plan of action. 

Crown Cracks

A chimney crown sits on top of the chimney and prevents precipitation from entering. Because of this, when it is cracked, water and outside debris can enter, which can lead to numerous problems, similar to the ones listed above. Leaving this piece of your chimney cracked and unrepaired will make your chimney vulnerable to all outside elements. Book your industrial chimney repair with us today to have this problem taken care of. 

Call Best Chimney Services for Your Industrial Chimney Repair

Letting time go by without needed commercial chimney repair can result in costly problems for your building, business, and tenants. Take care of these problems by giving us a call so that we can determine the solution. We’re dedicated to helping our customers alleviate any concerns or problems they’re having with their chimneys, so don’t hesitate to reach out!

The post How to Know if You’re Due for a Commercial Chimney Repair appeared first on Boston's Best Chimney.

Commercial building chimney maintenance is necessary to keep your commercial chimney stack in proper working order.

At Best Chimney Services, we offer professional commercial chimney services to ensure our clients’ chimneys are well-maintained. We offer commercial chimney drone inspections, commercial chimney sweeping, commercial chimney venting, and more to maintain your commercial chimney stack, saving you money and headaches in the future. Give us a call to start your routine commercial chimney maintenance today. Now, learn about the importance of commercial building chimney maintenance and how to start.

Helps Keep Your Chimney in Proper Working Order

Without chimney maintenance, the condition of your stack will deteriorate and negatively affect your commercial building as well. Scheduling regular maintenance for your commercial venting will help preserve its structure and functionality, keeping it in good working condition. If you allow it to go years without regular maintenance tasks like commercial chimney sweeps, then creosote will build up in the chimney, making it unsafe to use. 

Helps You Avoid Water Damage

If you don’t keep up with commercial building chimney maintenance, then you’re highly susceptible to water damage. Water damage occurs when the brick and mortar of your chimney begins to crumble and crack, allowing moisture into your venting system. Dealing with water damage is a costly problem to handle as a commercial property owner. The average cost of water damage per square foot is about $4. However, that’s only if it’s clean water—the price per square foot increases as the type of water damage worsens. You can avoid this problem with routine commercial chimney inspections. Our knowledgeable chimney technicians will check your chimneys to spot and repair any damages before they can cause a problem.   

Reduces the Risk of Chimney Fires

By maintaining your chimneys’ cleanliness, you’re helping protect your commercial building from chimney fires. When chimneys are not regularly swept, creosote, which is highly flammable and can result in a fire, builds up. When you schedule routine commercial building chimney sweeps, you avoid creosote buildup and reduce your risk of a dangerous chimney fire.

Avoid Health Risks

When you neglect your commercial chimney, the buildup of soot and debris is inevitable. When you let this residue collect, everyone in your commercial building becomes vulnerable to health risks. When there is a buildup in your chimney it obstructs the flow of harmful gasses, like carbon monoxide, from exiting your building. Avoid these health risks with regular commercial building chimney sweeps that will clear your chimneys of any dangerous buildup.

Saves You Money

Maintaining your commercial chimney not only has property and health benefits but also financial benefits. When you stay on top of your chimneys’ health, you are avoiding future, more costly problems that would have occurred without maintenance. When you schedule regular commercial chimney inspections and commercial building chimney sweeps, you are regularly ensuring that there are no problems with the function of your chimney, and identify any problems before they can get worse.

Maintaining your chimney will also lead to your heating system running more efficiently because there are no blockages restricting exhaust, and thus, heating the building. This means lower heating bills and better heat for your building!  

How to Maintain Commercial Chimneys

As we mentioned previously, booking regular commercial chimney inspections and commercial building chimney sweeps are musts to add to your maintenance list. We recommend that you book a yearly chimney inspection with us so that we can identify possible problems like leaking, venting issues, chimney connector deterioration, and soot and debris buildup. You should also have your commercial chimney venting inspected at least once a year. Chimney venting is important because it will help you avoid moisture buildup and mold. 

Book Best Chimney Services to Maintain Your Commercial Chimney

At Best Chimney Services, we’ve been caring for the chimneys of homeowners and property owners since 1989. Our technicians are committed to keeping your property safe by offering professional and personalized services that will keep your commercial chimney up to date. Contact us today to start your regular commercial building chimney maintenance to keep your chimney in proper, working order.

The post The Importance of Commercial Building Chimney Maintenance appeared first on Boston's Best Chimney.

Cleaning a chimney is critical since the role of a chimney is to allow harmful chemicals and vapors to escape from the property.

A fireplace or wood stove emits smoke during the burning process. The smoke contains gases and creosote. Creosote is tar-like and sticks to everything it can as it travels up the chimney.

According to chimney sweep professionals, creosote buildup on wood stove doors and even the chimney sides is natural, and you can remove it with a creosote cleaner.

A significant amount of creosote buildup in a chimney is almost like rocket fuel waiting to be ignited. This is because creosote is extremely combustible and can burn at temperatures above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

These temperatures can cause chimney flues to fracture and the fire to spread throughout the house. You don’t want this, do you?

According to some estimates, toxic creosote accumulations cause approximately 25% of all house fires. People who have encountered chimney fires frequently describe the sounds as sounding like a freight train passing by. It’s quite terrifying.

Besides getting rid of creosote, cleaning your chimney also allows you to ensure that there are no other blockages.

Birds, bees, squirrels, branches, and leaves can all block a chimney and hinder it from removing the smoke and toxins produced during the combustion process. When you clean your chimney, you get rid of these blockages.

A clean chimney is a productive chimney. When the chimney is clean, the wood can burn hotter and provide more thermal energy with airflow flowing through the fireplace or wood stove.

If a chimney is clogged with debris, it will not draw enough fresh air into the firebox, inhibiting optimal burning.

How often should you clean the chimney?

You should clean your chimney as frequently as possible. What is the best rule of thumb? Clean it once a year, shortly before the heating season begins.

This ensures that there are no obstacles in the chimney flue when the burning season begins, and the odds of wildlife establishing a home for the rest of the season are quite low.

If conditions permit, it’s also a good idea to inspect a chimney once during the burning season. This is especially critical if the wood you’re burning hasn’t been properly seasoned.

Just give the chimney plenty of time to cool down (at least a day) before inspecting it, and make sure there aren’t any embers in the wood stove that could rekindle with the entrance of oxygen.

Ways to reduce creosote buildup to reduce chimney cleaning frequency

One way to reduce the frequency at which you have to clean the chimney is by reducing the amount of creosote that gets deposited in your unit. The cool thing is that there are plenty of ways to go about it. Some of these ways include:

Make use of well-seasoned, dry timber. Moisture in wood inhibits efficient burning and generates steam, resulting in lower combustion temperatures.

This will prevent creosote particles from escaping the chimney, causing them to accumulate on the flue’s sidewalls instead.

Limiting the airflow into the wood stove or wood burning insert while burning wood slowly can result in creosote buildup. Again, colder combustion temperatures result in slower-moving smoke, which can contribute to creosote formation.

If you like to leave your wood stove burning all night, buy the wood at high temperatures. As soon as you wake up, start a fire. Allow plenty of airflow (500 to 600 degrees Fahrenheit measured by a flue pipe thermometer) for 20 to 30 minutes, then maintain a flue temperature of roughly 300 to 400 degrees for the rest of the day.

Can you clean the chimney by yourself?

If you have the skills and the right tools, you can clean the chimney yourself. The best way to clean a chimney is from the roof, but going onto a roof presents obstacles.

Before walking onto the roof, ensure the ladder is safe, and you have solid footing.

Once on the roof, be aware that the shingles might be slippery when wet. They can also break. Always use extreme caution and, if possible, have a spotter on the ground.

When you get up there, begin by threading the largest chimney brush that can fit down the flue onto the end of a chimney brush rod.

Push the chimney brush carefully into the flue and brush up and down many times. Ensure the vacuum is turned on because there will be a lot of dust.

After brushing back and forth, connect another rod to the end of the rod attached to the brush and brush lower.

The rod will most likely flex more, and friction will make the motion more difficult, but keep going until you’ve brushed up and down several times.

You should continue to add rods until you reach the damper. Remove the brush when you reach a smaller portion of the stovepipe, replace it with a smaller chimney brush, and repeat the process until the smaller pipe is clean.

Each pass will be challenging at first because the creosote is inhibiting easy passage. However, after the flue is clean, pushing the brush through will be much easier.

Once you’ve cleaned all of the chimney flue that you can reach, slowly remove the brush from the chimney. Allow a few minutes for the dust to settle while the shop vac is still running.

Once you can see into the flue, use the flashlight to inspect it to confirm that all of the buildup has been removed and the chimney flue is clean. Once clean, carefully remove the rods and brush.

Parting shot

It’s important that you keep your chimney clean to prevent chimney fires and keep your unit running efficiently. When doing the cleaning, you can do it alone or hire chimney cleaning services Bowie to help you out.

When doing the cleaning by yourself, be ultra-cautious so that you don’t fall. If you don’t have the right skills or tools, don’t try to do the cleaning, as you will most likely cause more harm than you should. Instead, let a professional help you out.

The post Chimney Cleaning and How to do Right first appeared on First Class Chimney Services.

This post first appeared on https://www.firstclasschimneyservices.com

At Lindemann, we pride ourselves on our commitment to educating our customers about all things related to chimneys, fireplaces, and HVAC systems. A question we receive often pertains to a pivotal component of the air conditioning system: “What is an air conditioning condenser?” Allow us to demystify this essential element for you.

The Basics: A Brief Overview

The air conditioning system in your home or office is a marvel of modern engineering, designed to provide comfort even in the harshest of temperatures. At the very core of this system, ensuring its efficient functioning, is the air conditioning condenser. But what exactly is it and why is it so crucial?

The Role It Plays

The primary role of an air conditioning condenser is to act as a bridge between the inside of your living or working space and the great outdoors. It’s a mediator of sorts, ensuring that the heat from your interiors is effectively expelled outside. This heat transfer is what allows the interior of your space to remain cool and comfortable.

System Synchronization

While the condenser is vital, it doesn’t work alone. It’s synchronized with other components like evaporators and expansion valves, creating a cyclic process. As the refrigerant absorbs heat from your home’s interior, it needs a place to release that heat, and that’s where the condenser steps in.

The Cooling Cycle

To understand the condenser’s importance, it’s crucial to grasp the basic cooling cycle. When the indoor air is absorbed by the system, it carries with it the heat from your surroundings. This warm air is then processed, with the heat being expelled outside via the condenser, while the cooled air is circulated back indoors.

Beyond Just Cooling

It’s a common misconception that air conditioners only cool air. In reality, they’re removing heat from the air, making the remaining air cooler. The condenser is integral to this heat removal process. Without it, the system would merely recirculate the same warm air, rendering the air conditioner ineffective.

The Components of a Condenser

The air conditioning condenser, though often referred to as a singular entity, is actually a complex assembly of various components. Each of these parts plays a pivotal role, ensuring the unit functions seamlessly. Understanding the individual components can offer a clearer picture of how the condenser operates in the broader HVAC system.

• The Condenser Coil: This is where the magic happens. As refrigerant flows through these coils, it undergoes a transformation. The heat carried by the refrigerant is released, causing it to change from a high-temperature gas to a cooler liquid.
• The Compressor: Often dubbed the heart of the AC system, the compressor’s primary duty is far from trivial. It compresses the refrigerant gas, leading to a significant increase in temperature. This superheated gas is then channeled towards the condenser coil for heat dissipation.
• The Condenser Fan: Imagine running a marathon in a closed room with no ventilation; you’d overheat! The condenser fan provides that much-needed “ventilation” for the system. By facilitating the dispersion of heat released from the refrigerant, it ensures efficient cooling.
• The Condenser Cabinet: This is the protective exterior that houses the aforementioned components. Beyond just protection, the cabinet is designed to allow optimal airflow, ensuring that the system can efficiently release heat to the surrounding environment.

How Does the Condenser Work?

The process of cooling your home is not merely a game of cold air being pumped in. Instead, it’s a meticulous procedure of heat exchange, transfer, and transformation. The condenser unit stands central to this procedure, ensuring that the heat from your interiors finds its way out.

• Heat Absorption: Everything begins with the refrigerant inside your air conditioner. This substance is adept at absorbing heat from your home’s interior, causing it to metamorphose from a cool liquid state to a warm gaseous state.
• Compression: With the warm gas in tow, the next stop is the compressor. Here, the gas undergoes compression, leading to a surge in its temperature. Now superheated, this gas is prepped for the next phase.
• Heat Release: With the gas heated to its peak, it arrives at the condenser coil. Assisted by the outdoor unit’s fan, this superheated gas begins releasing its heat to the environment. As this release happens, the gas undergoes another transformation, cooling down and reverting to a liquid state.
• Cooling the Home: With the refrigerant now cooled, it embarks on another journey, heading back into your home. Here, the cycle recommences, bringing with it the promise of a cooler, more comfortable interior.

Maintenance of the Condenser

The condenser, akin to other machinery, requires regular care and maintenance to operate at peak performance. A well-maintained condenser not only ensures that your space remains cool but also adds to the longevity of the entire HVAC system. Dive into these maintenance tips to ensure your condenser remains in prime condition.

1. Keep It Clean: The outdoors can be a challenging environment, replete with dirt, leaves, and debris. Such foreign elements can impede the condenser’s efficiency. Hence, periodic cleaning and inspection around the unit are paramount.
2. Professional Check-ups: Relying on experts has its merits. Annual or biannual inspections by professionals, like the skilled team at Lindemann, can spot potential issues long before they morph into costly problems.
3. Ensure Proper Airflow: Think of your condenser unit as an athlete; it requires space to “breathe”. Obstructions can hinder its efficiency. It’s essential to maintain a clear space, preferably 2-3 feet, around the condenser to ensure unhindered airflow.
4. Inspect the Cabinet: The condenser cabinet, while protective, can also suffer wear and tear. Regular checks for rust, damage, or obstructions in its grills can ensure it continues to shelter the vital components effectively.

How To Know If There Is A Problem With Your Condenser

Every piece of machinery, however robust, can develop issues over time. The condenser, integral to your air conditioning system, is no exception. Recognizing early warning signs can save you from major inconveniences and costly repairs in the long run.

• Inadequate Cooling: One of the most evident signs is when your home or office doesn’t feel as cool as it should, even with the AC running for extended periods.
• Strange Noises: If your condenser starts making unfamiliar or loud noises – be it buzzing, rattling, or grinding – it’s time for a professional inspection.
• Pooling Liquid: While some condensation is normal, significant pooling or spotting of refrigerant around the unit indicates a potential problem.
• Fan Issues: If the condenser fan isn’t rotating, is operating slower than usual, or makes unusual noises, it can suggest issues within the condenser unit.
• Spikes in Energy Bills: A sudden and unexplained increase in your energy bills might indicate that the condenser isn’t functioning efficiently, causing the system to overwork.

Trust Lindemann With Your AC Condenser Maintenance

At Lindemann, our commitment extends beyond mere installations. We’re passionate about ensuring the comfort and well-being of our clients. A well-functioning AC system, especially during the scorching summer months, is indispensable for this comfort.

If you’re situated in the Chicagoland area and find yourself grappling with questions related to your AC system, or if you’re considering routine maintenance or even an entirely new AC installation, think of us. With a rich legacy of expertise and customer satisfaction, Lindemann is your trusted partner in all HVAC endeavors.

Remember, regular maintenance not only ensures efficient cooling but also protects your investment by extending the lifespan of your HVAC system. And in Lindemann, you have a partner who understands your needs and delivers results with professionalism and care.

Final Thoughts

The air conditioning condenser plays a pivotal role in ensuring your home remains a sanctuary of comfort during the hottest days. By understanding its function and the importance of maintaining it, you can ensure the longevity and efficiency of your HVAC system.

For all your HVAC-related queries or if you need servicing or installations related to chimneys, fireplaces, or HVAC systems, remember that Lindemann is here to help.