“Wood heat is warm heat!” visitors exclaim as they’re drawn like magnets to our wood-fired stove to hold their hands over the top, rubbing them together. “It actually warms you up!” It’s so very true, wood heat is different from modern forced air heating— it’s embracing and wraps around you like a favourite blanket—but there’s a price to pay for that pleasure. In addition to the work of cutting, splitting and stacking the wood, there’s the inevitable dreaded chore of cleaning, and that’s a messy job at the very best of times.

Fireplaces and wood stoves are commonly “damped down,” restricting the air flow to control the heat emitted or increase the burning time, but this incomplete combustion creates a waste product: creosote. This sticky substance combines with the ash and soot making its way up the chimney in the rising heat to adhere to the inside surface of the pipes or flues. As it builds up, it becomes a combustible material that can reignite in a chimney fire. Even though these roaring fires are contained inside the chimney or flue, they generate significant levels of heat and can easily damage or burn out the chimney, ultimately spreading to the roofing and engulfing the whole dwelling.

Here at Peck Lake we heat our cottage with a modern wood-fired cook stove and, in our experience, with the type of wood we use, it’s necessary to clean both the stove and chimney at least three times each year: once in the late fall, again in mid-winter and finally in the spring. On each occasion, usually heralded by a noticeable reluctance of the stove to burn in a normal fashion, we find both partially filled with the ash and creosote. There is nothing left to do—it’s time to clean. There are chemical “logs” available that, when burned, convert the creosote to an ash, but the ash still has to be removed to re-establish good air circulation inside the stove and chimney.

My wife, Marilyn, and I work as a team for this job—both of us eventually looking like chimney sweeps right out of Mary Poppins, even though we strive to limit the amount of soot that inevitably escapes. We begin by wrapping rags tightly around each of the pipe joints, holding them in place with masking tape. It seems that no matter how tight the pipe joints are, soot will seep out and the wrap prevents this. I remove the bottom cover from the pipe right at the stove and tape on a plastic garbage bag to catch the soot from the brushing to follow. Marilyn and I part company at this point; she cleans the stove while I tend to the chimney with a scraper and brushes from up on the roof, working my way downward.

The lids from the stovetop as well as the access doors go outside for cleaning with a wire brush. She then uses a small, rectangular steel scraper attached to the end of a wire rod to draw the ash out of the interior of the stove. Inside the stove are air passageways and adjustable dampers, which direct the hot air from the firebox around the oven. She works slowly to prevent the soot from rising into the air as she transfers the ash from the stove into a pan. At some point here I inspect the interior and possibly apply a special stove caulking to the joints that have opened up due to temperature changes flexing the interior plates. Stains on the stove front and back panel can become stubborn since they quickly bake on to the baked enamel finish. Marilyn washes them with detergent and scrubs the stovetop with steel wool. To inhibit rust, she wipes the top with a cloth saturated in vegetable oil, followed by a polishing with a fist full of newspaper.

Meanwhile, I’ve climbed the ladder to the roof. The buildup of creosote is scraped off the storm cover and its supports; then I plunge a wire sweep’s brush up and down throughout the chimney’s length. Your body position in relation to the wind is important! Stand so the wind is coming past you from the side. Standing directly upwind will cause the rising soot from the chimney to swirl into your face; standing facing the wind will obviously bring the soot directly onto you, which you also want to avoid./p>

Some chimney systems have a damper partway up from the stove or fireplace and this creates an obstacle in the cleaning process which will have to be cleaned, partly from the top and partly coming up from the bottom. In older farmhouses the chimneys rose from the stove and jogged horizontally a short distance before continuing up to the roof. Should this prove to be the case, the chimney will have to come apart to gain access to this section of it. The best you can do is to move slowly, pull it apart and use a plastic household wrap to cover each end before taking that portion right outside for cleaning.

With the brushing finished it’s just a matter of replacing the cleaned top, and retreating off the roof to deal with the back of the stove and the lower portion of pipe up to the damper. I’ve never found a tool to do this task so I just use my hand, covered in a kitchen garbage bag up to the elbow, to reach up inside the back to get at the ash. I claw it into the plastic bag, which is partially detached from the bottom of the pipe, before reattaching the bottom cover, and removing the bag and joint covers. The job is complete and your stove or fireplace is ready to go. Now it’s just a matter of switching your attention to giving the floor a much needed wash and putting the tools away.

A surprise waits when you reignite the stove or fireplace. It will be amazing how well the stove works; it lights easily, the fire burns steadily and that special warmth radiates throughout the building with a seemingly greater “snuggle factor” than before. The rewards are well worth the effort.

As seen in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Cottage Magazine