How To Clean Your Wood Burning Fireplace

First sweep the fireplace then apply your cleaner and scrub the fireplace down.

How to clean your wood burning fireplace.

Burn hot fires to remove black stains. Burning of woods in our fireplaces often cause deposit and buildup of a variety of dirt dust ash and creosote. Otherwise it will accumulate ash soot and other debris. Below are 10 tips on how to clean and maintain your wood burning fireplace.

This green wood doesn t burn cleanly and sends a lot of unburned particles smoke up the chimney where they build up as creosote and soot. Have your wood burning fireplace and chimney cleaned and inspected by a certified sweep at least once a year at the end of the burning season or more often if you notice creosote and soot build up over 1 8 inch on the inside of the chimney. If you see moisture bubbling out the ends of the logs when they re burning the wood is wet. If you have a wood burning fireplace though you ll need to clean it.

Wood burning fireplaces produce ashes as a byproduct. Scrub the fireplace floor sopping up the extra cleaning agent with rags. Stubborn black soot stains that bake onto fireplace or woodstove glass can be very difficult to remove. Mix 6 tablespoons of tsp 1 cup of bleach and 1 gallon of warm water into a plastic bucket.

You will need to clean out your fireplace regularly. If your fireplace has glass doors mix a 50 50 white vinegar and water solution in a fresh spray bottle you ll. But hot fires will help loosen the stains from the glass and make them easier to remove with cleaning. To clean it you can use a homemade or store bought cleaner.

Therefore make sure you clean the interior part of the fireplace regularly. You can also clean the glass insert if your fireplace has one. While soot is more easily removable creosote sticks to the chimney lining which can be dangerous because it s extremely flammable. Chimney soot builds up as well as creosote which is a heavy thick oily residue similar to tar that s a byproduct of burning wood.

Deep cleaning your fireplace now that you ve removed all dust soot and debris you can use a warm water bleach and trisodium phosphate tsp solution to deep clean your fireplace walls and floor. If you burn mostly green wet logs have your chimney cleaned or inspected every 50 burns. In the future make an effort to make sure your fireplace stays clean. 1 sweep out ashes once cool.