How YOU the Customer should prepare for the sweeps visit 

In days of old before there were central heating systems and other such appliances to keep your house warm, using an ‘old-fashioned’ coal fire was a way of life. As such, learning how to use them correctly, take care of them and preparing for the chimney sweeps visit was just something most people learned as a child.
As many of today’s customers are new to solid fuel appliances, they don’t yet know how they work correctly or how to prepare for a sweeps visit.

Please follow the information below to make our visit easier for everyone.

On the day of the sweeps visit

• Ensure your fire has been allowed to burn out the evening before our visit (at least 12 hours prior) this not only ensures we don’t get our fingers burned by hot bricks or metal components but also protects our equipment.

• We need to bring our equipment into where your fireplace/stove(s) is/are situated.  Please ensure the route from the entrance of your house to your appliance is free of obstructions, (carrying our equipment over assault courses is not fun) and all light coloured floor coverings should be protected by dust sheets 
  Please also ensure there is sufficient space for our equipment and for the sweep to work, in and around the fireplace area.

  **To this end you should also please clear all ornaments, breakables, toys, Xmas decorations and candles etc from the hearth and mantelpiece – after all, it’s better to be safe than sorry.** 
     ***We will also need access to a 13 amp socket for our tools.***

• Sweeping chimneys’ is a DIRTY JOB and as such, there is no way we can ensure we or our equipment will be 100% soot free.
  It is, therefore, the Customer’s Responsibility to make a decent attempt to cover their floors and furnishings from the entrance of your dwelling all the way to and around the fireplace. This is especially important if your carpets/floors and other furnishings are of a light colour or white.
  Ultimately this is the *customer’s responsibility* and we cannot be held responsible*.
  Whilst we might look clean & do bring our own dust sheets and keenly endeavour to keep them & ourselves clean to the highest standards. This is NOT always possible and may be particularly relevant if it has been raining that day.

• YOU must please Clean Out Your Appliance(s) from spent fuel/ashes and any other debris especially metallic objects such as nails or screws that may be left behind because they can irreparably damage our vacuum.
  If you do not we will charge £5-10 extra for our time & efforts to keep clean.
  After all, we are here to remove soot in our role as chimney sweeps and ** NOT ashes as chambermaids  **
  

•  Chimney Stacks, Pots, Cowls, Aerials and ALL stove attachments should be robust enough to be able to withstand the chimney sweeping process. 

Therefore,  if for any reason a pot/cowl/aerial breaks or becomes dislodged during the sweeping process. [The same applies with stove flue blanking plates bricks and other non warranty bound consumables]. We cannot and will NOT be held responsible.

We do make a quick visual inspection on entering the customers’ property in an attempt to avoid such circumstances and will on seeing any potential external dangers make suggestions to the customer on how to avoid any such risks.  Such as moving any vehicles parked directly below your already damaged pot/chimney stack before sweeping commences. We will also draw your attention to already damaged stove consumable components. 

• Your fireplace, hearth, mantelpiece and stoves should all be fitted correctly and of sufficiently decent quality. We cannot be held responsible for soot escaping an ill-fitted fireplace/stove. (buying cheap from China on eBay etc is never a wise idea ) NB/ If your fireplace is much larger than average and/or has a rough surface material such as fyfestone brick we may need to charge an extra £5-10 if extra materials are required to seal it correctly for a safe sweep.

•  If the customers’ flue/fireplace/appliance has not been cleaned regularly or adequately and excessive cleaning is required then an excess charge will be levied.
  We work to a tight schedule and cannot afford to be unduly delayed causing us the risk of missing other customers appointments & hence fees! ***It is also unfair to expect us to do several years of cleaning in one appointment***

IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE ! 

Payment is due at the time of the sweep/completion of work. We do not have a card payment machine and do not accept cheques. As such, CASH is now the ONLY payment accepted which keeps our fees as low as possible and you will be provided with an estimated cost prior to our visit. 

When you have booked a sweeping appointment, we have allocated our time including traveling to & from your property.
If for ‘any reasons’ no work can be undertaken we reserve the right to charge a call out fee (£50) to cover our time, efforts and fuel.

Possible reasons may include:

• The fire is not extinguished early enough and it is still too hot to sweep, in some cases yes … the fire is found still burning !!.
• Customer Not Present !!! 
• Inadequate access from improvised /or D.I.Y fitted stoves, unsafe conditions, **Buckled and otherwise Irremovable stove Baffle Plates  etc.  
• Jammed stove doors 

*** The call out fee is £50 at the time of writing (2023). ***

****You will have been referred to these T&C’s during initial communications, so failure to read them is no excuse for complaints, insurance claim attempts or other “clever” nonsense.****