By CHRIS KAZARIAN
In New England, there’s a four-letter word that is the bane of many people’s existence—snow.
Snow usually means one thing: winter has arrived and with it, frigid temperatures. How best to combat that one-two-three punch of snow, winter and low temperatures comes down to another four-letter word, fire, that will provide warmth, comfort and calm to homes throughout the region in the ensuing months.
For those in the market for a hearth, Todd Gorell, owner of The Stove Center in Cataumet, said, “The first consideration is what are they using it for? Is it their primary heating source, secondary heating source, or for aesthetic value?”
If it’s simply to add to the décor, he said, a gas fire stove is the ideal choice.
When it comes to utility, the options essentially come down to wood or wood pellets as your heating source. Hardwood, Mr. Gorell said, burns hotter than pellets. “With a pellet stove, on the high end you’re going to get 60,000 BTUs and with a larger wood stove insert, on the high end, you could run 90,000 BTUs.”
Once a determination is made on the use, Mr. Gorell said, the next factor to consider is what size stove or fireplace insert to install.
“Venting is another important consideration,” he said. “Some folks have an existing chimney and they can dump the smoke up there and vent it out the chimney. Some people have to add a liner to the chimney because it might not be air tight so they have to put a stainless steel liner that acts like a pipe going up the chimney. Some of these you can vent out a wall and put in a stove pipe that goes out a certain height past the roof.”
When’s the busiest time of year to buy a new hearth? According to Mr. Gorell, it’s now. “In August, on a scale of one to 10, it was a six. September is a 10. October is a 10 and November is a nine,” he said. “December slows down for the actual selling of actual stoves and fireplaces… The best time of year to buy is August because that’s when we jump start that part of the business and have deals in place.”
This being Cape Cod, many already have stoves and fireplaces in their homes. With those comes another dirty word—maintenance—that is necessary, not only for the cleanliness of your stove or fireplace, but for its efficiency and your safety.
With 39 years’ worth of experience as a chimney professional and the owner of Falmouth Chimney Sweep, Joe Bento recommends annual maintenance of one’s hearth. “For fireplaces and wood stoves, it should be inspected yearly and swept, if necessary,” he said.
The late summer and early fall, he said, is the ideal time to do so.
An inspection will ensure the fireplace and the flue are “clean enough to be able to exhaust the products of combustion,” he explained. The damper system, a device that seals the fireplace or stove when not in use, is also part of the annual check-up.
The check-up also looks for creosote, a byproduct of wood burning that can form in the lining of the chimney and can cause fires or obstruction, leading to carbon monoxide entering the home. “The longer it sits in a wood stove, the more it can eat away at pipes,” Mr. Bento said. “It is very, very acidic and does a lot of damage. The best time to check for creosote is in the spring or early summer.”
With wood stoves, he said, “we make sure the fire brick inside the stove is in good shape and not cracked that could cause the body of the stove to get too hot or split or crack.”
The fun part—starting the fire—comes once your hearth gets a clean bill of health from a professional like Bento. “The best thing to start a fire with is a match,” he said, stating the obvious with a laugh.
Joking aside, he said the primary wood used around here is hardwood, either oak or maple.
When it comes to wood pellets, Mr. Gorell suggested, softwood Douglas fir.
Photo By J. Marshall Craig
Joe Bento
If people have enough room in their yard, Mr. Bento suggested buying hardwood by the cord—an amount equal to eight feet long by four feet high by four feet deep. He said it should be properly stacked by keeping it off the ground using pallets. As long as it’s covered “it can be stored two to three years without any major problems,” he said.
Seasoned wood is ideal to burn because it is dry. Even then, Mr. Bento said, “it still can contain 20 to 25 percent moisture so that has to be burned out first.”
After securing the match, Mr. Bento said, homeowners should place newspaper and kindling underneath an appropriately sized piece of wood. The best fires, he said, use thinner wood because they are more efficient to burn.
Once a fire is started “and you’ve got a good base, then you can put on larger pieces of wood, but not too large,” he said.
What not to burn? Wood with paint on it, treated lumber, cardboard, plastics and wrapping paper. “I wouldn’t recommend anything other than seasoned wood as far as wood stoves go,” Mr. Gorell instructed.
While some may think pine shouldn’t be burned, Mr. Bento said, that is a popular misconception. “As long as it’s properly seasoned, it can be burned,” he said. “If you live in Idaho or the Northwest, they don’t have oak trees so everything out there is soft pine.”
With winter just around the corner, there is a lot to consider with a hearth. Yes, it can help negate the difficulties that come with winter, but it can also pose risks to that which we hold most precious—our home and everything that’s inside of it.
This is why Mr. Bento remains so passionate about the work he has been doing for nearly four decades. “The chimney sweep serves a function in preserving property and lives,” he said. “In my mind, it’s an honorable profession and it is a good profession.”
Tip Of The Hat To Chimney Sweeps
Joe Bento isn’t a leprechaun, but he’s lucky. Well, that’s if you believe the folklore about chimney sweeps, who, legend has it, bring good luck, wealth and happiness.
That luck was immortalized in the Walt Disney classic, “Mary Poppins” in which Dick Van Dyke’s character Bert sings, “A sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be.”
There are several tales about the origination of the chimney sweep’s luck, including one dating back to 1066 in which King William of Great Britain was saved by a chimney sweep while riding in an out-of-control carriage. The king was so grateful that he declared all chimney sweeps to be lucky.
Chimney sweeps are also associated with top hats and tails, something that Mr. Bento said dates back more than 300 years when funeral directors gave them their old clothes.
At one time, the top hat was more than just a part of a sweep’s uniform. Mr. Bento said they used it to collect the soot from sweeping and sell it to printers to make ink.
For roughly 30 of the past 39 years, Mr. Bento could often be seen wearing his top hat around town while working. “I probably stopped wearing it about 10 years ago,” he said. “The profession has changed from where it used to be. I have the top hat I wear when I go to shows, but to put it on every day is a pain in the rear end because you’ll knock it off when looking in the fireplace or when you’re walking on the roof and it blows off in the wind.”
Let Your House Breathe
More often these days, homeowners are taking steps to ensure their houses are well-insulated.
With that, comes a risk of carbon monoxide remaining in the housing during the winter months because it has nowhere to go. It’s something that Joe Bento, owner of Falmouth Chimney Sweep, wants residents to be cognizant of even if they don’t have a chimney or wood stove. That’s because heating systems, including boilers and furnaces, need proper ventilation just like a hearth.
“The amount of calls I get nowadays from people telling me they are getting back drafts into their home because their houses are so tight,” he said. “Even when they are burning their heating system, it is not enough make-up air to be brought into the basement or attics to feed them sufficiently. It is becoming a problem.”
He said it can be a critical concern, especially for those who heat their homes with gas.
This is where a professional chimney sweep can literally become a lifesaver, detecting potential issues before they become a real problem. He noted one customer had a solid door going into the boiler room. The solution was as simple as replacing the entrance with louver doors. “That was an easy fix,” he said.
He said this has become an issue as more people are investing in their homes and replacing everything from windows to doors to siding to adding insulation. His advice was to “not only have your fireplace swept, but have your heating systems and chimneys cleaned,” he said.