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Jeff's experience designing content solutions lead him to be one of our first contributors. He helped draft Makey's blueprint and is one of the best explainers of technical details we know.
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Whether you’ve purchased a home with an older masonry chimney or you’re planning on including a modern chimney as a design feature in a new build, there are a couple of things you should consider, such as: “What’s a chimney sweep?” and “How often should I clean my chimney flue?”
The term chimney most commonly refers to a vertical ventilation structure that connects an interior heating source, such as a fireplace, furnace, boiler, or wood stove, to the exterior of a house or building. The space inside of a chimney is called the chimney flue and is used in combination with dampers to control airflow. Traditionally, masonry chimneys were prominent structures, featured typically up the sides and on the rooftops of houses and buildings. The use of traditional chimneys has declined as many modern heating appliances can be vented directly out of a wall or rooftop with a discrete vent pipe.
Masonry fireplaces and chimneys pretty much go hand in hand and are typically considered an idyllic form of heat. However, it’s not all chestnuts and marshmallows as masonry chimneys can require a bit of maintenance and repair over time: