A Waldoboro chimney sweep reported Monday an inspection done at a local senior’s home by someone else resulted in filing an erroneous report to the Maine State Housing Authority (MSHA).
The citizen felt uneasy about the prognosis the area company gave about the status of her chimney after it examined her heating system following her call for help to LIHEAP, which has been administrating the assistance program this winter.
The report the company filled out for Maine Housing stated her chimney represented a code violation because it had no lining.
Thinking she should get a second opinion, she happened to read last week’s The Lincoln County News article about Bruce Hendrickson, owner and operator of Waldoboro Chimney Service and decided to ask him to take a look.
Upon inspection of her furnace chimney, he said obviously her chimney is lined. He seemed baffled by the company’s finding.
“There is absolutely no excuse for it,” he said. “I intend to be in contact with the Housing Authority.”
As a result of the report, the lining of the chimney would no doubt have to be replaced if MSHA agreed to assist the resident with the project. Otherwise, she might be concerned, and even worried unnecessarily.
Although the company did fail in its finding about the chimney lining, it made inspections of other aspects of the heating system such as checking for oil leaks and operation of controls and checked off things it did, like cleaning the system and replacing a nozzle.
However, Hendrickson found something the company did not make note of in its report when he went to the home Monday.
He said someone inserted a stovepipe around a furnace pipe that goes through existing walls to serve as a shield, but he found charring on the walls the pipe went past. He referred to the stopgap measure as “jury rigging.”
In the recent interview, Hendrickson spoke about many such instances in which he has discovered sloppy work or incorrect assessments of problems by chimney sweeps and/or chimney service people. He expressed his dismay at servicing homes like that where previous work was shoddy and incomplete at best.
One instance, one such encounter involved cleaning out a clogged chimney, which a serviceperson said was “all right.” However, the clogging caused a household member to suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning, and in a matter of a few minutes, he unclogged it, thus eliminating the problem.
Hendrickson has a truckload of tools and equipment he uses to do everything necessary to improve the efficiency of heating systems including fixing cracks and doing preventative work, besides doing the customary scraping out of soot and creosote that can cause chimney fires if unattended.
Normally, he recommends having a chimney cleaned annually, that a homeowner uses with a woodstove. At times, he has to take more extreme measures because of deposits that build up inside a chimney from moisture.
Overall, the same applies to chimney servicing as to any other work done on a home. Hendrickson advises people to make sure service people you ask to do the work are trustworthy, since it could seriously affect the safety and well-being of the persons living in the home.
