Ember Chimney SweepersOswego, Illinois
Call (630) 451-4178
Home Services All Chimney Services Chimney Sweeping Chimney Inspection Chimney Repair Chimney Caps & Dampers Masonry & Tuckpointing Gas Fireplace Service Dryer Vent Cleaning Air Duct Cleaning Service Areas All Service Areas Oswego Yorkville Montgomery Aurora Plainfield Naperville Sugar Grove More Pricing About Blog Contact

Ember Chimney Blog

Chimney tips & fireplace advice for Oswego homeowners

Seasonal maintenance, safety guidance and straight answers from Josh and Jack Amber — 35 years of Fox Valley chimneys, written up plainly.

Call (630) 451-4178All Services

Safety first

Creosote, carbon monoxide, flashing leaks and the warning signs that mean you should stop using the fireplace now.

Seasonal timing

When to book, why spring beats autumn, and what Illinois freeze-thaw does to masonry every single winter.

Town by town

Local specifics across the 15 Fox Valley towns we serve, from 1960s Boulder Hill stacks to Joliet limestone.

Have a question we have not covered yet? Call (630) 451-4178 and ask — we answer our own phone, 7 days a week from 7am to 9pm. You can also browse our chimney services, check pricing, or read the DIY maintenance guide.

Ember Chimney Sweepers

  • Ivy, moss or green staining on a chimney is a moisture reading, not a decorating question. Growth needs water that stays put, so anything living on your brick is telling you that section of masonry is holding damp instead of shedding it – usually because the crown, the cap or the mortar joints have stopped doing their job.

    What each kind of growth is telling you

    • Moss, in soft green cushions. Moss colonizes surfaces that stay wet and shaded. On a chimney it shows up on the north face, under a crown that is dumping runoff down the side instead of throwing it clear, or along a course of mortar that has gone soft and porous. Moss holds water against the brick long after the rain stops, which turns an ordinary wet spell into a permanent one.
    • Flat green or black staining. Usually algae, and it means the same thing as moss – persistent surface moisture. Black staining low down can also be soot washing down from the crown, and that is a different conversation, because soot on the outside of a chimney means smoke is escaping where it should not.
    • Ivy and climbing vines. The serious one. Ivy does not simply sit on brick, it anchors into it. The rootlets exploit hairline gaps in mortar, and as they thicken they lever those gaps wider. The plant also blankets the masonry so it never dries, and it hides everything underneath – you cannot see a cracked crown or a missing joint through a curtain of leaves.

    Plenty of older Aurora homes wear their ivy proudly and the masonry beneath it has been fine for decades. The point is not that growth guarantees damage. The point is that it guarantees moisture, and in a climate that crosses freezing dozens of times a winter, sustained moisture in masonry is the mechanism behind nearly every chimney repair we do.

    Why moisture plus an Illinois winter is the actual problem

    Brick and mortar are porous by design. They take on a little water and give it back up again. What they cannot tolerate is water trapped inside when the temperature crosses freezing, because water expands as it turns to ice and pushes the face of the brick outward from within. Do that repeatedly across a winter and the brick face shears off in flakes – spalling – while the mortar joints erode back until they are recessed and crumbling.

    Anything that keeps a wall wet accelerates that cycle. Moss, ivy and algae all do. So does a crown that has cracked, a missing or undersized cap letting rain fall straight down the flue, and flashing that has lifted at the roofline. Growth is often the first thing a homeowner notices, months or years before the brick starts coming apart.

    Removing it without making things worse

    Do not pressure wash a chimney. It is the most common self-inflicted injury we see on masonry. High pressure drives water deep into the brick, strips out already-weak mortar, and can take the fired face off softer historic brick entirely. The damage does not show up until the following spring.

    For moss and algae, a soft brush, a garden-hose rinse and a masonry-safe cleaner used according to its label is the right approach – and all of that on a chimney means working at roof height, which is where most homeowners should stop.

    For ivy, cut the vines through at the base and then leave them alone. Let the plant die back over several weeks and the rootlets release their grip far more readily. Tearing live ivy off brick pulls mortar with it and leaves a pockmarked surface that holds even more water than it did before.

    What comes after the cleaning

    Cleaning treats the symptom. Once the masonry is clear, the question is where the water was coming from, and that usually lands on one of three things: the crown, the cap, or the joints. Crown repair is starting at $319, a cap installed is starting at $159, and tuckpointing is starting at $399, with the full list on our pricing page. Which of those you need is not something to guess at from the ground – it takes a look from the roof and, where the flue is involved, a camera. That is what a chimney repair assessment covers.

    One note on sealers. A breathable siloxane water repellent is a legitimate product on sound masonry. A film-forming sealer applied over damp or damaged brick traps moisture behind it and makes spalling worse. Repair first, seal second, and only with the right product.

    Get the masonry looked at before freeze-thaw season

    We are across Aurora and the Fox Valley seven days a week, 7am to 9pm, insured and bonded. If your chimney has gone green, call us and we will find out why.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 22, 2026.

  • An open masonry fireplace sends most of its heat up the flue, and a few fixable faults make that far worse. If you are burning through a rack of wood in a weekend, the usual culprits are a damper that no longer seals, wood that is not actually dry, and a firebox pulling heated room air up the chimney all evening.

    Start with the wood, because it is the cheapest thing to fix

    Wood above roughly 20 percent moisture spends the first part of every fire boiling water instead of making heat. You paid for that water by the rack and it leaves as steam. The fire runs cool, the flames look lazy and yellow, and the smoke is dense – which also means creosote accumulating in the flue at a much faster rate.

    The tells are easy to read. Seasoned wood is lighter than it looks, the ends are checked and cracked, the bark has loosened, and two pieces knocked together ring rather than thud. Wood cut and split this summer is not ready this winter. Oak wants two years; ash and cherry can be ready in one. Stack it off the ground, single row, ends open to the wind, top covered and sides open.

    A moisture meter costs about fifteen dollars and settles the argument permanently. Split a piece and read the fresh face, not the weathered outside.

    Then look at what the fireplace does when there is no fire in it

    An open fireplace with the damper up is a hole in your house. When the fire is out and the damper is open, heated air leaves through it continuously and your furnace replaces it. That is the single largest source of waste in most fireplaces, and it happens when nobody is thinking about the fireplace at all.

    Old throat dampers rarely help as much as people assume. A cast-iron plate sitting in a masonry throat warps with heat cycles, collects soot and rust on its seat, and eventually closes to within a quarter inch of shut instead of actually sealing. You can check yours from below with a flashlight and a mirror: close it and look for daylight.

    A top-sealing damper mounts at the crown with a silicone gasket and seals against the weather rather than against a rusted iron frame. It also keeps rain, snow and animals out of the flue, which the throat damper never did. Installed, one is starting at $239 – see chimney caps and dampers and the pricing page for the current figures.

    The way you build the fire matters more than people expect

    Three things are worth changing tonight:

    • Build it top-down. Large splits on the bottom, medium above them, kindling and tinder on top. It lights from the top and burns downward, which warms the flue quickly, establishes draft sooner and produces noticeably less smoke through the first twenty minutes.
    • Warm the flue first. On a cold morning the air in the chimney is dense and sitting still. Hold a rolled, lit sheet of newspaper up near the damper for thirty seconds before you light the fire. That is often the difference between a fire that takes and a fire that smokes.
    • Burn fewer, hotter fires. A hot fire burns its own smoke. A smoldering, damped-down fire kept going all evening burns more wood per unit of heat and coats the flue while it does it.

    The bigger structural question is whether an open fireplace is the right appliance at all. If you are burning for heat rather than for the look of it, an insert changes the arithmetic completely by closing the firebox and drawing combustion air from a controlled source. Plenty of Yorkville homes have made that switch, and it needs a correctly sized liner to do it safely – a conversation for an inspection, not a weekend project.

    Have the damper and flue checked

    If you are not sure whether your damper seals, we can tell you in about five minutes, and we will check the flue size against the fireplace opening while we are there. A sweeping is starting at $119. We are out seven days a week, 7am to 9pm, insured and bonded.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 21, 2026.

  • Leave about an inch of ash under the grate through the burning season – it insulates the hearth and helps the next fire catch – and shovel out the rest once it builds past roughly three inches. Every scoop you remove goes into a metal container with a lid, set outside on a non-combustible surface, and stays there at least 72 hours before it goes anywhere near a trash can.

    Why a little ash helps and a lot hurts

    A thin ash bed is genuinely useful. It reflects heat back up into the fuel, protects the firebox floor from the direct bite of the coals, and gives kindling a warm base to ignite against. Wood-burners have known this for generations and it holds up.

    Past about three inches, the benefit reverses. A deep bed crowds the grate, chokes the airflow coming up from underneath, and forces the fire to burn cooler and dirtier. Cooler smoke deposits more creosote on the way up the flue, which is how a housekeeping habit turns into a chimney problem. Deep ash also holds moisture, and wet ash sitting against firebox brick and mortar joints is corrosive over time.

    The exception is gas. If you have a gas log set or an insert there is no ash bed to manage, and nothing in that firebox should be shoveled – the media in there is placed deliberately and moving it can change how the appliance burns. That is a job for gas fireplace service, not a shovel.

    The disposal part is the part that starts fires

    This is where people get hurt, and it is worth being blunt about it. Wood ash insulates itself. Embers buried in a pile of ash can hold enough heat to ignite paper or cardboard days after the fire appears to be out – long after the surface is cool to the touch, and long after it seems reasonable to still be worrying about it. We treat every scoop as live for at least 72 hours, and in practice we tell customers to go a week if the container is sitting anywhere near the house.

    We mentioned this briefly when writing about what not to burn in a fireplace. Here is the routine in full:

    • Use a metal bucket or ash can with a metal lid. No plastic, no paper bag, no cardboard box, and no shop vacuum – a standard vacuum will pull an ember straight into a bag of dust.
    • Mist the ash lightly with water as you shovel to keep it from going airborne. Do not soak it into a slurry unless it is going straight onto the garden.
    • Set the closed container outside, on concrete or bare dirt, well away from the house, the deck, the fence, the garage and the woodpile. Not on a wooden porch. Not in an attached garage.
    • Leave it at least 72 hours. Then, if it is cold all the way through, bag it and put it in the trash.

    Cooled, fully dead wood ash from untreated firewood can also go on a compost pile or into garden beds in small amounts – it is alkaline and will raise soil pH, so go light. Never spread ash from manufactured logs, painted or treated wood, or anything with charcoal briquettes mixed in.

    A few habits that keep the firebox in better shape

    Wait until the fire has been out at least 24 hours before shoveling, unless you enjoy chasing sparks. Take the ash down to about an inch rather than scraping to bare brick, because bare brick takes a beating. At the end of the season, remove all of it, since ash left sitting all summer draws humidity and produces the sour smell that turns up on the first warm, damp week. That particular odor in Oswego homes is very often nothing more than leftover ash.

    While the firebox is empty, look at it. Missing mortar between firebrick, cracked brick faces, or a floor that has started to crumble are all worth mentioning at your next visit. Our DIY guide covers what is reasonable to check yourself. The rest of the system – the smoke shelf, the flue, the crown – needs a professional sweeping, because the majority of what accumulates in a chimney is nowhere you can reach from the living room.

    Book a sweeping in Oswego

    We are a few minutes away on Station Drive, out seven days a week, 7am to 9pm, insured and bonded. If your firebox has a season of ash in it and you would rather it came out properly, call and we will bring the vacuum.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 20, 2026.

  • A standard fireplace sweeping takes most of an hour – typically 45 to 90 minutes from the time we park to the time we hand you the report. The work happens almost entirely at the firebox, under a sealed drop cloth with a negative-air vacuum running, and a well-run sweep leaves no visible dust in the room.

    What the hour is actually spent on

    Very little of it is brushing. The brushwork on an ordinary flue takes maybe ten minutes. The rest is setup, inspection and cleanup, and that ratio is the difference between a clean job and a mess.

    • Setup, about ten minutes. Drop cloths from the door to the hearth, a tarp sealed over the fireplace opening, and a HEPA-filtered negative-air vacuum drawing from inside the firebox so any airborne soot moves away from your room rather than into it.
    • Brushing, ten to twenty minutes. Rods and a brush sized to the flue, worked from the bottom up, the top down, or both, depending on the chimney. Soot and creosote drop into the firebox where the vacuum is already waiting for them.
    • Smoke chamber and shelf, ten to fifteen minutes. This is where the buildup usually is. The smoke shelf behind the damper collects debris that a straight brush run down the flue never touches, and it has to be cleared by hand.
    • Inspection and photos, fifteen to twenty minutes. With the flue clean, the condition of the liner, crown, cap, damper and firebox is finally visible. Clean first, assess second – the reverse order produces guesses.
    • Cleanup and walkthrough, ten minutes. Everything comes up, the hearth gets vacuumed, and we show you what we found before we leave.

    What makes a visit run long

    Some jobs go past 90 minutes, and it is usually one of a short list of reasons. Heavy third-stage creosote – the hard, glazed kind – does not brush off and may need a different approach entirely. An animal nest packed into the flue has to come out piece by piece. Multi-flue chimneys mean doing the work more than once. And if we find something that needs a closer look, the camera scan adds time.

    Homes around Sandwich skew older, and older chimneys are often unlined or lined with clay tiles that have shifted over the decades. Neither is a crisis, but both mean we are not simply running a brush and leaving. We would rather spend the extra twenty minutes than write a report that says less than it should.

    What you need to do before we arrive

    Not much. No fires for at least 24 hours so the flue is cold and safe to work in – 48 hours is better if you have been burning hard. Move anything breakable off the mantel and clear a path from the nearest door to the fireplace. If the fireplace has glass doors, leave them as they are and we will handle them. And if you know where the chimney comes out on the roof, mention it, because it saves us a lap around the house.

    Pets are usually happiest in another room, mostly because of the vacuum noise. Anything you have been curious about is worth writing down before we get there: an odor, a stain on the ceiling, a damper that sticks. Those details point us at the right places to look.

    How often, and what it costs

    NFPA 211 sets the interval at an inspection once a year for a chimney in use, and the sweeping happens when the inspection says it should. For a household burning regularly through an Illinois winter, that generally works out to annual sweeping. For someone who lights a handful of fires a season it may be every other year – but the annual look still applies, because most of what goes wrong with a chimney has nothing to do with how much you burn.

    A chimney sweeping is starting at $119 and a Level 1 inspection is starting at $99. If you want to understand what we check while we are in there, our DIY and homeowner guide walks through what you can safely look at yourself between visits, and the full price list is on the pricing page.

    Book a sweeping in Sandwich

    We are out seven days a week, 7am to 9pm, insured and bonded. Josh and Jack Amber have 35 years of combined experience and both grew up in Oswego. Call and we will give you a real arrival window rather than a vague half-day.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 19, 2026.

  • If a normal load takes two cycles to dry, the dryer is almost never the problem – the vent is. A restricted duct traps the humid air the machine is trying to expel, so the clothes sit in moisture while the heating element keeps cycling. Most of the two-cycle calls we get are solved by clearing the duct, which is starting at $99.

    Why a blocked vent doubles your drying time

    A clothes dryer does not really heat clothes dry. It heats air, pushes that air through the drum to pick up moisture, and then blows the wet air outside. The drying happens in the last step. When lint narrows the duct, airflow drops, and the machine ends up recirculating air that is already saturated. The thermostat reads heat, not humidity, so the dryer happily runs a full cycle and delivers damp laundry.

    That is the version homeowners notice. The version they do not notice is the heat. Restricted ducts hold hot, lint-laden air against the heating element and the back of the cabinet, and lint is excellent fuel. Dryer fires are one of the more common household ignition sources, and they start in exactly this condition.

    The duct runs in a lot of Romeoville houses make this worse than it needs to be. Laundry rooms moved off the exterior wall to the middle of the floor plan or up to the second floor, and the duct gained length and several elbows to reach daylight. Every 90-degree turn costs you roughly as much airflow as several extra feet of straight pipe.

    The signs that show up before the two-cycle stage

    • The laundry room feels humid or warm while the dryer runs. Air that should be leaving the building is leaking out of joints in the duct instead.
    • Clothes come out hot but damp. Plenty of heat, nowhere for the moisture to go.
    • The outside vent hood barely moves. Go outside mid-cycle and hold a hand near the flap. You should feel a strong, steady push of warm air. A weak trickle, or a flap that never opens fully, is a restriction.
    • Lint is visible around the hood or on the siding – or the flap is propped open by a mat of lint, which then lets birds and mice into the duct.
    • A faint scorched smell at the end of a cycle. Stop using the dryer and get the duct cleared before you run it again.
    • The dryer shuts itself off mid-cycle. Many machines have a thermal cut-out that trips when exhaust cannot escape. If yours is tripping, it is doing its job and telling you something.

    What you can do yourself, and where to stop

    Clean the lint screen after every single load, and once a season pull the screen and wash it with warm water and a little dish soap. Fabric softener sheets leave an invisible film on the mesh that cuts airflow even when the screen looks clean – if water beads on it instead of running straight through, it needs a wash.

    Replace any flexible foil or vinyl accordion duct with rigid or semi-rigid metal. The ribbed stuff catches lint in every corrugation and crushes flat behind the machine when you push it back against the wall. Pull the dryer out far enough that the duct is not kinked, and check that the exterior hood flap swings freely.

    Where to stop is the long run. A shop vacuum at the back of the machine pulls out the first few feet and leaves the rest, and pushing a brush in from the wrong end can pack a soft blockage tighter. A proper dryer vent cleaning uses a rotating brush on a flexible rod run the full length with a vacuum capturing debris, and it finishes with an airflow check at the hood so you know the restriction is actually gone rather than merely disturbed.

    How often it needs doing

    Once a year covers most households. Move that to twice a year if you have a large family, if you dry pet bedding, or if the duct run is longer than about 25 feet with several turns in it. If you have just moved in and have no idea when it was last done, start with a cleaning so you have a baseline. While we are in the house, it is a sensible time to look at the chimney as well – the same visit usually covers both.

    Get the vent cleared before laundry day gets any longer

    We are in Romeoville and across Will and Kendall County seven days a week, 7am to 9pm, insured and bonded. Dryer vent cleaning is starting at $99, with the full list on our pricing page. If your dryer is taking two cycles, call and we will measure the airflow rather than guess at it.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 18, 2026.

  • If smoke rolls into the room the moment your furnace, range hood or clothes dryer starts, the chimney probably is not blocked – it is losing a tug-of-war for air. Exhaust appliances in a tightly built house can pull well over 100 cubic feet of air per minute out of the building, and the easiest place for replacement air to get back in is straight down the coldest flue in the house.

    Draft reversal is an air-supply problem, not a soot problem

    A chimney drafts because the column of warm air inside it is lighter than the cold air outside, so it rises and drags combustion gases along with it. The pressure difference doing that work is tiny – a few thousandths of an inch of water column on a mild day. Any fan that removes air from the house faster than the house can replace it will overwhelm that small pressure and reverse the flow. The flue then behaves like a supply vent instead of an exhaust, and whatever is sitting in it comes down into the room: cold air, soot odor, and on a bad day, combustion gases from an appliance that shares the chimney.

    That is why the problem is intermittent. Homeowners in North Aurora usually describe it as the fireplace only smoking sometimes, and the pattern almost always tracks something else switching on rather than anything about the fire itself.

    The appliances competing for the same air

    • The furnace or water heater. An atmospherically vented gas appliance needs its own supply of combustion air. Put one in a sealed mechanical room or a basement with new foam overhead and it will take that air from wherever it can find it, including your fireplace flue.
    • The kitchen range hood. This is the single biggest offender in most homes. High-capacity hoods move 600 CFM or more, which is enough to reverse a fireplace all by itself.
    • Bath fans and the clothes dryer. Individually modest, but they run for long stretches, and several at once adds up quickly.
    • The upper floors themselves. Warm air escaping through attic bypasses and recessed light housings creates steady suction lower in the house. An open flue is a convenient make-up path.

    Newer and recently air-sealed houses have this trouble more often than drafty old ones, which surprises people. Tightening a house is good for the heating bill and hard on natural-draft venting.

    A ten-minute test you can run yourself

    Do this with no fire burning. Close every window. Open the damper and hold a lit stick of incense just inside the fireplace opening, near the top, and watch which way the smoke travels. Now have someone switch on the range hood at high, the dryer and both bath fans, and watch again. If the smoke was drifting up the flue and now curls back into the room, you have just measured a pressure problem in your own house, and no amount of brushing will fix it.

    Then crack a window six inches on the windward side and repeat. If the draft recovers, the house needs make-up air. That is worth knowing before anyone quotes you a repair.

    What actually fixes it

    The fix depends on what the test showed. Sometimes it is a make-up air path – a dedicated duct to the mechanical room, or a passive inlet. Sometimes the flue is oversized for the appliance, or the chimney is too short relative to the roofline and never builds a strong enough column to begin with. And sometimes it really is an obstruction or a heavy creosote layer narrowing the flue, in which case a chimney sweeping restores the cross-section and the draft comes back on its own.

    Telling those apart takes a chimney inspection rather than a guess. We work to NFPA 211, the National Fire Protection Association standard for chimneys, fireplaces, vents and solid fuel-burning appliances, which defines what each inspection level has to cover – including a recorded camera scan of the flue interior at Level 2. A Level 1 inspection is starting at $99 and a Level 2 is starting at $199; the current figures live on our pricing page.

    One thing worth saying plainly. If your furnace or water heater vents into a masonry chimney and you are seeing reversal, treat it as urgent rather than annoying. Reversed draft on a fuel-burning appliance can push combustion gases into the living space. Make sure your carbon monoxide alarms work, and get the venting looked at.

    Have the draft checked before the cold settles in

    We cover North Aurora and the rest of the Fox Valley seven days a week, 7am to 9pm, insured and bonded. Josh and Jack Amber grew up in Oswego and have 35 years of combined experience between them. If your fireplace smokes when other appliances run, call us and we will test the pressure in the house instead of simply running a brush down the flue.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 17, 2026.

  • Most chimney fires are not the roaring, dramatic kind; many burn slowly and quietly, and the homeowner never knows one happened. The clearest signs afterward are puffy, honeycomb-textured creosote, a warped metal damper or cap, cracked flue tiles, and flakes of burnt creosote on the roof or ground. If you see any of them, stop using the fireplace until the flue has had a Level 2 inspection.

    Why chimney fires go unnoticed

    A fast chimney fire is hard to miss: a loud roaring or rumbling noise, dense smoke, and sometimes flames or sparks shooting out of the top. The slow kind is different. Creosote in the flue smolders at very high temperatures without enough air to flare, and from inside the house the fireplace may seem to be burning normally.

    Both kinds can do the same damage. The heat can crack clay flue tiles, distort metal liners, and in older chimneys reach nearby framing through gaps in the masonry. Once the liner is cracked, the next ordinary fire can send heat and combustion gases where they were never meant to go.

    The signs to look for

    • Puffy or honeycombed creosote. Burnt creosote swells into a light, porous, almost popcorn-like texture that looks very different from ordinary flaky deposits.
    • Warped or discolored metal. A damper that no longer closes flat, a cap that looks bent or heat-stained, or a metal chimney section that is visibly distorted.
    • Cracked or missing flue tiles. Pieces of clay tile landing on the smoke shelf or in the firebox are a serious warning.
    • Creosote flakes outside. Chunks of burnt creosote on the roof, in the gutters or on the ground near the chimney.
    • Cracks in exterior masonry that were not there before, or heat damage to roofing material around the chimney.
    • Smoke in odd places, such as the attic or an adjacent room, when the fireplace is in use.

    None of these requires going on the roof to spot. A flashlight up past the damper, binoculars from the yard, and a look at the smoke shelf will show most of them.

    What NFPA 211 says happens next

    We work to NFPA 211, the National Fire Protection Association’s standard for chimneys, fireplaces, vents and solid fuel-burning appliances. It calls for a Level 2 inspection after an event that could have damaged the chimney, and a chimney fire is exactly that kind of event.

    A Level 2 includes a recorded video camera scan of the flue interior, because that is the only way to see cracks in the liner along the full height of the chimney. Depending on what the camera shows, the answer might be a thorough sweep, repairs to the tile, or relining, which we only quote once we have seen the damage. Details are on our chimney inspection page, and rates are on the pricing page.

    Preventing the next one in Plano

    Chimney fires start with creosote, so prevention comes down to burning dry, seasoned wood, giving fires enough air, and having the flue swept once deposits build up. Plano has a mix of older homes near the historic downtown and newer subdivisions, and we find heavy creosote in both when a fireplace sees steady use without regular sweeping. If you are in Plano, a yearly chimney sweep is the simplest protection there is.

    Think there may have been a chimney fire?

    Ember Chimney Sweepers is two brothers from Oswego, Josh and Jack Amber, with 35 years of combined experience between them. We are insured and bonded and we take calls every day of the week from 7am to 9pm. If you are seeing any of the signs above, call before you light another fire.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 16, 2026.

  • Air duct cleaning is worth paying for in three situations: visible mold growth inside the ductwork, evidence of rodents or insects in the system, or ducts clogged enough that dust and debris blow out of the registers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s guidance on duct cleaning points to those same conditions. Outside of them, routine cleaning every year is not something most homes need, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.

    The cases where cleaning makes sense

    Visible mold. If you can see mold growth on the inside of sheet metal ducts or on components of the furnace and air handler, cleaning is justified, but only alongside finding out why moisture got there in the first place. Cleaning without fixing a condensation or leak problem just resets the clock.

    Rodents or insects. Droppings, nesting material or dead insects in the ductwork are a clear reason to clean, after the entry point has been sealed and the infestation dealt with.

    Heavy dust and debris. If puffs of dust come out of the registers when the system starts, or you can see thick debris when you remove a register cover, the ducts are carrying material around the house every time the blower runs. Construction dust is the most common source of this, which we covered separately in our post on air duct cleaning after a remodel.

    Moving into a home where you do not know the history, particularly after a previous owner with pets or heavy smoking, is also a reasonable time to have the system looked at and cleaned if the inspection supports it.

    The cases where it usually is not worth it

    A normal amount of light dust on the register grilles is not a sign the ducts need cleaning. Neither is general household dustiness, which usually has more to do with the filter, how often the house is vacuumed, and outdoor air coming in. The EPA also notes that there is no conclusive evidence that routine duct cleaning prevents health problems in a typical home.

    Before booking, check the simple things: replace the furnace filter with the correct size, make sure it is seated without gaps around its edges, and change it on schedule. That alone solves a lot of what people think is a duct problem.

    What to ask before you hire anyone

    Ask how the whole system will be cleaned, not just the registers. A proper job puts the ductwork under negative pressure with a collection unit and agitates the debris loose with brushes or air whips, covering supply and return runs, the blower compartment and the coil area where it is accessible. Ask whether they will show you the before-and-after condition.

    Be cautious about chemical sanitizers or coatings added as an automatic upsell. They should be a deliberate decision for a specific problem, not a default line item. And be skeptical of very low advertised prices that only cover a handful of vents and grow on arrival.

    Is it worth it for your Shorewood home?

    Many homes in Shorewood are newer builds where the ductwork is still in good condition, so the honest answer for plenty of them is to change the filter and wait. If one of the three situations above applies, our air duct cleaning service explains how we do the work, and the starting rate is published on the pricing page. Keep in mind that dryer vent cleaning is a separate, fire-related job and is worth doing regardless.

    Get a straight answer first

    Ember Chimney Sweepers is owned by Josh Amber and his brother Jack, both born and raised in Oswego, with 35 years of combined experience. We are insured and bonded, and we answer calls seven days a week between 7am and 9pm. Call and describe what you are seeing; if cleaning will not help, we will tell you.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 15, 2026.

  • Spalling is when the face of a brick flakes, crumbles or pops off, and on a chimney it is almost always caused by water soaking into the brick and then freezing. Every freeze expands that water and pushes the surface apart. It will not stop on its own: the damaged brick absorbs even more water, so the next winter does more damage than the last.

    What spalling looks like

    You will see bricks whose outer face has broken away in flat shards or rounded pockets, leaving a rough, often lighter-colored surface behind. Look for brick chips on the roof, in gutters, or on the ground at the base of an exterior chimney after winter. Early spalling can be a single brick or a few on the most weather-exposed side; advanced spalling leaves whole courses eroded and mortar joints standing proud of the brick around them.

    It is most common on the portion of a chimney above the roofline, which has no protection from wind-driven rain and cycles through freezing and thawing more often than any other part of the house.

    Where the water is coming from

    Brick is porous by nature and handles normal rain well as long as it can dry out. Spalling means it is getting more water than it can shed. The usual sources are a cracked or undersized crown sending runoff down the brick face, a missing cap letting rain into the flue and the masonry around it, failed mortar joints, and gutters or roof valleys that dump water against the chimney.

    Two well-meant repairs also cause it. Repointing soft old brick with very hard modern mortar forces moisture to escape through the brick instead of the joints. And coating a chimney with a non-breathable sealer or paint traps moisture inside the brick, so the face blows off from behind the coating. If a chimney is going to be treated, it should be with a vapor-permeable water repellent made for masonry, applied only after repairs.

    How spalling gets repaired

    The fix depends on how far it has gone. Isolated damaged bricks can be cut out and replaced with matching units, with the joints around them repointed. Where spalling covers a large area above the roofline, the practical repair is usually to take the chimney down to sound masonry and rebuild that section. In either case, the water source has to be fixed at the same time, or the new brick starts the same cycle.

    Pressure washing is not a repair. High-pressure water drives more moisture into the brick and can strip the fired surface off softer brick outright.

    Joliet has a wide range of housing stock, from older brick homes near downtown to newer construction on the city’s west side, and we see spalling on both, though the older chimneys with softer brick tend to go first. If you are in Joliet and have noticed brick chips on the roof, it is worth getting a look before the next freeze.

    Check it from the ground

    Binoculars on a clear day are enough to spot most spalling. Compare the brick above the roofline with the brick lower down, check the side that faces the prevailing weather, and look for chips in the gutters. Inside, damp patches or a musty smell near the fireplace can be the same water problem showing up from the other side.

    Our masonry and tuckpointing page explains how we match mortar and replace brick, broader structural work is on the chimney repair page, and our rates are on the pricing page.

    Have the masonry looked at before winter

    Ember Chimney Sweepers is two brothers from Oswego, Josh and Jack Amber, with 35 years of combined experience. We are insured and bonded, we work to NFPA 211, and we take calls seven days a week from 7am to 9pm.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 14, 2026.

  • Before you relight a gas fireplace after summer, check four things: the outside vent is clear, the glass is intact and properly seated, the logs are in their correct positions, and there is no gas smell. Then follow the lighting steps in your owner’s manual exactly. A faint burning smell for the first 20 to 30 minutes is normal; a gas smell, a lazy yellow flame or a pilot that will not stay lit is not.

    Step outside first: the vent termination

    Most modern gas fireplaces vent directly through an outside wall or the roof. Over a summer, that termination cap can collect wasp nests, bird nesting material, leaves, or simply get crowded by shrubs and patio furniture. A direct-vent unit draws its combustion air through the same termination, so a blockage affects both air in and exhaust out.

    Look at it from the outside. It should be clear of plants, free of visible nests, and not buried behind anything. If there is a nest inside the cap, do not light the fireplace until it has been removed.

    Inside: glass, logs and the pilot area

    With the unit off and cool, check that the glass front is not cracked or chipped and that it is latched properly into its frame. On a sealed direct-vent fireplace, that glass is part of what keeps combustion gases out of the room. A cracked panel means the unit should not be used until it is replaced.

    The ceramic logs should sit exactly where the manual shows them. A log nudged out of position during cleaning can push flame against the glass or into the pilot and cause heavy sooting. Spiders are also known for building webs in the small openings of gas burners and pilot assemblies over a quiet summer, which can disturb the flame. That is a job for a service visit rather than a vacuum nozzle in the burner.

    Lighting it and what is normal

    Follow the lighting sequence printed in your manual or on the label near the controls. If you have a wall switch or remote, make sure the batteries in the receiver are fresh. On the first fire of the season, expect a mild dusty or hot-paint smell for a short time as the heat burns off accumulated dust. Some units also leave a light white haze on the glass after the first few hours of use.

    Watch the flame. It should be steady with blue at the base and yellow tips that look like a wood fire. Flames that are tall and lazy, sooty and orange throughout, lifting off the burner, or making a popping noise all point to a combustion or air supply problem.

    When to turn it off and call

    If you smell gas, do not try to light it and do not operate light switches. Leave the house and call your gas utility or 911 from outside. For everything short of that, turn the fireplace off and get it looked at if the pilot will not stay lit, if the flame looks wrong, if you see soot on the glass or the wall above, or if your carbon monoxide alarm sounds.

    We service gas fireplaces and inserts across Minooka and the neighboring towns. A gas fireplace service covers the burner, pilot assembly, gas valve operation, venting and glass gasket, and the rate is on our pricing page. For the checks that are safe to do yourself, see our DIY guide.

    Book a start-of-season check

    Ember Chimney Sweepers is Josh Amber and his brother Jack, born and raised in Oswego, with 35 years of combined experience. We are insured and bonded and available seven days a week from 7am to 9pm.

    Call (630) 451-4178

    Written by Josh Amber, co-owner of Ember Chimney Sweepers, Oswego IL. Published October 13, 2026.

Find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor, and Yelp.