Professional Services
You can be assured of a professional service from Star Sweep Enterprise
Founded and run by John Hennessy, Star Sweep Enterprise is based in Darlington, County Durham, serving the local area including Northallerton and Richmond. A combination of the desire to become self-employed alongside an opportunity for redundancy allowed John to retrain at the National Association of Chimney Sweeps in order to become a professional chimney sweep. John explains;
“The National Association of Chimney Sweep training course is very thorough and in depth. Not everyone passes the course and they keep their standards high for good reason. It’s not just about moving a bit of soot about, it’s about safety, the prevention of chimney fires, avoiding carbon monoxide poisoning and potentially saving lives. In fact having the chimney swept is so important chimney sweeping is still classed as a reserved occupation.”
Having originally trained as a Mechanical Engineer John has an HND within this discipline. He has successfully designed insulation on Nuclear submarines for Darchem, developed fridges/ freezers for Electrolux and designed/installed engine test cell cooling systems at Cummins Engines.
The combination of John’s skills that include a highly practical nature, common sense and a strong technical background together with the use of award winning chimney sweeping equipment allows Star Sweep Enterprise to provide the best service available.
John lives in Darlington with his lovely wife Anne and a small menagerie of pets!
Is it going to be very messy?
Not at all. With careful selection of the right equipment to seal off the fireplace or stove together with the powerful industrial vacuum cleaner plus HEPA rated vacuum bags removing soot from chimneys can be done without any mess at all.
How often does my chimney need to be cleaned?
The professional organisation I belong to recommend that in normal use chimneys with fires using the following fuels should be cleaned;
- Wood: every three months whilst in use.
- Domestic house coal: at least twice a year.
- Smokeless fuel: at least once a year.
I believe this to be good advice having seen too many chimneys on the brink of a serious chimney fire. Doesn’t bare thinking about. If you have a gas or oil burning appliance call me and I can recommend a Gas Safe or OFTEC registered technician. I’m here to help.
How long does it take?
It usually takes about an hour (sometimes an hour and a half) to remove the soot from most chimneys. We take longer than most because we take more time to prevent any mess.
If we encounter a blockage such as a birds nest it will take additional time to remove any branches.
I’m not sure about Power Sweeping. What is it?
Power sweeping means that a specially designed cleaning head is spun round and round inside the flue right from the top of the chimney all the way to the bottom. A powerful cordless drill is used to spin the rods and cleaning head. It’s a highly effective and yet gentler system for cleaning chimneys compared to the traditional “Dick van Dyke” manual chimney sweeping method.
The heads consist of many strands of flexible nylon which when spun, sweep all the ledges and corners that the stiff manual brushes miss. Remember when electric tooth brushes arrived on the market? Today all dentists recommend power brushing using an electric toothbrush and it will soon be the same with power sweeping.
Will power sweeping damage my chimney or chimney liner?
Power sweeping uses much softer highly flexible nylon strands on the cleaning heads so it’s a much gentler clean compared to the stiff brushes used for manual chimney sweeping. The power sweeping cleaning heads are spun at approx. 400 rpm and the strands automatically take on the dimensions of the flue to repeatedly rub the soot away. Despite the gentler action it’s highly effective at cleaning because the strands come into contact with the flue so many times. It is very very good.
What does using a 5 layer HEPA rated vacuum bag mean?
The vacuum bags we fit into our industrial vacuum (which already has two layers of filtration) are HEPA rated. HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Arresting which means they are highly effective at filtering. HEPA filters are more commonly used in hospitals and by people who suffer from allergens. We use them to provide the best service possible and keep everything as clean as possible.
