I put on a harness and tied my rope around the chimney. Next I inspected the chimney using a flashlight. Then I cleaned the creosote off the sides of the chimney cap using a stiff brush. I raked the loose creosote from the cap down the chimney pipe.
My wife handed me the chimney sweep poles and brush. My wife had fabricated a bag that I could use to carry the poles and brush. She used a cloth bag in which I keep my 22 rifle. She pinned using safety pins a weed-eater strap to the bag. It made something like an archer's quiver and worked great. I strapped the poles and brush over my shoulder.
I pushed the brush into the chimney pipe. At first the brush seemed extremely tight which made me afraid that I might have trouble pulling the brush out of the chimney. However, after I had inserted the brush 6 inches into the chimney, I didn't have any trouble maneuvering it in the chimney. The top 6 inches of the chimney is where the chimney cap connects to the chimney; the chimney cap is just a little smaller than the chimney pipe.
I worked the brush down the pipe using short up-and-down strokes per the manufacturer's instructions. When the first pole was almost fully inserted into the pipe, I screwed on a second pole. My poles are each 5 feet long. I used a couple wrenches to snug the two's pole ends together. I didn't want to take any chances that the poles might work themselves apart. Then I continued to work my way down the chimney, adding poles as I went.
Toward the bottom of our chimney, the pipe makes a couple of 30 degree turns in order to get the pipe to align with the top of the fireplace. The section of pipe between the two 30 degree angle pieces appeared to be the dirtiest place in the pipe. I noticed more resistance using the brush in that area. While cleaning that section of pipe, my wife went inside the house to see how things looked from inside the fireplace. I kept sweeping with the brush until my wife could tell that creosote/soot stopped falling into the fireplace.
We kept the fireplace's glass doors shut to keep the dust out of the house. The whole operation went very smoothly. I actually had fun. It was quite satisfying to do this job ourselves. Hiring the job would have cost $150. The poles and brush cost $100. We came out ahead financially on our first cleaning. Plus, we will have many more cleanings to do over the upcoming years. I'll clean the chimney again at the end of this season. Then we'll probably clean it one time a year once we are burning better seasoned firewood.
