Keeping your brick fireplace clean is vital.
Not only is the visual centrepiece for many homes, but it’s also where we get our heat from on those bitter cold winter nights. To properly clean your fireplace you’ll need the right ingredients and a bit of elbow grease. We’ll take a look at what’s involved to help you along your way.
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How to Clean a Brick Fireplace
There are three key elements it comes to cleaning your fireplace properly; environment, cleaning supplies and process.
Set up the Environment
The first step is to set up your environment.
Firstly, lay down some newspaper, cloths, or whatever you don’t mind getting dirty onto your floor. This means that no ash, creosote, or dirt will ruin your floor. It’s important to cover as much of the nearby floorspace and walls as possible as wet ash and creosote can be particularly difficult to clean once dried.
When ready you should then clean out your ashes. The best way to do this is to allow them to cool completely (we would recommend only attempting removal 12-24 hours after your last fire) and then use a dustpan and brush to be as thorough as possible.
You should then vacuum and dust anything else that’s free and easy to remove.
Prepare your Cleaning Solutions
Once you’ve prepped and cleaned the basics of the fireplace you need to make your cleaning solutions. For this, you’ll need two buckets and a spray bottle (if possible).
In the first bucket, mix 1 gallon of warm water with 2 tablespoons of washing-up liquid. If you have particularly strong stains, you could also add ¼ of a cup of ammonia.
In the second bucket, add 1 gallon of cold water and 1 cup of distilled white vinegar.
And, in the spray bottle, just add water. If you don’t have a spray bottle handy, you can simply replace this with a damp cloth that you rinse and clean after each use.
Cleaning your Brick Fireplace
To clean, the first step is to spray gentle dab the dirty areas with water. This will begin to loosen and dampen any dirt you want to remove.
The next step is to dip a stiff scrubbing brush into the first bucket. Once it’s wet, sprinkle on some salt or powdered pumice. The salt or pumice will take off some of the more stubborn stains.
And now, it’s time to scrub. Don’t be afraid to put a bit of elbow grease into it.
Then, dip a sponge into the second bucket (with cold water and vinegar) and wipe down the area you’ve just scrubbed. Doing so will get rid of any soap marks and also importantly kill odors.
Repeat this process until the area in question is clean. Then, move on to the next area and rinse and repeat until you’ve tackled the entirety of your brick fireplace.
Why Clean your Brick Fireplace
If you’re unconvinced about the process, we should establish why you should clean your brick fireplace. Not only is having a clean fireplace much nicer than a dirty one, it also plays a vital safety role.
A clean fireplace is significantly less likely to cause a fire than a dirty one. This is crucially important when we’re talking about something that can reach up to 2000°F in temperature.
When a fireplace is used regularly, a thick layer of a substance of creosote can build up. This chemical prevents fire from escaping through the chimney.
When creosote burns, it often makes a loud cracking noise. If combined with the enclosed environment of a fireplace with a glass door, it can even result in an explosion. This might sound extreme, but it can happen if a fireplace is constantly neglected over time.
If you don’t have a glass door and instead have a classic open fireplace, the smoke that would usually travel up the chimney will begin to enter your home. As you’ll be aware, introducing any form of smoke into a home can be incredibly dangerous, and more so for anyone living with breathing or health conditions such as asthma.
Just remember, cleaning your fireplace isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s also a maintenance and safety job.
How to Tell when it’s Time to Clean your Brick Fireplace
Even with all that in mind, just remember that you don’t need to clean your fireplace after every use. Instead, look out for the signs that it’s time to get to work.
There are a number of common signs but one of the first is usually that your fire begins to smell like a campfire. We all love the smell and crackle of a campfire but in this case it could be a sign that all those dangerous fumes that should exit via the chimney are actually entering your home.
This smell can be extremely dangerous when in an enclosed space (like a room within your home) and indicates that your fireplace needs cleaned.
The second sign is that your fire isn’t burning fuel efficiently.
If you notice that the same amount of wood is taking longer to burn than usual, that could signify that not enough oxygen is getting to the fire. This is usually because more oxygen is being used to burn the dirt and grime built up over weeks or months of regular use. As a result, you will need to burn more fuel which will cost more and be less efficient overall.
These are just two of many possible signs. Always be vigilant when using your fireplace.
Keeping your Fireplace Chimney Clean
We won’t delve into the details here but arguably, the most crucial part of keeping your fireplace clean is the chimney. The chimney is what takes harmful gasses out of your home and deposits them into the air. If it’s blocked by creosote, these dangerous gasses will most likely leak into your home.
We would recommend hiring a professional to do this for you. You can clean the chimney yourself, but it should be cleaned by a professional at least once a year.
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We hope this helps.
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