The Irish Sweep may use one or more of the following systems to clean first stage, second stage, or third stage creosote build-up in your chimney. 1st stage creosote is a soft, light sooty material that is fairly easy to clean. 2nd stage creosote is crunchy and more difficult to clean. 3rd stage creosote is hard and resembles dried molasses or roofing tar. It is the most difficult type of creosote to clean.

Remember: all creosote is flammable, but 3rd stage creosote is the most volatile.

1. Bottom-Up Cleaning:
Over the years, we have tested many chimney sweep methods and equipment. Based on our experience, we prefer to apply the "bottom-up" approach to chimney cleaning. By sweeping from the bottom-up, we can watch the creosote fall, and thus gauge how much creosote is present. This enables us to determine if the flue needs to be swept once, twice, or three times.

The bottom-up cleaning method also is the safest method for cleaning chimneys in these situations:

• When roofs are made of slate, clay tile, faux slate, or metal.
• When the roof is old and contains asbestos.
• When the roof is very steep.
• On rainy days.

We use two types of systems for bottom-up cleaning:

• Flexible Pole System - Cleans 1st and 2nd stage creosote.
• Coil System - a German cleaning system featuring a 50 feet continuous rod on a coil. This system, which cleans 1st and 2nd stage creosote, is also very effective on clothes dryer systems.

2. Top-Down Cleaning with a Traditional Fiberglass Pole:
When appropriate, we also sweep chimneys from the top down, using a traditional fiberglass pole. This method is effective in removing 1st and 2nd stage creosote.

3. Ro-Klean System:
To remove 3rd stage creosote, we use the Ro-Klean method developed by North  Carolina-based chimney sweep Pete Lute. Ro-Klean is a mechanical method of breaking the creosote off the clay flue liners of the chimney. The Ro-Klean tool is a series of metal poles that lock together. At the end of the pole are small metal chain links. When this device is installed into a hand-held electric drill, the metal chin links whip around in the flue and break off the 3rd stage creosote. Once the flue is clean, the debris is removed from the smoke shelf.

4. Chemicals:
3rd stage creosote also can be removed through the diligent and continued application of a chemical treatment. The Irish Sweep recommends and sells an environmentally-friendly chemical treatment solution to remove 3rd stage creosote build-up.