Creosote formation is one of the main problems faced by people having fireplaces in their homes. This substance formed on the walls of chimney is dangerous enough to cause fire in chimney that might extend to your home interior if not looked upon in time. Again, many homeowners having fireplaces in their homes are not aware of creosote formation and they do not know what creosote actually means. Well, creosote is a highly inflammable substance that builds up on the walls of chimney and fireplaces. These substances are formed due to unburned wood when expelled ash and other volatile gases mix up when they are exiting the chimney. Especially in chimneys with poor drafts, the amount of creosote formation is more and overtime these creosote formation and soot buildup proves to be fatal as they have all the potential to cause chimney fire.
The first thing to avoid creosote buildup is to clean your chimney regularly. Chimney sweeping is very much necessary on annual basis when you are going to start using your fireplaces before every winter season. Cleaning chimney is possible for you by using different chimney cleaning material available in the market. However having a professional chimney cleaning team perform the job is the best idea to maintain and clean your chimney, as they are skilled and trained to perform this job.
Second thing that you should understand is burning proper wood in the fireplaces. Make sure that the wood you are using for burning is dry and seasoned wood. Any attempt to burn wet wood enhances the smoldering fire that eventually increases creosote formation.
When you are burning wood make sure that you are burning it at optimum or high temperature because creosote formation takes place when the smoke produced exiting chimney cools and liquefies. The best way to prevent smoke from liquefying is to make sure that the flu temperature is maintained above 250 F and for that, you will have to burn wood that is seasoned and quick burning.
One of the ways of avoiding creosote formation in chimney by making sure that you have kept the chimney flu wide open when you are burning wood stove. Always keep the chimney hot whenever there is a burning fire in the fireplace. You should understand the methods to control the airflow by slowing down the burning of fire. In addition, you can also understand the quality of fire in your fireplace only by looking at the color and type of smoke coming out of your chimney.