Spring is the perfect time to have your fireplace or wood stove serviced. Many people wait till the fall when the first cold spell hits. They then make their calls, only to find they may need to wait weeks or months to get their respective fireplace or stove serviced. Save the headaches, plan, and get your unit serviced at the end of your individual “burn season.”

Getting your fireplace or stove serviced in the spring not only ensures you will not be on a wait list in the fall, but it also ensures you are ready to burn when you want, in the fall. It may also identify others issues that need to be corrected, such as cracked chimney crowns or other exterior issues may be causing water penetration into your chimney. Water penetration causes many issues over time, such as mortar deterioration and rotted dampers, to name a few. Addressing these issues early will prevent more costly repairs later.

There also may be instances of items that need to be replaced, in wood stoves, firebricks, refractory damper panels, and door seals need to be inspected and possibly replaced. Prefabricated fireboxes may need to have refractory panels replaced prior to future use. Chimney caps may need to be installed or replaced. All the aforementioned items may take some time to get replacement parts, especially during the fall and winter when demand is high, and supply is low.

This is also a perfect time to ensure that you have your supply of wood stacked and starting the seasoning process. It is important to make sure you select the proper species of wood to burn and that you allow that wood to get to proper moisture content. Trees such as oak will take longer than many other hardwoods to season. Location of your supply, access to sun, air flow, etc. will also affect the time it takes to properly season the wood. Burning the wrong species and burning “wet” wood can potentially create dangerous creosote, which in turn can lead to chimney fires and costly repairs.

If you have not had a service on your fireplace or stove in sometime, now is the time to take care of business so you have piece of mind for next season.