Season brings sightings of chimney sweeps

Max Taylor, master chimney sweep, and the owner of Piccadilly Ltd. Chimney Sweep in The Woodlands, was on the job recently. Photo by Jerry BakerBy KIM MORGAN
Chronicle correspondent

Imperial Oaks resident Max Taylor has a couple of messages for folks this holiday season.

Don't be burning gift wrap in your fireplace, unless you're a fan of hot-flash fires, and don't be sticking anything up the chimney in an attempt to unclog or clean it.

Instead, leave the cleaning to the pros.

Taylor, the owner of Piccadilly Chimney Sweep in The Woodlands, has pretty much seen it all.

Taylor has, on occasion, had to go up inside a chimney to dislodge stuff – like a basketball, birds and even owls.

Once he took out logging chains, because a customer had tried to use chains in an attempt to self-clean, but the most memorable thing Taylor has pulled from a chimney is a Pine tree.

"Someone tried to clean the chimney using their Christmas tree," said Taylor, who lived in North Carolina at the time. "I remember that quite clearly."

A lot of people have gas fireplaces now and might think they don’t need a chimney sweep, but depending on the type of log you're burning, the chimney can still build up soot, Taylor said.

Approximately half of his customers are wood-burners, and so is he.

"I'm a purist," Taylor said. "In fact I took my gas logs out. I want to smell the fire, poke the fire, watch the fire."

When going to a customer's house, Taylor comes prepared for the duty at hand.

"I often carry a little bit of red velvet with me," Taylor said. "And if there's a youngster in the room, I discreetly ask the parents if they do the Santa Claus thing. If so, I stick a piece of velvet up on the damper, call the youngster over and say 'wow! Come look at this! Santa ripped his britches right here!' Their eyes get all big."

Naturally, Taylor comes equipped to clean the chimney too. Sweepers work from the bottom up, starting inside on the hearth.

"When I first started, I would use a brush, and you push up, pull down, back and forth, over and over," he said. "It was very laborious. I gained 30 pounds of muscle."

Now, Taylor uses a series of rods connected to a drill, some that spin up to 600 times per minute.

But Taylor still has his very first hand-operated brush, a keepsake on how it all began, which was with the Great Chimney Fire of 1981.

"I was sitting at the kitchen table and heard a bang on my front door," said Taylor, who lived in North Carolina at the time. "My neighbor said 'hey, your chimney's on fire. I went outside and saw my stainless steel chimney top glowing cherry red."

Taylor shut the dumper, which shut off the air flow, and the fire eventually died down.

But chimney fires can lead to flames shooting out the top of the chimney, and it's a fire that burns up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, Taylor said. Plastic melts at 450 degrees.

While Taylor learned the importance of keeping a chimney clean through what he calls "baptism by fire," he said it's a very dangerous situation not to be taken lightly.

That's why he became an initial member of the North Carolina Guild of Professional Chimney Sweeps, a group of 50 from across the state who would meet to help raise the level of expectation, service and responsibility.

In 1989, Taylor earned the status of Master Chimney Sweep from the American Chimney Sweep Association.

It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it – and Billy Little actually loves it.

Little, a Conroe resident, owns Guardian Chimney Sweep.

"The first fireplace I cleaned, I was hooked like a fish on a line," Little said. "I don't know why, other than I'm a Christmas person. Mary Poppins, chimney sweeping – I love it all."

There is definitely a sense of accomplishment for Little, when after working from the bottom up, he finishes his work and gets on the roof to peek down the chimney and ensure everything is fresh and clean.

"The view from the top," Little said, "is beautiful."

Fast Facts:
- even if you have a gas fireplace, you may still need a chimney sweep
- The National Chimney Sweep Guild encourages professionalism, accountability and advancement of the chimney sweep profession – www.ncsg.org [1]
- October is known as National Chimney Sweep month

For more information on Max Taylor, visit www.piccadillychimneysweep.com [2] or call 281-203-4687

For more information on Billy Little, visit www.guardianchimneysweep.net [3] or call 936-271-9781