Chimney sweeping service as well as supplying logs

[dave fox]

did think about doing it , but the insurence aspect was a turn off. have swept a few old style for freinds but think for me it was more hassle than what its worth.

[County4x4]

cheap magnetic chimney sweep signs from vistaprint about £10+vat

same as scrap metal upvc windows and lopping and topping

 

Not entirely sure that the guys who have invested a fair bit of time and money into their businesses would take too kindly to that remark mate. Of course there are a few cowboys around - just like in this business - but there are a lot of very knowledgeable and professional sweeps as well, with an awful lot of experience that they can pass on to the customer. There are probably posts on the sweeps forum about the problems they encounter due to so many "firewood merchants" supplying garbage that bungs up the chimney with tar and creosote! A proper sweep will feel a big sense of responsibility to the customer, as if they don't do their job properly, they could be looking at a chimney fire or even possible gassing of the houses inhabitants!

 

Proper training and membership of one of the trade associations is quite pricey - over a grand usually but varies a little depending on which body you train with. Equipment can set you back a few grand too - you won't get by with a DIY set from B&Q - and my vacuum alone was over £700.

 

Personally - if you're not doing logs and chimneys yourself - I would think it would be a good idea to be mates with the other guy - the sweep recommends the log guy to his customers as a supplier of decent wood, and the log guy tells his customer about the importance of having their chimney swept on a regular basis, and recommends the sweep.

 

Andy

[treesnatcher]

Sorry i was not having a dig at the pro's. Just the chancers

Shortage of good sweeps round here, last one i used made more mess than i expected then when i paid him and asked for the certificate/receipt to prove to landlord that i have had chimneys swept (just in case of fires) sharply informed me he is not registered thats why it was only £50 and bolted out the door. What should i be looking for as regards to qualifications also what sort of money should i be paying for 2 chimneys. thanks Andy

[County4x4]

It varies a fair bit around the country mate - just as with firewood prices. I generally charge around £35 per chimney for local jobs within a mile or two, and more for those with more travelling. Nest clearances etc are charged extra on top as are chimneys that have been neglected and require a lot more time to clear. I usually give a bit of discount on second and third chimneys in the same property - but quite a few don't. I've heard of some people paying £80 per chimney in some areas! There are also quite a few "busy fools" to coin a phrase who are sweeping for £15 or less - they are not doing themselves or the industry any favours at that price, and you have to ask how much care and effort they're going to put into the job at that price.

 

Quite a number of good sweeps don't belong to any of the trade bodies - myself included - and I know of a number of long established guys who have had differences of opinion with sweeps organisations and have left them. I'm still undecided about joining up with one of them myself. First off - it's expensive to join as you have to undertake their own training course before joining. These courses often cost in excess of a grand for two or three days training - in contrast to a mate of mine who went to a "DIY School" to do a professional handyman course - he got 26 full days training for under £2k! Then there's the annual cost of keeping up your membership which can be several hundred quid. Lastly - I've never ever been asked by a customer if I'm a member of any particular organisation - and so I've ended up just wondering if joining one is just lining someone elses pocket at no benefit to me.

 

Also - using a guy registered with a trade body does not necessarily mean you'll get a good job done. I've followed one fairly big "registered company" onto three jobs locally recently, where they've been and recommended expensive and unnecessary work to be done, or not swept the chimney properly.

 

I guess sweeps are as different as tree guys - I've never been sharp with a customer - and have picked up several jobs because their previous sweep was grumpy and they didn't want them back in the house! I reckon if you're being paid to go into someones home, the least you can do is be nice to them - and it seems to work for me - though I often tend to get carried away chatting about wood and so on and take longer than I really should! I reckon if you can build up a good rapport with the customer, do them a good job at a reasonable price and be honest with them rather than trying to pull their pants down with unnecessary work, then they'll think of you first next time they want a sweep.

 

As for your area, you could try asking on UK Chimney Sweeps This is a new forum and has only been running for a couple of months - but seems to be growing quite nicely at the moment.

 

Cheers bud,

 

Andy

[Fahrenheit]

Obviously i sweep chimneys and install stoves and i've just started in firewood. No reason why it wouldn't work the other way around.

 

We charge £35 + VAT. It takes around 15 mins to sweep one of our installations. The only issue you would have starting a new sweep round is that you'll have a good percentage of chimney that you either can't sweep or are a nightmare to sweep because they haven't been installed with regular sweeping in mind. We're fortunate where we pretty much only sweep the stoves that we installed.

 

I hate sweeping open fires and installation that other fitters/DIYer's have done. We pretty much only sweep the stoves that we installed nowadays.

 

Chimney sweeping sounds quite simple and it is in theory but in reality you could very easily ruin a £2000 carpet. Doing fast and clean is the key. It's no good if your only going to do 5 sweeps a day. Need to be in and out but do a good job. There was a local firm near us which had been around for 30 years or so.......they retired and a guy bought the sweeping business. He came in our shop trying to get us to recommend him to customer. He was going to 'revolutionise' the sweeping industry. A year or so later and his customers are leaving him and coming to us in droves. He's rubbish at sweeping chimneys.

 

You don't need to be part of any organisation or need any qualifications. There are things such as NACS but they're a waste of time unless your going to do loads of council owned, housing association, rented houses etc.

 

My mate in Aylesbury charges £45 per sweep. We can do around 15 sweeps a day so you can easily figure out the income. All you have is fuel as an expense other than the actual vehicle.

 

Andy (county4x4) in the previous post came sweeping with me for a day when he was starting out and i think we took around £600 in a pretty easy going day. Started around 9:30, finished around 5.

Edited May 21, 2011 by Fahrenheit

[benji2203]

Hi, ive been selling logs/firewood for just over 3 years and have now decided to branch out into the chimney sweeping side of things, i have booked to do the NACS course and brought a lot of chimney sweep equipment (fortunatly from somebody who was selling up!) so have spent a lot of money preparing for it.

 

However i have never swept a chimney before! and im not the sort of person to do a 'bodge job' i would rather spend the money and give a quality service to my customers.

 

i would like to work with a sweep for a day just to learn some basics and some advice on doing a good job and would willingly work for a day for free in exchange!

 

im quite suprised that there arnt many firewood suppliers doing chimney sweeping aswell i thought there would be a lot more.

 

Ben

[DN22 Gardening]

when we had our new stove installed i asked a sweep out of the paper to come and give both ours a good go.

 

his price over the phone, job unseen', was £115 for the first chimney and another £50 for the second.

 

Oh, and he was booked up for the next three weeks so couldn't come till then !!!!!!!

 

I'm defo in the wrong trade...

 

No suprise when i did em myself....again....

[Fahrenheit]

£115 is nowhere near the norm so i doubt he was busy sweeping for 3 weeks. He maybe didn't want the job so over priced it. I'm not sure what he means by 'job unseen'......i've nevr heard of chimney sweeps doing a site survey prior to a sweep:001_smile:

 

I'd say £35-£50 was the norm.

[Dvsfubar]

Obviously i sweep chimneys and install stoves and i've just started in firewood. No reason why it wouldn't work the other way around.

 

We charge £35 + VAT. It takes around 15 mins to sweep one of our installations. The only issue you would have starting a new sweep round is that you'll have a good percentage of chimney that you either can't sweep or are a nightmare to sweep because they haven't been installed with regular sweeping in mind. We're fortunate where we pretty much only sweep the stoves that we installed.

 

I hate sweeping open fires and installation that other fitters/DIYer's have done. We pretty much only sweep the stoves that we installed nowadays.

 

Chimney sweeping sounds quite simple and it is in theory but in reality you could very easily ruin a £2000 carpet. Doing fast and clean is the key. It's no good if your only going to do 5 sweeps a day. Need to be in and out but do a good job. There was a local firm near us which had been around for 30 years or so.......they retired and a guy bought the sweeping business. He came in our shop trying to get us to recommend him to customer. He was going to 'revolutionise' the sweeping industry. A year or so later and his customers are leaving him and coming to us in droves. He's rubbish at sweeping chimneys.

 

You don't need to be part of any organisation or need any qualifications. There are things such as NACS but they're a waste of time unless your going to do loads of council owned, housing association, rented houses etc.

 

My mate in Aylesbury charges £45 per sweep. We can do around 15 sweeps a day so you can easily figure out the income. All you have is fuel as an expense other than the actual vehicle.

 

Andy (county4x4) in the previous post came sweeping with me for a day when he was starting out and i think we took around £600 in a pretty easy going day. Started around 9:30, finished around 5.

 

Hy all this is my first post but it is going to offend a few people

I'm sorry Fahrenheit I would stick to installing stoves as you must be doing a shocking job if u are in and out in 15 mins and could do 15 jobs a day I would go as far to say that you are ripping people off as you are not doing a proper job.

You are going to end up with a lot of unhappy customers especially when their liners set on fire and fail due to poor sweeping and maintenance

If I was u I would stick to installing stoves as you have a very good reputation but u don't want to spoil it by becoming known as a cowboy sweep

[samtheman365]

I thought about doing it as well as logs, and i think its a good idea to offer this service but the logs just take up too much of my time for me to even consider that now.

I do think setting up to do chimney sweeping is a lot less costs than doing logs and you can get a pretty good return.