Having a fireplace or a wood-burning stove in your home is a fantastic advantage in the summer. It can warm your whole home, especially if the chimney from your stove goes through multiple rooms. Whether you have just installed a stove or moved into a home with a working fireplace, you need to know how to use and maintain it if you want to make the most of it. Knowing the key rules for maintaining it is also important for safety, ensuring you only have a fire where you mean for it to be. Take a look at these steps that you might need to take.
Learning How to Keep a Fire Going
If you’ve never had a fireplace or wood-burning stove before, you need to know how to start and maintain a fire. It can take a bit of practice to get it right and prevent your fire going out when you don’t want it to. At the same time, you also want to make sure you don’t have a raging fire going when you’re not around to supervise it. It shouldn’t take too long to learn what you need to do, but it’s important to have patience while you’re learning.
Stocking Up on Wood
Of course, you need to have plenty of wood for your fireplace or stove. There are different ways you might manage your wood supply. You could buy only logs cut into manageable sizes so you can simply drop them right onto your fire. However, you can often have larger logs that need to be cut up. A heavier log splitter could be necessary if you’re dealing with bigger logs. Owning a log splitter might seem intimidating, but it can be very useful, and you can even fix it yourself if it happens to break. However, a small axe could be adequate for chopping smaller logs. A log splitter can also be rented if you only need one occasionally.
Cleaning
Keeping your fireplace or stove clean is essential for both efficiency and safety. The chimney should be cleaned regularly to prevent chimney fires. You also need to clear out your fireplace or stove and correctly dispose of any ashes. Ashes building up can lead to smoky fires, which means less efficient fires. When the ash has cooled, shovel it out and put it into a metal container with a lid. Regular cleaning will also help you to spot any wear and tear that could lead to problems.
Ensuring Fire Safety
Don’t forget to stay safe when lighting a fire in your home. You should take steps to prevent unwanted fires, as well as injuries so look for the right fire alarm consultancy company. Keep anything flammable away from the immediate vicinity of your fireplace or stove and don’t store matches, lighters or lighter fluid too close. Ideally, no furniture should be too close either, and you should make sure the furniture that you buy is fire-resistant. You can use gloves to protect your hands and a firescreen in front of your fireplace to prevent sparks and keep pets and children safe too.
Maintain your fireplace or wood-burning stove well, and you can benefit from the warmth of a real fire whenever you need it.