Can you sweep your own chimney, or should you hire a professional?

Updated November 10, 2026 · KeystoneProGuide editorial team

Can you sweep your own chimney?

You can brush one, if the flue is simple and you are fit for it. A university extension service publishes instructions and says plainly that you can either clean the chimney yourself or hire a professional chimney sweep. What you cannot easily do yourself is the other half of the job, the inspection. The U.S. Fire Administration's advice is to have chimneys cleaned and inspected each year by a professional, and nothing in a brush kit looks inside a liner or behind a smoke chamber.

So the realistic choice is not one or the other. Many of the things that keep a flue clean are yours to do every day. Brushing between professional visits is possible for some households. Inspection, repair and anything involving a liner or a gas or oil appliance are not do-it-yourself work.

What can you do yourself that makes the most difference?

Burn well. The Environmental Protection Agency's wood-burning guidance, which the agency now keeps online as a historic record, puts fuel first:

• Burn only dry, split, well-seasoned wood. The EPA says to season it for at least six months and that wood burns best at a moisture content of less than 20 percent, which a moisture meter will show.
• Build hot fires. The agency says a smoldering fire is not safe or efficient in most appliances.
• Keep trash, cardboard, painted or pressure-treated wood and plywood out of the fire. The EPA says they can release harmful chemicals and may damage the appliance.
• Take ashes out regularly into a covered metal container. Pennsylvania's Ready PA program says to keep that container at least 10 feet from the house.

The EPA explains why this matters for the chimney: creosote builds faster with unseasoned wood and with a restricted air supply. Open the damper fully before you light, and check it with a flashlight first, as CSIA advises.

What does sweeping it yourself involve?

The University of Missouri Extension's instructions give a fair picture.

1. Decide whether you are up to it. The extension service says cleaning a chimney can be strenuous and that pulling a brush the height of the chimney can strain the back.
2. Check that the chimney is structurally safe before you lean a ladder or your weight against it. An unsound stack can come apart under a sideways load.
3. Gather the kit: a powerful flashlight, drop cloths, tape, a ladder, a mirror, a bucket, goggles or a face shield, a dust mask and an industrial-type shop vacuum. It warns against a household vacuum, because fine dust can ruin the motor and pass through the filter into the room.
4. Seal the fireplace opening with a damp sheet taped over it, or disconnect and cover the stovepipe opening.
5. Brush with a wire chimney brush sized to your flue. The extension service says improvised tools such as chains or a weighted bag do not give enough abrasion, and a companion publication warns they may damage the flue liner.
6. Clear the fallen soot, including what collects on the smoke shelf above the damper.

Forbes Home prices do-it-yourself sweeping kits at $65 to $120 and still does not recommend cleaning a chimney without training. It calls the job messy and dangerous, with exposure to harmful materials and possibly work from the roof.

There is also a limit to what brushing removes. CSIA says a hard or tacky layer of creosote cannot be taken off by normal brushing and needs professional treatment.

Do creosote sweeping logs replace a sweep?

No, and the cost sites that price them say so themselves. Fixr puts the logs at about $12 each and HomeAdvisor at an average of $15, and both add that they do not replace professional cleaning.

CSIA's position is more detailed. It does not call chemical cleaners bad in themselves, but says that used alone they are not an adequate substitute for mechanical cleaning and inspection, and that advertising for some of them may be creating a false sense of security. Its practical point is that even if a product loosens deposits, the debris still has to be removed from the smoke shelf, a stove's baffle or any offset in the flue.

Which jobs should you leave to a professional?

• The yearly inspection. The EPA's wording is that a wood-burning appliance should be checked annually by a certified chimney sweep or similar certified professional.
• Anything after a chimney fire. CSIA advises not using the chimney until it has been swept and evaluated, because joint failure and cracking often cannot be seen from above or below.
• Furnace, boiler and water heater venting. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a 1997 release that consumers should not service their own appliances, because modern heating equipment needs special training and tools.
• Installing a stove, insert or liner. The EPA strongly recommends a certified technician, because installation errors may not be visible and could result in a house fire. A New Jersey case shows the stakes: the state alleged that a contractor fitted a chimney liner that was too small, creating a risk of carbon monoxide entering the house.
• Masonry and structural repair. This Old House says chimney repair is not typically a do-it-yourself job, and that a chimney crumbling from water damage may collapse.

If you do brush it yourself, what is still worth paying for?

The inspection. The Missouri extension service suggests watching a professional sweep at work before deciding whether to take the job on. A sensible pattern for a household that heats with wood is a professional inspection once a year, with your own brushing in between if the deposits call for it.

What happens during a chimney sweep visit describes the professional version, how often a chimney should be swept covers the interval, and the prices are in the cost guide. Local businesses are on the chimney sweeps directory page.

Sources

1. Cleaning Stovepipes and Chimneys, University of Missouri Extension
2. Wood Stove Maintenance and Operation, University of Missouri Extension
3. Best Wood-Burning Practices, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
4. Frequent Questions about Wood-Burning Appliances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
5. Homeowner Resources, Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA)
6. What You Need to Know After a Chimney Fire, Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA)
7. How Much Does A Chimney Cleaning Cost?, Forbes Home
8. How much does it cost to have a chimney cleaned?, Fixr
9. How Much Does a Chimney Sweep Cost in 2026?, HomeAdvisor
10. CPSC Urges Annual Fuel-Burning Appliance Inspection to Prevent Deaths, Fires, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
11. How Much Does Chimney Repair Cost?, This Old House
12. Heating Fire Safety, U.S. Fire Administration
13. Seasonal Fire Safety, Ready PA (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania)
14. New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs Files Suit Against Chimney Repair Company Charging That It Misled Vulnerable Victims Into Paying Thousands for Shoddy, Unnecessary Work, New Jersey Office of the Attorney General