
Cleaning the condominium chimney: our advice
The increasingly frequent use of wood, pellet, and biomass heating systems makes the issue of cleaning flues central. A clean flue is the requirement to keep the system efficient, allowing better heating and lower fuel consumption.

If the flue is condominium, the issue of efficiency is superimposed on that of legal obligations, which have become more restrictive over the years and have not always entered the common practice of condominium administrators.
Who to contact for cleaning the condominium flue and what are the obligations?
Over 70% of carbon monoxide poisoning cases in Italy depend on a neglected chimney. Dirty flues or draft defects due to carelessness by the user are the main culprits for the return of combustion gases to the rooms, a return which, as we know, can be potentially lethal.
For this reason, the standard addresses cleaning flues in condominiums and industrial plants, recommending annual maintenance for private flue systems and even making it mandatory in the case of condominium ones.
The consequences of failure to comply with legal obligations fall, like other shortcomings in condominium management, on the shoulders of the administrator, who is responsible both civilly and criminally. For this reason, it is essential to include in the budget and annual and punctual maintenance service of the flue, to be divided by thousandths among the condominiums concerned.
Let the professional cleaners do the interventions, which can show the credentials, and need to release the documents required by law.
In addition to the normal interventions regularly, sometimes extraordinary cleaning may be necessary.
When the flue goes into pain: the symptoms that suggest an intervention
Annual maintenance is a good rule to follow for the management of a flue common to several condominiums, but not the only one.
Measurement of the periodicity of cleaning should be part of the assessment, not in terms of months. but in terms of quintals of wood or pellets burned, because it is easy to understand how a flue used every day has different needs from one used occasionally. For this reason, a shrewd condominium administrator must be ready to intervene when the flue gives signs of suffering, the main ones of which are:
- Persistent and suspicious smell of smoke in the rooms
- Draft problems, visible from the difficulty of the smoke to rising to the top
- Presence of soot deposits on the ground
In each of these cases, the timeliness and professionalism of the intervention are essential to avoid much more serious problems.
How much does it cost to clean the chimney in the condominium?
Cleaning the flue is an activity that requires specific equipment and professionalism and, in many cases, requires access to the roof with all that this entails in terms of safety.
For this, it is necessary to turn to experienced and well-equipped companies. The figure of the soot-black chimney sweep, to which cinema has us accustomed, is so much further away from reality.
The chimney sweeps are professionals chimney cleaners in the sector who know the characteristics of each flue well and, following a preventive inspection, can accurately calculate the intervention costs based on the floors of the building, the length of the smoke system, and the number of its curves.
Read more : How to Choose a Duct Repair and Cleaning Company?