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Whempys owner got his start selling firewood

“I figured I was responsible for a lot of those dirty chimneys” says owner Dave Reed, explaining why he started Whempys. Many successful businesses start from humble beginnings, and Whempys Chimney Sweeps is a shining example of this fact.

In the fall of 1979, Dave Reed was working in a factory and decided to haul firewood to make extra money. His venture was profitable, but he desired a challenge. Believing there was potential in chimney sweeping, Dave included it as one of their services.  It wasnt until 1983 when Whempys noticed the need for air duct cleaning in Columbus, As well as dryer vent cleaning in Columbus

Business boomed and Dave soon left the factory to pursue his challenge full time. “Where else can you get dirty and have fun doing it?” Dave laughs. Columbus residents have become familiar with the Whempys trademark that truck with its own shingled roof and chimney. Dave needed something to cover and protect the equipment and the roof seemed practical and cute. Now it’s … (more) 

Each year there are millions of dollars in property damage, due to chimney fires, which is unnecessary and should be easily avoided! With every chimney fire, each person inside the home is in danger of being injured or even killed due to a chimney fire. Some fires may be contained inside the chimney, however if there are cracks or gaps in the liner, the fire is likely to spread beyond the chimney.
All Chimney fires are dangerous, while they do vary in duration and intensity. During a chimney fire, temperatures are likely to exceed 2000 degrees Fahrenheit!
You can help prevent this by doing the following: Make sure that your chimney is cleaned when 1/4" of creosote has accumulated on the flue walls or smoke chamber, or generally 1 cord of wood is burned. If you are in need of a cleaning, have chimney professional sweep/inspect your chimney. Chimney Sweeps are trained to spot any problem areas inside and outside the chimney that would be a potential fire hazard.

Firewood
ALL wood creates creosote – no matter how dry or hard it is. It is a myth that well-seasoned wood does not create creosote – it just produces LESS than wet or soft wood. In order to make sure you are burning dry wood – have it cut and delivered to you in July each year.Keep wood off of the ground and covered if possible.

Wood Stoves
Do NOT install a wood-burning stove insert directly to your existing masonry chimney without installing a properly sized liner and boot. Masonry flues are often TOO LARGE to draw properly for a wood stove because they are sized for a fireplace. Excessive creosote accumulation is usually the result. Creosote is highly flammable, and GLAZED (stage 3) creosote, usually associated with the use of an insert, is the most flammable! Make sure that your installer puts in a correctly sized liner along with your stove. Note: The stove manufacturer will state what type and size liner should be used in their instructions. A professional should do the installation.

Glazed Creosote
Glazed creosote CANNOT be removed by regular brushing! In fact, many sweeps (unfortunately) and homeowners do not know what glazed creosote looks like. Glazed creosote is hard, shiny, and looks like tar. It can coat your flue walls so that it actually looks like it is a part of the flue and belongs there – until it ignites and you have a chimney fire. Glazed creosote must be removed by a process called "Roto-Cleaning".
Creosote can catch on fire if a bird’s nest or newspaper or other flammable item is nearby and brings flame into a glazed area. If your chimney is damaged, it could be very unsafe to use. Cracks in tile liners, voids in the masonry joints between the liners, and deteriorated or damaged smoke chambers are things that a professional Chimney Sweep looks for during a sweeping and inspection. If you have offsets (turns) in your flue or if you have flue that is more than 8 feet in length, a visual inspection will NOT reveal any hidden damages. This is when a video camera such as a Chim-Scan is necessary to view and document any damages. After a flue fire, lightning strike, nearby explosion or other damage do NOT use your chimney until a qualified chimney professional has evaluated it! Firemen, mechanical engineers and home inspectors are NOT trained in this area, in their normal course of study and are not qualified to give you an opinion– unless they have specifically received training on their own outside of their regular curriculum.

Whempys owner got his start selling firewood

"I figured I was responsible for a lot of those dirty chimneys" says owner Dave Reed, explaining why he started Whempys. Many successful businesses start from humble beginnings, and Whempys Chimney Sweeps is a shining example of this fact.

In the fall of 1979, Dave Reed was working in a factory and decided to haul firewood to make extra money. His venture was profitable, but he desired a challenge. Believing there was potential in chimney sweeping, Dave included it as one of their services.

Business boomed and Dave soon left the factory to pursue his challenge full time. "Where else can you get dirty and have fun doing it?" Dave laughs. Columbus residents have become familiar with the Whempys trademark that truck with its own shingled roof and chimney. Dave needed something to cover and protect the equipment and the roof seemed practical and cute. Now it’s the logo of Whempys.

Many people also wonder where the name "Whempy" came from. Dave’s wife, Kathleen, saw the truck and told Dave it looked "too whimpy to carry a ton of wood." The name stuck.

Whempys has gone through many changes since its debut in 1979. Dave added several partners and many employees as the business grew. In 1983 Whempys added ductwork cleaning to its list of services in response to customer concern over Legionnaire’s Disease (Legionnaire’s Disease has been traced to dust mites) bacteria and fungus that can grow in improperly maintained ventilation systems.

The entire operation has been computerized, and that makes day to day business easier and more efficient. Dave has become well known for his expertise in chimney sweeping and has been asked to train new sweeps all around Ohio.

The managers of Whempys have high hopes for the future.

Columbus
614-888-6670

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Westside
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E-mail
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We are locatated at:

6969 Worthington-Galena Road
Suite P
Columbus, OH 43085-2322

If you are coming from the Wilson-Bridge Road & Worthington Galena Road intersection, you will need to turn right.

Likewise, if you have to cross the R.R. tracks on Worthington Galena Road, you will need to turn Left.

Get Directions Online

Suppliers:

Buck Stove Corp. - Wood and Gas Stoves

Design Specialties, Inc. - Fireplace glass doors

Home Saver Products - Home Saver Products

Majestic Fireplaces - Majestic Fireplaces / CFM Corporation

Pilgrim Fireplace Equipment - Hearth Products for Your Home

Portland Willamette - Fireplace glass doors, Gas log & accessories

Sand Hill Wholesale - Our Columbus supplier

Thermo-Rite - Glass doors & Cozy Grate Heaters

Valor Flame - Gas inserts and freestanding units

Vermont Castings - Vermont Casting Stoves / CFM Corporation

Whempys Lan Parties - Your Columbus LAN Party Host

Other Recommended Chimney Services Outside our Service Area:

Brickliners Corp. - Custom Masonry & Chimney Services in Vermont

Olde English Chimney Sweeps, Inc. - Berkeley , IL

Ash Away Chimney - Servicing Northeast Florida, Southeast Georgia, and Central Virginia

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We often hear the complaint that someone has a "bad" stove or fireplace because it smokes. In our experience, however, draft problems are almost never caused by the fireplace or appliance. The chimney is the engine of every wood-burning system: in order for the fire to burn properly, the chimney must pull combustion air through the fireplace or stove. Here are some common causes of chimney draft problems, and possible solutions.

Improper Flue Sizing

Masonry fireplace flue sizing is determined by the size of the fireplace opening below. Masons have for many years sized fireplace flues using a "rule of thumb" that the CSA (Cross-Sectional Area) of the masonry flue be at least 1/10 the CSA of the fireplace opening. For example, an 8×12 (id) flue liner is used in a chimney venting a fireplace with an opening measuring up to 40" wide x 24" tall: larger fireplaces require larger liners. If your fireplace smokes because the flue is too small, try temporarily reducing the size of the fireplace opening with pieces of sheet metal; if this works, use masonry materials or heavy steel to accomplish a permanent solution.

Proper woodstove flue sizing is determined by the stove Manufacturer for each model during the testing process. In order for a woodstove chimney to do the best possible venting job, the flue opening must have exactly the same cross-sectional area as the vent opening on the appliance. If the chimney is too small, it may not have room for the volume of rising air the stove requires. If it is too big, it may draw too slowly for the appliance, and may never heat up enough to compensate. For this reason, both flue under sizing and flue over sizing should be avoided. If your chimney is too small, replace either the chimney or the appliance. If your chimney is too big, install a masonry or stainless steel flue liner that has the same CSA as the vent opening on the appliance.

Flue Blockage

If the chimney is the proper size and still isn’t providing sufficient draft, the first thing to do is check the stovepipe and chimney flue for blockage: bird nests, fallen bricks, Frisbees, leaves, etc. can block or partially block a chimney flue, interfering with proper draft. Make sure the flue is clean: even the thinnest coating of creosote or soot reduces the flue diameter, and can interfere with proper draft.

Resistance From Below

Having determined that the chimney is clean, make sure sufficient combustion air is being provided to the fire. As the chimney pulls air through a fireplace or woodstove, negative air pressure (a partial vacuum) can be created in the house, which fights against the chimney draft and can actually draw smoke backward down the chimney. This problem has become so prevalent in today’s tightly-constructed homes that Washington State Law now requires that an outside combustion air supply be provided directly to all new woodstove or fireplace installations. Another problem sometimes occurs in tall houses that leak large amounts of air in the upper stories: heated air rises, so the warm air inside the house wants to flow upstairs and escape through the leaks. In extreme examples, this can result in negative air pressure below that is stronger than the chimney updraft. If opening a door or window near the fireplace or woodstove eliminates the draft problem, or if the problem only occurs when the kitchen stove or bathroom exhaust fans are evacuating air, vent the stove or fireplace to outside air.

Insufficient Chimney Height

Chimneys draw a small amount of air, even when there is no fire below: this phenomenon is called ambient updraft. Ambient chimney draft occurs because the top of the flue extends upward several feet, into a thinner atmosphere than exists at the bottom. Thus, air is drawn up the chimney in much the same way as liquid is drawn up a soda straw when you reduce the air density inside your mouth.

Code requires that all chimneys must extend at least two feet above any part of the roof within ten feet. Given that topographical and atmospheric conditions can vary considerably from house to house, it is possible for a chimney to comply with this minimum code specification but still fail to extend upward into air of a low-enough density to establish ambient updraft. It is not uncommon for fireplaces and stoves in houses that are surrounded by hills or trees, for example, or that are located in the high-density air that often surrounds large bodies of water, to need more chimney height than the minimum required by code.

Cold Flue Temperatures

The ambient updraft created by the air pressure differential from the top to the bottom of a chimney is often not sufficient to exhaust the smoke from a wood fire. To "prime" a cold chimney, heat from a paper or kindling fire must first be drawn up the flue by the ambient updraft, where it warms the flue and creates the much stronger thermal updraft needed to exhaust the smoke from a woodstove or fireplace. Creating and maintaining the temperatures needed inside the chimney to sustain thermal updraft can be difficult, especially with the low exhaust temperatures created by today’s high-efficiency airtight.

Masonry materials are terrible insulators: it would take a brick chimney with sidewalls 28" thick to provide the same insulation as the one inch of spun ceramic blanket used in today’s prefabricated insulated metal chimney. A masonry chimney bleeds precious heat away from the smoke and transmits it through to the outside of the flue, slowing the thermal updraft and promoting creosote formation. Masonry chimneys that extend up through the house stay warmer than those that are entirely exposed to outside temperatures, but all chimneys lose precious flue temperature above the roofline.

Air-cooled metal chimneys, which are designed to vent manufactured zero clearance fireplaces, actively cool the smoke. While cooling the smoke is a good idea when venting the super-hot exhaust created by zero clearance fireplaces, which send most of the heat from the fire up the chimney, it is the worst possible method for venting the already-cool exhaust from an efficient airtight stove. For this reason, the code authority has outlawed the use of air-cooled chimneys to vent airtight appliances.

If you have a choice, the best possible venting method for a woodstove is insulated stainless steel chimney. If you are venting into a masonry chimney, install a stainless steel liner and provide dead-air or spun ceramic insulation.

Air Inversion

There is an atmospheric condition, known as air inversion, which causes high-density air to be trapped at flue top altitudes normally occupied by the low-density air that creates ambient updraft. During periods of air inversion, chimneys in the affected area simply don’t draw properly. One way to tell if air inversion is causing temporary draft problems is to look at the smoke that exits the flue: if it eddies around the top of the chimney or flows downward onto the roof instead of rising as heated air normally would, an inversion layer is most likely present.

Having established that a draft problem is being caused by air inversion, several solutions present themselves:

• Don’t attempt to start a fire during inversion days. These don’t happen very often in most areas, and seldom occur during the long periods of winter cold when we use our woodstoves most. Air inversion episodes occur most often when cold weather turns warmer, or when warm weather suddenly turns cooler, as sometimes happens in the Spring or late Fall. Some areas are more subject to air inversion than others: if your house is totally surrounded by tall trees, hills or buildings, you may experience local "inversion" every time the wind blows across the top of the taller obstruction, pressurizing the air below.

   

   

• During air inversion episodes, remove all possible draft resistance at the bottom of the chimney. Today’s woodstoves have very small air intakes and very restrictive baffle systems through which air must be drawn by the chimney. Opening a nearby door or window a crack often reduces this resistance considerably, and may allow the stove to be burned even on heavy inversion days.

   

   

• Elevate the top of the chimney to a point above the inversion layer. This is kind of a hit-or-miss solution, for three reasons: (1) nobody can accurately predict exactly how high the inversion air tends to stack over a given neighborhood, (2) the density of an inversion layer can vary from one episode to the next, and (3) there is a limit to how high a chimney can extend before it gets too top-heavy to support. If there’s a chimney in your neighborhood that is taller than yours, you might ask the owners if the additional height overcomes the effects of inversion you are experiencing. If so, try extending yours to the same height. Note: never extend your chimney with uninsulated metal pipe, or excessive creosote formation will result.

   

  Down Drafting or Cross Drafting

  Quite often, chimney draft failures are caused by wind, blowing down or across the top of the chimney. If the problem only occurs when the wind blows, replace your rain cap with a draft inducing cap that works on Bernoulli’s principle, such as the old-fashioned "rooster tail", or the more effective Vacu-Stack. These caps are designed to reverse the effects of wind-induced downdraft or cross draft, but will only work when the wind is blowing directly onto them. Draft inducing caps will not correct a downdraft caused by increased air density at the top of the chimney due to air inversion, or the type of chimney-top pressurization which can occur when the wind blows across the top of a cylinder formed by nearby tall trees, hills, or buildings that extend above and totally surround the chimney.

  Possible Problems

  There are a number of problems a chimney may have, which actually make establishing a good draw difficult. But, 9 out of 10 people who think they have "smoke problems" really don’t. Most people just don’t realize that they need to take more time to get their fireplace working in the first place. But, there are a number of possible problems that need to be considered.

  Adding a Smoke-Guard

  Sometimes, the opening of the fireplace is a little too big for the size of the flue in the chimney. In cases like this, smoke perpetually spills out into the room. There is a way to test to see if your chimney has this problem. Tape up a 4? strip of aluminum foil across the top of the opening of your fireplace. The object is to cut down the size of the opening of the fireplace, so that the flue doesn’t have to exhaust so much incoming air. Use your fireplace several times with this temporary "smoke guard." If the 4? aluminum foil strip eliminates your problem, install a real Smoke-Guard.

  Chimney Extension

  If a chimney is too short, the siphon (draw) which must be created, is easily broken by wind changes, or other factors. A chimney needs to be a least 10-ft high. The best chimney’s are between 12 and 16 feet high. If your chimney is less than 10 feet high, and a carefully established draw cannot be maintained for an extended period, you may need to extend your chimney.

  Chimney Termination Heights

  Minimum chimney height: If chimney is within 10-ft of the peak chimney must extended 2-ft higher than the peak. If the chimney is over 10-ft from the peak, the chimney should be 2-ft higher than anything within 10-ft horizontally. (NFPA 211). Sometimes nearby foliage needs to be removed. Remember that most types of smoking problems can be "fixed" simply by taking more time to establish a good draw.

  Unused Fireplace Smokes while Another is being Used

  Often a fireplace will smoke while another in the house is being used due to the "inadequate air supply". This problem can at times be easily solved by raising the flue height, 12-24 inches, of the fireplace used the most. And will in most cases solve the problem.

  Call the Experts

  If you need further advise about fixing a smoking chimney, call the experts. Whempys Chimney Services has over 20 years experience diagnosing, and fixing smoke problems. We are happy to help you with any chimney related problem.

  Whempys knows that the safety of the family is top priority. With a thorough cleaning by the Whempys staff, the chance of fire damage to the home is reduced dramatically.

  For a cleaning appointment, call Whempys at (614) 888-6670.

How to "fix" a smoking chimney.

It can be a bit of a challenge to make some chimney’s work: especially when it gets cold. Cold air is very "heavy". The column of air inside a chimney can be like a huge "cold-plug". It really does require a diligent effort to move this "cold plug" out of the chimney. It takes more time than some people imagine just getting a chimney to start "drawing." They need to understand that a warm air "siphon" must be created. This may require five or ten minutes of careful effort. The best way to make your chimney work is to take the time to establish a good draw.

Crack a Window

The first best trick to enable a chimney to draw is to open a window. Remember a properly drafting chimney is very much like a siphon. If the chimney has no available source of air it can not draft. It can even matter which window in the room is "cracked open." Having the window open is making available more air for the chimney. Helps over comes any negative air pressure in the house and having wind blowing in the window may pressurize the house forcing air up the chimney. Some of the things in your house that can cause down draft, pulling that cold into your house and making it even harder to establish a good draw, are exhaust fans, vented gas appliances, clothes dryers and already having second fireplace running.

Pre-heat the Flue

The next best trick to enable a chimney to draw is to: pre-heat the flue. This is the critical step. You must take up arms against the atmospheric-cold-blanket of heavy arctic air. Mother nature is bearing down with a vengeance on your chimney; you must take the time to create a miniature artificial environment: inside your own chimney. You must break through the cold plug of air clogging up your chimney, and then keep pushing until a warm air siphon is created, then your fireplace can burn majestically on the freezing cold winter nights!v
 

Ten Steps to Success

1) Make sure the spark screen on your chimney cap is not clogged or obstructed.

2) Look up the chimney with a strong flashlight and check for obstructions.

3) Make sure the damper is propped to stay wide open.

4) Crack open a nearby window an inch or so.

5) Prepare to start a SMALL fire by crumpling newspaper under the kindling.

6) Roll up 5 or 6 newspaper "torches" to pre-heat the chimney’s flue.

7) Light the newspaper torches one at time: hold them one after the other UP the chimney.

Spend 4-5 minutes pre-heating the flue with these "torches." Establish a "siphon."

9) Carefully light the kindling, and build up the fire slowly.

10) After the fire is going, and the siphon action is well established, close the window.