Spark Arrestor and Rain Cap Installation
What is a rain-cap?
A chimney rain cap is a metal material for the top of your fireplace flue, that will protect it by keeping out moisture, critters, and organic debris.
What is a spark arrestor?
A spark arrestor is to prevent these problems even further, with a metal mesh design that covers the entire chimney top. It assists tremendously with your chimney's overall compliant safety, by blocking sparks from leaving the flue and potentially combusting any outside materials that could be easily lit.
Often serving as a complimentary function, spark arrestors and rain caps are sold as one piece. Attached to the high point of the flue is where the chimneys spark arrestor will be. Securely fastened on top with proper tools and materials, the rain cap serves as protector.
Not only are these features important for maintaining your furnace health, but it helps our wildlife ecosystems by keeping pests, rodents, and vermin out of our homes and out of danger. Animals such as raccoons, birds, chipmunks, squirrels, rats, and mice have been known to access these areas when not properly squared away with the correctly installed spark arrestor and rain caps.
Keeping out pests isn't their only prevention job, but debris such as those from trees, winds, and weathers that cause concern for danger and damage below, are also kept out from the safety features attached to the top of the flue. Organic materials including leaves, branches, and other weather-brought debris have been known to cause blockage by lodging into these areas. This can of course become a hazard to where a chimney can not properly disperse its smoke at the top, creating dangerous carbon monoxide causing serious concern for your family's health and safety.
We know how important it is to properly use our furnaces to the safest of our ability, and to ensure the cleanest chimney flue possible, it is essential to have a spark arrestor and rain cap installed at your home or business enterprise. Relying on our chimneys in the PNW for heat in the colder months, aesthetic during the season-changes, and an everyday function for our homes with wood-burning stoves, it is necessary to add these safety functions to them in order to prevent sparks from creating any hazards of fire.
Often times it is seen that the older the home, the more likely they could possibly be missing these necessary safety-ensuring items. Sometimes when looking up you can notice if a chimney has a spark arrestor. However, it is highly recommended for the safety of your family, to hire a professional chimney inspector to properly determine the condition and presence of your rain cap and spark arrestor.
Last but not least is the ever-present concern of mold and mildew in the house. When water leaks through a cap-less chimney top, this can quickly cause growth of these organic materials including moss, mold, and mildew. This is a health concern as well as a damage to your chimney. Keeping out moisture, rain hail and snow, is a critical factor in maintaining proper chimney flue health.
We offer rain cap and spark arrestor installations on top of your chimney inspection with a certified clean.
