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Cleaning behind the damper.

21 years ago

I have a masonary fireplace with some sort of metal walled lining. I can not remove the damper or access the smoke shelf easily because of 4 tubular metal parts that are perpendicular to the damper. I assume this was some sort of "heatalator" system back in the 1950's when this house was originally built.

I am tying to clean the chimney myself and understand the importance of cleaning the smoke shelf.

Is there something I am missing? Is there any way to do this? Do I need specialized tools?

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Comments (2)

Xanndra
21 years ago
I have no idea what you have. But,if those things that are blocking you are not being used and are not an integral part of the fireplace and does not pose any fire/usage hazard, then you can cut them out. But proceed carefully.

In my opinion: Hire a professional to do it the first time and watch him/her deal with that situation and ask questions. It is worth the money.
van356
21 years ago
What you have is indeed a Heatilator type of fireplace. You will have to make some type U shaped adaptor for your shop vac to get to the smoke shelf.

Xandra, what a silly answer; if you have no idea what type of fireplace it is, why even respond.
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