Chimney and flue sweeping in Spain

Im interested to to read peoples experiences of chimney sweeping in Spain. I've been a registered Chimney Sweep in the UK for a number  of years, and doing a bit here in Spain, and generally finding flues here in poor condition. The quality of available wood and the lack of available experienced sweeps seems to be the problem. I have for some time been using rotary power sweeping for use on tarred flues and also to remove birds nests, and have found this to be the best method of cleaning flues here and for that reason, now power sweep all the flues I do in Spain. Unfortunately, many of the calls and contacts I get are from people who already have a problem, and sadly, I'm am not a permanent resident here, so more often than not, cannot respond. The best answer to this, is to try to evolve a culture of regular cleaning to avoid such issues. I am back in Spain over Easter and hoping to talk to a few people about this.

I am based in Fortuna, Murcia, and what I charge for a sweep generally supports travel up to 20km radius, but if neighbours in more remote locations could organise a few jobs together, I would happily travel further. 

I would love to hear from wood suppliers and stove installers too as to what their recommendations are to users, regarding the safe use of wood stoves and flue maintenance.

Dear All,

I suppose bad construction and maintenance of flues is a fire risk and a breach of building regs.

Solid fuel fires need a higher specification and I suppose the time is not far off before you will need a regular inspection and certificate to keep the home fires burning.

The move to churn out ever more paper seems unstopable.

Regards

Norman

 Thanks for the reply Norman,You are correct that poor construction is an problem, but I'm not sure how the regs work in Spain - except to say they dont! Having bought a new build in 2008 that would have been condemned in the UK on more than one issue, I see few installs in Spain that would get a HETAS certificate in the UK, but thats an installation issue rather than a regular maintenance issue. 

There are only a couple of countries in europe where regular certification is a requirement (by coincidence the countries that have the lowest Carbon Monoxide death rate) and it's still a long way off yet in the UK, so I think Spain is 'safe' for a while. 

Having been involved with the Carbon Monoxide society here in the UK, I see too many incedences of avoidable CO deaths and can't help but wonder how much of a problem it is in other countries that don't have the same level of recording such things.

Regular cleaning of flues should be a matter of common sense, rather than forced regulation. As a regestered sweep in the UK, I have to perform a smoke evacuation test on each and every job and I've been surprised how often the test fails. I would recommend anyone with a solid fuel appliance to fit a digital CO alarm/meter which will give a readout of even low levels of Carbon Monoxide that can cause health issues, and also give an early warning of a potential flue problem.

Q-Pilot

Thank you for your information and education which should be archived for the forum.

unfortunately the world is full of busybodies eager to cripple society with unecessary rules instead of common sense, so stupid in their application that they are bound to be ignored if at all possible.

Regards

Norman

 During my Easter visit this year, my feelings about the flues here have only been strengthened, and I am now planning my next trip next week - from 30th June. I will be bringing my cctv kit with me, so if anyone has any concerns about their fireplaces, please feel free to get in touch. 

On the subject of regulation, since my last post, there has been a new 'safe sweep' standard adopted by the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps and the National association of Chimney Sweeps (GMCS & NACS) in the UK, and I now work to these standards. Currently, there is no obligation to conform to the new standards, but as insurance companies pick up on this, they are the onne who will drive the market towards regulation. 

In Spain, I'm sure chimney fires are not such an issuee, but back home in the UK, you may or may not have read about the record number of thatch fires in the south of England, resulting in record payouts from insurance companies in the last few months. Already, some insurance companies have picked up on this, 

Anyone know what the name is of the Spanish ducting system for pushing hot air from a log fire around the house? Here in the UK no-one knows what I'm talking about! I would imagine this is a very early type of central heating and must have a proper name.  It's not 'hypocaust' or 'gloria' but it's similar. I can only find ducting systems in the UK to assist in circulating warm air around a house but the system in Spain takes the hot air directly from the fire...

In my house the fire is situated between the lounge and dining area.  There are vents in the wall of the chimney breast that duct hot air into the other half of the room and it's very hot air that comes out and works very well at distributing the heat.  In my friends' house there is a fireplace in the lounge and there are wall vents that duct the hot air from the chimney breast into the 2 bedrooms behinds the lounge.  In another friend's house they have a log fire in the centre of the house.  They have a proper ducting system that goes to all the other rooms in the house pushing the hot air from the fire.  Does anyone know what this system is called?