October 4, 2025 • 17 mins
Fireplaces feel timeless, but the safety of that glow lives inside a dark shaft most of us never see. We pull back the curtain on chimney scopes—the video inspections that reveal cracked terracotta liners, missing mortar, offsets, and even missing tile sections that can channel heat straight into framing. Along the way, we explain pyrolysis in plain language and why wood repeatedly heated over time can ignite at surprisingly low temperatures. That one insight alone can change how you think about “just one more fire.”
We share what a Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 chimney inspection actually mean, and why a Level 2 scope is the difference between guesswork and real risk assessment. You’ll hear field stories: sixteen chimneys scoped in a historic building, a flue section gone near an attic, wildlife nests and bees blocking exhaust, and a seller who lit a “goodbye fire” after being warned—and lost the house that night. We also talk insurance: when sudden damage is covered, how long-term neglect triggers denials, and why receipts for annual cleanings can make or break a fire claim. If you’re a homeowner, buyer, agent, or short-term rental host, this is practical safety you can act on today.
Our goal is simple: keep heat where it belongs—inside a safe, intact flue—and out of the spaces that can burn. Learn how to decide when to scope, what red flags demand immediate action, and how to document maintenance so insurers, buyers, and guests have confidence. If your listing touts a cozy fireplace or you’re eyeing an older home with multiple chimneys, start here. Subscribe, share this with someone who has a hearth, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. What’s your chimney maintenance routine?
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Hello everybody.
This is Jim, and with me, ofcourse, is Laura.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Hello, everyone.
SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
Alright, if you are buying a house and the house has
a f wood burning fireplace, oreven a gas-burning fireplace, it
is important that you get it umscoped.
Look up inside that chimney.
Because it is an area of thehouse that you can't see during
(00:28):
a normal home inspection, or Imean a lot of chimney sweeps,
they they don't see they can'tthey don't look to the inside.
They don't have extra service.
They don't have a s they don'thave a scope, that's an extra
service.
But it is also well the otherday I did what did you do?
I did sixteen chimney scopes inone day for one building.
(00:52):
It was a big building, it was anold building, which is probably
why they had so many fireplaces,because that's the main way they
heated the house way back in theday.
But it had sixteen chimneys, sothat was a that that's a
shoulder workout to do that uhchimney scope and shove it up
(01:13):
vertically up through thechimney.
SPEAKER_02 (01:16):
So sorry I wasn't there.
SPEAKER_01 (01:17):
So what that does though, there's a special camera
that we have that we're we'relooking inside of the flue
tiles, because you can have it'svery common that we'll find gaps
between the flue tiles becausethe mortar between the tile
sections has have worn out,deteriorated because of water
coming in there.
So we we often find waterintrusion, we will find missing
(01:40):
mortar, damaged terracotta flueliners is also a very common
thing we'll find because thewater gets down there, it
freezes, it expands, it busts,it all wears out.
SPEAKER_02 (01:52):
So it's very similar to a sewer scope.
SPEAKER_01 (01:54):
It is very similar to a sewer scope.
SPEAKER_02 (01:56):
You look for very similar issues, you look for
like offsets and pipes, and youlook for cracks and gaps.
And I know you've done oneswhere you've seen into the attic
or seen the wood behind it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
Yes, I had one where old house, they bought the
house.
They did not have an inspection.
This is back in the day wherepeople were being silly and
waving inspections in order tomake their offer stronger, is
what the Asians tell you.
Which I get it does, but you uhyou need to have an inspector.
But anyway, we did an inspectionafter they owned it.
(02:30):
Normal stuff, some gaps.
It was an older house.
I get up around the uh atticspace, all of a sudden the flue
tile is gone.
A whole section of it wasmissing.
So the ones above it must havebeen just barely being held in
by mortar.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (02:46):
Scary.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Because there should be a gap between that flu tile
and then the brick around it.
There's supposed to be a gap.
SPEAKER_02 (02:53):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (02:54):
So somehow there's extra mortar holding that thing
up.
Or it was because it was mortarto the tiles above it, it was
attached then to the crown atthe top, but something was going
on anyway.
Missing tile, and there wascracks in the brick as well, and
I could see the wooden atticstructure through the chimney.
SPEAKER_02 (03:16):
So they needed to never use that without fixing
that.
SPEAKER_01 (03:19):
Oh, absolutely.
Never use that because all yourheat, your smoke, and everything
is going up and through thatattic space, or definitely can.
And what happened, there's athing called paralyzed.
Piralization.
Yes.
I was teaching the inspector theother day when I did all those
16 scopes.
Right.
Tim scopes.
I had another inspector with meand I was training him on how to
do these things.
(03:40):
And pyrolization, what it is,you get a piece of wood, we'll
we'll say, and it repeatedlygets heated up, dried out just
over time.
Normally wood catches fire about450 degrees.
That's about the temperaturewhat wood will catch fire.
Well, pyrolization is basicallycharge it and gets it prime to
(04:03):
catch fire.
So it can be as low as 170degrees and the wood will catch
fire.
SPEAKER_02 (04:10):
So think of a campfire.
You use your campfire out inyour backyard, it's getting
late, you're tired, you pourwater on it, and you go to bed.
Well, that wood that's in therehas already been lit once and
has been charred once.
So the next time you go back tolight your campfire, it lights
that much faster.
Yep.
(04:30):
And that's why.
SPEAKER_01 (04:31):
Like charcoal for your for your grill.
For your grill.
Or buy lump charcoal, which isbasically just chumps of wood
that has been heated up withoutoxygen so it can uh just charge.
So anyway, that house wasextremely dangerous for them to
ever use that fireplace.
So chimney scopes, I I see theseas being more important than the
(04:55):
sewer scopes.
Sewer scopes are important,definitely, because if your
sewer line is blocked,collapsed, it's gonna back up
into your house.
Unusable unless you get thatcleared out.
SPEAKER_02 (05:07):
But no one's gonna die.
SPEAKER_01 (05:09):
But nobody's gonna die on that one.
With the chimney scope, ifthere's an issue like the one we
just described, man, you'regonna burn your whole house.
I mean, sewer scope, it's acrappy situation for down the
basement or wherever you'reliving.
It's terrible, it's nasty.
Nobody, unless you get somereally serious illnesses,
(05:29):
nobody's gonna die from thatbecause nobody's gonna hang out
in that.
SPEAKER_02 (05:33):
There's sterilization stuff that you can
use to clean that.
That's not a problem down there.
SPEAKER_01 (05:37):
But if you have a chimney issue and it catches a
house on fire, man, that that isso much damage.
Lord, do you remember wasn't it15,000 chimney fires a year?
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
Yeah, it was something something like that.
And I can't remember how manydeaths, but it was up there.
I know there was a anothercompany that was doing chimney
scopes, and they basically saidhad a similar scenario, and the
sellers didn't believe them anddecided that they were gonna
give one more goodbye party attheir house, and they lit the
fire because they didn't believethe inspector for whatever
(06:10):
reason, and it burned the housedown.
And luckily everybody made itout, but you you need to listen
and and check your chimneysbecause it is dangerous.
SPEAKER_01 (06:23):
Well, it was that's the seller did not.
Home inspectors have no reasonto make up anything.
We don't do repair work.
No, there's no reason for us tomake something up in the hopes
of doing repair work down theroad.
That that is silly.
SPEAKER_02 (06:37):
Well, that seller definitely paid a price because
he burned his house and theycould have died that he was in
contract to sell it was theirclosing going away party, like
they were going to turn thehouse over that next day, I
think it was.
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
I'd be interested to hear about that because the
seller, not only did he burn hisown house and insurance has to
help take care of that, he'salso breaching contract.
Because, dude, you were incontract to sell this, you were
told this is dangerous, and youdid it anyway.
SPEAKER_02 (07:10):
He I do know that the contract was cancelled.
SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
Now I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (07:15):
I don't know if it was if they sued him or
anything.
I I do know that obviously thecontract did not go through.
There wasn't a house to gothrough at that point.
SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
Yeah, what if you're gonna do that?
SPEAKER_02 (07:24):
And well, and here's a quick another question
seller knew that there was aproblem with the chimney and yet
lit a fire in the fireplace.
Would insurance actually coverthat?
SPEAKER_00 (07:34):
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for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs from radon to
malt to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go.
(07:55):
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SPEAKER_02 (07:59):
And why should they?
SPEAKER_01 (08:01):
Oh, they they might not have.
SPEAKER_02 (08:02):
Yeah, he he knew.
He knew there was a problem.
SPEAKER_01 (08:06):
This is a little bit of a slightly but if you have a
water leak in your house, okay,and you uh let's say a pipe
breaks.
Pipe break, you shut the wateroff, you get it dried up,
insurance will typically pay forthat.
If you have that coverage, itwill take care of that.
Let's say you have a water leakand you do nothing to it, you
(08:27):
let it go on and on and on.
Insurance is not gonna take careof that.
You have there's a mitigatedmitigation of damages.
So if somebody comes over yourhouse, they break a water line
with, for example, and you don'tand you just let go and go,
well, that's that's on them.
They're gonna pay for all thecontinued damages.
(08:47):
No, that does not, that does nothappen.
No, no, no.
Insurance is not gonna pay foryour negligence, allow that to
go on, which is why a lot ofinsurance will not uh pay for
mold issues because mold is asymptom of water, and you let
that pipe continue to leakforever, you did not attach your
(09:09):
gutters, your downspouse, that'son you.
Which we know of a case where itwas it was a real estate agent.
Yes, I know what we're talkingabout.
Was it her sister or sister inlaw?
SPEAKER_02 (09:22):
We don't know for sure.
We are we were based on theinformation we had, it was a
sister or a sister-in-law.
SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
Okay, but anyway, she had a relative whose house
the chimney caught fire, andinsurance would not pay for that
because they did not have areceipt showing that it had been
regularly cleaned.
Right.
So it is very important that youget your chimneys inspected.
(09:50):
If you use them, you're supposedto get them cleaned every year.
If you don't use them and you'regoing to suddenly use it, you
should get it looked at beforeyou do that.
Because you don't want to turnyour Thanksgiving part, you
know, holiday gathering into,hey, let's all gather in the
yard and watch the house burnbecause this is the only safe
place to be on our on ourproperty.
SPEAKER_02 (10:09):
Now, I I also want to clarify something here.
So I've been asked a lot becauseI help do the scheduling.
Is this a level two inspection?
So there is a company out therethat has created what is called
a level two inspection, which isbasically what we as a home
inspection company do.
We just don't go through thatspecific company and get their
(10:32):
certification on it.
So we have another certificationthat we go through and that we
get so that we learn how to usethe equipment and learn what to
spot and things like that.
SPEAKER_01 (10:43):
The training I did for the doing the chimney
scopes, and there's norequirement in the state you
have this training.
SPEAKER_02 (10:49):
But we do it anyways because you know, we care.
SPEAKER_01 (10:51):
The guy took Jerry Eisenhower, yes, was an
instructor.
He's extremely knowledgeable,he's been doing like fire
prevention, chimney for a longtime decades.
And I'm not positive.
He had some hand in somenational stuff setting up
programs and things like that.
SPEAKER_02 (11:09):
So he might have helped create that level two
thing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:12):
Maybe, maybe, but level one is basically you just
looking, yep, you where you putyour foot, where you put your
wood at the firebox, yep,firebox looks looks okay, damper
looks okay.
Maybe looking at the crown.
SPEAKER_02 (11:25):
So that's that's a home inspection.
SPEAKER_01 (11:27):
That's basically a home inspection level.
That's that's it.
Level two is which we can do ifyou request this, is we take a
camera to go up inside to lookfor damages in the uh the flu
tiles, any gaps, blockages.
Because the other day, doingthose 16 squirrel nests, there's
(11:50):
a bee's nest up there as well,which maybe why and then there's
something called level three.
A level three is where you areactually dismantling taking some
bricks off.
Because the luck because leveltwo, there's supposed, like I
said earlier, there's supposedto be a gap between the flue
tiles, which go up through thecenter of the chimney.
(12:10):
There's supposed to be like aninch gap between that tile and
the brick that makes up theexterior, the main structure of
the chimney.
There's supposed to be an inchgap that way the tiles can
expand and contract.
It's also just a little bit of agap.
So the tile were to crack andmaybe the more gives it and it
(12:31):
leans a little bit, it's onlygoing to barely lean.
There's only an inch from theside.
SPEAKER_02 (12:35):
So it's got a little more.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
So everything's planned, it's designed.
Yes, yes.
But you absolutely but and Idon't know if anybody does it in
double three unless there arethere's some serious issues
going on, or or for a fireinvestigation.
We need to figure out what wasgoing on in this.
What you can't see that homeinspections are not going to
destroy it.
Chimney sweeps are not going todestroy your your chimney
(12:57):
either, in order to see what'sgoing on, unless there's a
really serious issues alreadyhappen.
But we we can do uh the basicfunction as a regular home
inspection, which we we doautomatically.
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
Right.
We do that.
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
But if you want the chimney scope, which is really
the safety thing that needsdone, you need to request a
chimney scope.
SPEAKER_02 (13:19):
Now, do you remember a few years ago where one of our
inspectors was subpoena is notthe right word.
He had to go in for adeposition.
SPEAKER_01 (13:28):
Yeah, deposition.
SPEAKER_02 (13:29):
So we got a three-ring binder, literally
about like two and a half, threeinches thick.
We had that this was like yearsbefore we started doing the
chimney scopes.
This was part of the reason whywe started doing them actually.
So we had done the homeinspection, we had looked inside
the box, looked outside, andsomething just didn't quite seem
(13:50):
right to our inspector.
And he said that the personbuying the house should get it
looked at before she closed.
Well, she didn't.
It was, you know, it was back inthe day, and and they didn't do
that.
So the next thing we know, yearor so down the road, we're, you
know, getting a request forinformation and and you know,
the report and all of thatstuff.
(14:11):
Find out that the seller and thelisting agent colluded to hide
the fact that the chimney neededcompletely torn down and
replaced and had gone throughseveral companies before they
found one willing to cover itup.
So I don't know if they liketweaked their language as they
went down and covered up thefact that that they were, you
(14:32):
know, like that they were gonnasell the house or that they were
gonna stay there.
And it just, I just want it tolook better.
Don't know if they did that orif the company actually knew
what was going on and covered itup, no clue.
But the buyer was an agent suingthe listing agent and the
seller.
And the last I had looked, thelisting agent still had her
license, and she should not havethat was something that could
(14:55):
have caused people to die.
SPEAKER_01 (14:57):
Oh, yeah.
So your your chimney scope ismore important than the sewer
scope.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (15:02):
I mean, if you if you have a fireplace but you're
never going to use it, yeah, whywhy bother get the scope?
Doesn't matter.
Don't don't do the scope.
There's don't don't spend yourmoney if you're not gonna ever
use it, but you should at leastknow what the condition is.
Yeah, because well the well, theone we did the other day for
that that large building, we didthat just because the the city
(15:22):
who had that done, who who hiredpeople to do an inspection of
that building, they want to knowif there are any structural
issues because they had grantmoney or they're just doing
maintenance for maintenance onthe on the place, which totally
fine.
Totally fine, but you're notgonna use it just to seal it
off.
But you should know there's anymajor structural issues going
in.
Because you don't want you don'twant a bee's nest to suddenly
(15:44):
fall down your chimney and fallinto your living room.
SPEAKER_02 (15:47):
Or we we've had um swift chimney swifts where we
haven't been able to doinspections and we've had to
come back.
Or what about our our old house?
We had to take down that onechimney because like the the way
they had done it and therewasn't anything supporting it
underneath anymore.
SPEAKER_01 (16:03):
Yes.
So like we need to know what'sgoing on with that.
We need what's going on.
So we'll do another episode,Laura, right right after this.
This let's go ahead and start todo another one on chimneys and
their design structure and alittle bit of the history of
them.
SPEAKER_02 (16:16):
Okay, we can do that.
SPEAKER_01 (16:17):
All right, so that's it for this one.
So if you are buying a house,get your chimney inspected if it
has one.
If you own a house, get itinspected and you have a
fireplace.
Yes, get that chimney inspectorbecause you do not want to burn
your house down because thatwould be tragic and potentially
deadly for a family member or aguest at your house.
(16:38):
Another thought though, if youhave an Airbnb and you're down
here say down here at HawkingHills, and that's a selling
point.
People love fireplaces, but whenis when was the last time you
had that thing looked at?
And can you be certain that thepeople building a firehouse
actually know what they'redoing?
So we'll do we'll talk moreabout that.
SPEAKER_02 (17:01):
And and are they going to listen to it so you can
tell it's safe?
SPEAKER_01 (17:04):
Anyway, that's it for this one, everybody.
Thank you.
Bye bye.
Hello everybody.
This is Jim, and with me, ofcourse, is Laura.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Hello, everyone.
SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
Alright, if you are buying a house and the house has
a f wood burning fireplace, oreven a gas-burning fireplace, it
is important that you get it umscoped.
Look up inside that chimney.
Because it is an area of thehouse that you can't see during
(00:28):
a normal home inspection, or Imean a lot of chimney sweeps,
they they don't see they can'tthey don't look to the inside.
They don't have extra service.
They don't have a s they don'thave a scope, that's an extra
service.
But it is also well the otherday I did what did you do?
I did sixteen chimney scopes inone day for one building.
(00:52):
It was a big building, it was anold building, which is probably
why they had so many fireplaces,because that's the main way they
heated the house way back in theday.
But it had sixteen chimneys, sothat was a that that's a
shoulder workout to do that uhchimney scope and shove it up
(01:13):
vertically up through thechimney.
SPEAKER_02 (01:16):
So sorry I wasn't there.
SPEAKER_01 (01:17):
So what that does though, there's a special camera
that we have that we're we'relooking inside of the flue
tiles, because you can have it'svery common that we'll find gaps
between the flue tiles becausethe mortar between the tile
sections has have worn out,deteriorated because of water
coming in there.
So we we often find waterintrusion, we will find missing
(01:40):
mortar, damaged terracotta flueliners is also a very common
thing we'll find because thewater gets down there, it
freezes, it expands, it busts,it all wears out.
SPEAKER_02 (01:52):
So it's very similar to a sewer scope.
SPEAKER_01 (01:54):
It is very similar to a sewer scope.
SPEAKER_02 (01:56):
You look for very similar issues, you look for
like offsets and pipes, and youlook for cracks and gaps.
And I know you've done oneswhere you've seen into the attic
or seen the wood behind it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
Yes, I had one where old house, they bought the
house.
They did not have an inspection.
This is back in the day wherepeople were being silly and
waving inspections in order tomake their offer stronger, is
what the Asians tell you.
Which I get it does, but you uhyou need to have an inspector.
But anyway, we did an inspectionafter they owned it.
(02:30):
Normal stuff, some gaps.
It was an older house.
I get up around the uh atticspace, all of a sudden the flue
tile is gone.
A whole section of it wasmissing.
So the ones above it must havebeen just barely being held in
by mortar.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (02:46):
Scary.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Because there should be a gap between that flu tile
and then the brick around it.
There's supposed to be a gap.
SPEAKER_02 (02:53):
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (02:54):
So somehow there's extra mortar holding that thing
up.
Or it was because it was mortarto the tiles above it, it was
attached then to the crown atthe top, but something was going
on anyway.
Missing tile, and there wascracks in the brick as well, and
I could see the wooden atticstructure through the chimney.
SPEAKER_02 (03:16):
So they needed to never use that without fixing
that.
SPEAKER_01 (03:19):
Oh, absolutely.
Never use that because all yourheat, your smoke, and everything
is going up and through thatattic space, or definitely can.
And what happened, there's athing called paralyzed.
Piralization.
Yes.
I was teaching the inspector theother day when I did all those
16 scopes.
Right.
Tim scopes.
I had another inspector with meand I was training him on how to
do these things.
(03:40):
And pyrolization, what it is,you get a piece of wood, we'll
we'll say, and it repeatedlygets heated up, dried out just
over time.
Normally wood catches fire about450 degrees.
That's about the temperaturewhat wood will catch fire.
Well, pyrolization is basicallycharge it and gets it prime to
(04:03):
catch fire.
So it can be as low as 170degrees and the wood will catch
fire.
SPEAKER_02 (04:10):
So think of a campfire.
You use your campfire out inyour backyard, it's getting
late, you're tired, you pourwater on it, and you go to bed.
Well, that wood that's in therehas already been lit once and
has been charred once.
So the next time you go back tolight your campfire, it lights
that much faster.
Yep.
(04:30):
And that's why.
SPEAKER_01 (04:31):
Like charcoal for your for your grill.
For your grill.
Or buy lump charcoal, which isbasically just chumps of wood
that has been heated up withoutoxygen so it can uh just charge.
So anyway, that house wasextremely dangerous for them to
ever use that fireplace.
So chimney scopes, I I see theseas being more important than the
(04:55):
sewer scopes.
Sewer scopes are important,definitely, because if your
sewer line is blocked,collapsed, it's gonna back up
into your house.
Unusable unless you get thatcleared out.
SPEAKER_02 (05:07):
But no one's gonna die.
SPEAKER_01 (05:09):
But nobody's gonna die on that one.
With the chimney scope, ifthere's an issue like the one we
just described, man, you'regonna burn your whole house.
I mean, sewer scope, it's acrappy situation for down the
basement or wherever you'reliving.
It's terrible, it's nasty.
Nobody, unless you get somereally serious illnesses,
(05:29):
nobody's gonna die from thatbecause nobody's gonna hang out
in that.
SPEAKER_02 (05:33):
There's sterilization stuff that you can
use to clean that.
That's not a problem down there.
SPEAKER_01 (05:37):
But if you have a chimney issue and it catches a
house on fire, man, that that isso much damage.
Lord, do you remember wasn't it15,000 chimney fires a year?
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
Yeah, it was something something like that.
And I can't remember how manydeaths, but it was up there.
I know there was a anothercompany that was doing chimney
scopes, and they basically saidhad a similar scenario, and the
sellers didn't believe them anddecided that they were gonna
give one more goodbye party attheir house, and they lit the
fire because they didn't believethe inspector for whatever
(06:10):
reason, and it burned the housedown.
And luckily everybody made itout, but you you need to listen
and and check your chimneysbecause it is dangerous.
SPEAKER_01 (06:23):
Well, it was that's the seller did not.
Home inspectors have no reasonto make up anything.
We don't do repair work.
No, there's no reason for us tomake something up in the hopes
of doing repair work down theroad.
That that is silly.
SPEAKER_02 (06:37):
Well, that seller definitely paid a price because
he burned his house and theycould have died that he was in
contract to sell it was theirclosing going away party, like
they were going to turn thehouse over that next day, I
think it was.
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
I'd be interested to hear about that because the
seller, not only did he burn hisown house and insurance has to
help take care of that, he'salso breaching contract.
Because, dude, you were incontract to sell this, you were
told this is dangerous, and youdid it anyway.
SPEAKER_02 (07:10):
He I do know that the contract was cancelled.
SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
Now I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (07:15):
I don't know if it was if they sued him or
anything.
I I do know that obviously thecontract did not go through.
There wasn't a house to gothrough at that point.
SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
Yeah, what if you're gonna do that?
SPEAKER_02 (07:24):
And well, and here's a quick another question
seller knew that there was aproblem with the chimney and yet
lit a fire in the fireplace.
Would insurance actually coverthat?
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SPEAKER_02 (07:59):
And why should they?
SPEAKER_01 (08:01):
Oh, they they might not have.
SPEAKER_02 (08:02):
Yeah, he he knew.
He knew there was a problem.
SPEAKER_01 (08:06):
This is a little bit of a slightly but if you have a
water leak in your house, okay,and you uh let's say a pipe
breaks.
Pipe break, you shut the wateroff, you get it dried up,
insurance will typically pay forthat.
If you have that coverage, itwill take care of that.
Let's say you have a water leakand you do nothing to it, you
(08:27):
let it go on and on and on.
Insurance is not gonna take careof that.
You have there's a mitigatedmitigation of damages.
So if somebody comes over yourhouse, they break a water line
with, for example, and you don'tand you just let go and go,
well, that's that's on them.
They're gonna pay for all thecontinued damages.
(08:47):
No, that does not, that does nothappen.
No, no, no.
Insurance is not gonna pay foryour negligence, allow that to
go on, which is why a lot ofinsurance will not uh pay for
mold issues because mold is asymptom of water, and you let
that pipe continue to leakforever, you did not attach your
(09:09):
gutters, your downspouse, that'son you.
Which we know of a case where itwas it was a real estate agent.
Yes, I know what we're talkingabout.
Was it her sister or sister inlaw?
SPEAKER_02 (09:22):
We don't know for sure.
We are we were based on theinformation we had, it was a
sister or a sister-in-law.
SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
Okay, but anyway, she had a relative whose house
the chimney caught fire, andinsurance would not pay for that
because they did not have areceipt showing that it had been
regularly cleaned.
Right.
So it is very important that youget your chimneys inspected.
(09:50):
If you use them, you're supposedto get them cleaned every year.
If you don't use them and you'regoing to suddenly use it, you
should get it looked at beforeyou do that.
Because you don't want to turnyour Thanksgiving part, you
know, holiday gathering into,hey, let's all gather in the
yard and watch the house burnbecause this is the only safe
place to be on our on ourproperty.
SPEAKER_02 (10:09):
Now, I I also want to clarify something here.
So I've been asked a lot becauseI help do the scheduling.
Is this a level two inspection?
So there is a company out therethat has created what is called
a level two inspection, which isbasically what we as a home
inspection company do.
We just don't go through thatspecific company and get their
(10:32):
certification on it.
So we have another certificationthat we go through and that we
get so that we learn how to usethe equipment and learn what to
spot and things like that.
SPEAKER_01 (10:43):
The training I did for the doing the chimney
scopes, and there's norequirement in the state you
have this training.
SPEAKER_02 (10:49):
But we do it anyways because you know, we care.
SPEAKER_01 (10:51):
The guy took Jerry Eisenhower, yes, was an
instructor.
He's extremely knowledgeable,he's been doing like fire
prevention, chimney for a longtime decades.
And I'm not positive.
He had some hand in somenational stuff setting up
programs and things like that.
SPEAKER_02 (11:09):
So he might have helped create that level two
thing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:12):
Maybe, maybe, but level one is basically you just
looking, yep, you where you putyour foot, where you put your
wood at the firebox, yep,firebox looks looks okay, damper
looks okay.
Maybe looking at the crown.
SPEAKER_02 (11:25):
So that's that's a home inspection.
SPEAKER_01 (11:27):
That's basically a home inspection level.
That's that's it.
Level two is which we can do ifyou request this, is we take a
camera to go up inside to lookfor damages in the uh the flu
tiles, any gaps, blockages.
Because the other day, doingthose 16 squirrel nests, there's
(11:50):
a bee's nest up there as well,which maybe why and then there's
something called level three.
A level three is where you areactually dismantling taking some
bricks off.
Because the luck because leveltwo, there's supposed, like I
said earlier, there's supposedto be a gap between the flue
tiles, which go up through thecenter of the chimney.
(12:10):
There's supposed to be like aninch gap between that tile and
the brick that makes up theexterior, the main structure of
the chimney.
There's supposed to be an inchgap that way the tiles can
expand and contract.
It's also just a little bit of agap.
So the tile were to crack andmaybe the more gives it and it
(12:31):
leans a little bit, it's onlygoing to barely lean.
There's only an inch from theside.
SPEAKER_02 (12:35):
So it's got a little more.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
So everything's planned, it's designed.
Yes, yes.
But you absolutely but and Idon't know if anybody does it in
double three unless there arethere's some serious issues
going on, or or for a fireinvestigation.
We need to figure out what wasgoing on in this.
What you can't see that homeinspections are not going to
destroy it.
Chimney sweeps are not going todestroy your your chimney
(12:57):
either, in order to see what'sgoing on, unless there's a
really serious issues alreadyhappen.
But we we can do uh the basicfunction as a regular home
inspection, which we we doautomatically.
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
Right.
We do that.
SPEAKER_01 (13:13):
But if you want the chimney scope, which is really
the safety thing that needsdone, you need to request a
chimney scope.
SPEAKER_02 (13:19):
Now, do you remember a few years ago where one of our
inspectors was subpoena is notthe right word.
He had to go in for adeposition.
SPEAKER_01 (13:28):
Yeah, deposition.
SPEAKER_02 (13:29):
So we got a three-ring binder, literally
about like two and a half, threeinches thick.
We had that this was like yearsbefore we started doing the
chimney scopes.
This was part of the reason whywe started doing them actually.
So we had done the homeinspection, we had looked inside
the box, looked outside, andsomething just didn't quite seem
(13:50):
right to our inspector.
And he said that the personbuying the house should get it
looked at before she closed.
Well, she didn't.
It was, you know, it was back inthe day, and and they didn't do
that.
So the next thing we know, yearor so down the road, we're, you
know, getting a request forinformation and and you know,
the report and all of thatstuff.
(14:11):
Find out that the seller and thelisting agent colluded to hide
the fact that the chimney neededcompletely torn down and
replaced and had gone throughseveral companies before they
found one willing to cover itup.
So I don't know if they liketweaked their language as they
went down and covered up thefact that that they were, you
(14:32):
know, like that they were gonnasell the house or that they were
gonna stay there.
And it just, I just want it tolook better.
Don't know if they did that orif the company actually knew
what was going on and covered itup, no clue.
But the buyer was an agent suingthe listing agent and the
seller.
And the last I had looked, thelisting agent still had her
license, and she should not havethat was something that could
(14:55):
have caused people to die.
SPEAKER_01 (14:57):
Oh, yeah.
So your your chimney scope ismore important than the sewer
scope.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (15:02):
I mean, if you if you have a fireplace but you're
never going to use it, yeah, whywhy bother get the scope?
Doesn't matter.
Don't don't do the scope.
There's don't don't spend yourmoney if you're not gonna ever
use it, but you should at leastknow what the condition is.
Yeah, because well the well, theone we did the other day for
that that large building, we didthat just because the the city
(15:22):
who had that done, who who hiredpeople to do an inspection of
that building, they want to knowif there are any structural
issues because they had grantmoney or they're just doing
maintenance for maintenance onthe on the place, which totally
fine.
Totally fine, but you're notgonna use it just to seal it
off.
But you should know there's anymajor structural issues going
in.
Because you don't want you don'twant a bee's nest to suddenly
(15:44):
fall down your chimney and fallinto your living room.
SPEAKER_02 (15:47):
Or we we've had um swift chimney swifts where we
haven't been able to doinspections and we've had to
come back.
Or what about our our old house?
We had to take down that onechimney because like the the way
they had done it and therewasn't anything supporting it
underneath anymore.
SPEAKER_01 (16:03):
Yes.
So like we need to know what'sgoing on with that.
We need what's going on.
So we'll do another episode,Laura, right right after this.
This let's go ahead and start todo another one on chimneys and
their design structure and alittle bit of the history of
them.
SPEAKER_02 (16:16):
Okay, we can do that.
SPEAKER_01 (16:17):
All right, so that's it for this one.
So if you are buying a house,get your chimney inspected if it
has one.
If you own a house, get itinspected and you have a
fireplace.
Yes, get that chimney inspectorbecause you do not want to burn
your house down because thatwould be tragic and potentially
deadly for a family member or aguest at your house.
(16:38):
Another thought though, if youhave an Airbnb and you're down
here say down here at HawkingHills, and that's a selling
point.
People love fireplaces, but whenis when was the last time you
had that thing looked at?
And can you be certain that thepeople building a firehouse
actually know what they'redoing?
So we'll do we'll talk moreabout that.
SPEAKER_02 (17:01):
And and are they going to listen to it so you can
tell it's safe?
SPEAKER_01 (17:04):
Anyway, that's it for this one, everybody.
Thank you.
Bye bye.
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