When wood burns it gives off smoke which is unburned wood particles, tars and acids. This mass is hot and as it exits the chimney it collects on the cooler chimney walls. It can take the form of a very easily brushable compound or a thick gooey tar-like mass or a hard shiny-as-glass coating. The latter two are impossible to remove using ordinary methods.

Stage one is the light easily reomved type often referred to as soot. It is the first stage and is a danger but very easily controlled with a regular cleaning schedule. It is still dangerous and must be removed but it is removeable.

The second stage is the transition phase between 1st and 3rd degree and has mostly bushable form but is hard to get off in spots.

The third stage is the most difficult to remove and therefore the most dangerous. As wood burns it coats the chimney with creosote. Each new fire heats the bottom layer and adds a new layer and builds up over time if the fire is not hot enough to dry out the layers. In an improperly operated appliance it will build up to thick layers. This is fuel inside your chimney waiting to catch on fire if not removed. 

The mass can be chipped off risking the danger of cracking a flue tile or treated a number of times and then brushed out when it changes compodition. We use a concentrated professional compound called Cre-Away or ACS which is a powder. We coat the chimney and give you the remainder of the bottle and urge you to generously spray into the chimney when you burn a fire. Then after a while and you have used the entire contents we return to clean your chimney.

By that time the creosote usually has changed composition to where it is easily removed. We brush it down and then get it out of the chimney and you are safe once again.

We find 3rd degree buildups in a small percentage of the chimneys we do. You must get the creosote out or you are risking your family's safety.