Momence firewood from the river bottoms: how green silver maple glazed a flue in one season

By Jacob Dove, Friendship Chimney Sweep

What we found in the flue

The home is an older two-story a few streets off the Momence downtown, with an interior brick chimney serving a masonry fireplace. The owner had a big silver maple come down in a storm on a relative’s lot near the river, cut it into rounds that fall, split it, and started burning it within a few weeks. The fires were hard to get going, hissed a lot, and never threw much heat. By late winter there was a sharp, tarry smell in the living room on humid days.

Our camera showed why. The lower half of the flue was coated in the third and worst stage of creosote: a hard, glossy layer that looks like black paint that has run and dried. Higher up, closer to the cold top of the chimney, the deposit was thicker and crusty. On a standard sweep, our rotary brushes skated over the glazed sections and barely marked them [Observed]. Glazed creosote is dense fuel sitting right in the flue, and it is the kind of buildup that feeds the most intense chimney fires.

Why green wood does this

Freshly cut wood can be half water by weight. Silver maple, common along the Kankakee River bottoms and in older Momence yards, is a fast-growing soft maple that holds a lot of moisture when it is cut. When wet wood burns, a large share of the fire’s energy goes into boiling that water off, so the fire runs cool and smoky. Those unburned gases and water vapor rise into a flue that is also running cool, condense on the tile, and build up layer after layer. Keeping the damper partly closed to make a load last longer makes the problem worse.

Northern Illinois adds its own twist. Wood cut in autumn goes straight into a cold, damp winter where it barely dries at all. A round that looks dry on the ends can still be wet in the middle, which is why a simple moisture meter reading on a freshly split face is more honest than the look of the bark.

How we cleaned it and what we told the owner

Glazed creosote needs more than a brush. We applied a chemical treatment that changes the glaze into a brittle, flaky material over a number of fires, then came back and removed it with rotary tools, checking progress with the camera after each pass. Once the tile was clean we did a full inspection to be sure no joints had cracked, since heavy glaze can hide heat damage. The tile was sound, so no liner work was needed this time.

The owner kept the maple, but it now sits split, stacked off the ground, bark side up, with the top covered and the sides open to the wind, and it will not be burned until next year. Jacob Dove, our founder and team leader with 29 years in the trade, recommends checking a split face with a moisture meter and burning only wood that reads around 20 percent or lower. We work to the NFPA 211 standard, which calls for a yearly inspection and cleaning when deposits build up, and we are Insured & Bonded. Sweeping and creosote removal pricing is published on the pricing page. Call (815) 449-4264, any day from 7am to 9pm.

If this sounds like your house: we handle chimney sweeping across Kankakee County, and our Momence page covers what we usually find there. Call (815) 449-4264, 7am to 9pm, any day.

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