Chimney sweep in Riga neighbourhoods - wooden houses, housing estates and heating zones

How homes in Riga are heated and where the chimneys are

Most flats in Riga get their heat from an outside supplier: in the 2025 survey by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), 82.2% of Riga households did. This means that in the apartment buildings of the housing estates there is usually a flue only for the boiler house, not for the flat. There the typical job for a chimney sweep is the ventilation ducts and, if the flat has a gas water heater or a boiler, its flue.

The other homes in Riga produce their own heat. In 2024 Gaso named 26,198 properties in Riga heated with gas: flats, private houses and offices together. The Riga air quality action programme 2026–2030 states that the share of buildings with individual heating is highest in the northern part of Riga and on the outskirts, where there are no district heating networks. The same programme names Avoti, Torņakalns, Pleskodāle, Atgāzene, Grīziņkalns and Dārzciems as neighbourhoods where, by number of buildings, individual heating prevails, even though the heating networks cover most of the area.

In terms of fuel, in 2020 Riga households got more than half of their energy from wood and gas: natural gas was 47%, firewood 26%, and wood briquettes and pellets 9% each. So the city has masonry stoves, wood-burning cookers, fireplaces, pellet boilers and gas appliances side by side, and each has its own cleaning schedule.

Four types of neighbourhood and different jobs

Riga is not one market. A chimney sweep's work in Pļavnieki and in Āgenskalns differs more than the work in Riga and in Ķekava, so we group neighbourhoods by how their buildings are heated.

• Wooden and pre-war housing (Āgenskalns, Grīziņkalns, Torņakalns, Ķīpsala, part of Avoti and Maskavas forštate): masonry stoves, tiled stoves and wood-burning cookers, one chimney with several flues, narrow attic passages. Here what is most often needed is cleaning by 1 November, a technical condition inspection every five years and a liner when a gas or pellet boiler replaces the stove.
• Private-house neighbourhoods (Mežaparks, Bieriņi, Jaunciems, Trīsciems, Vecāķi, Berģi, Dārziņi): their own boilers burning firewood, pellets or gas, fireplaces, saunas, and in newer houses modular steel chimneys. Long-burn boilers need a second cleaning between 1 November and 1 March.
• Housing estates (Purvciems, Imanta, Pļavnieki, Ķengarags, Zolitūde, Ziepniekkalns): district heating, ventilation ducts in the flats, gas water heaters in some buildings. The work is usually ordered by the building manager, and a certificate is needed every time.
• Port and industrial areas (Spilve, Kundziņsala, Šķirotava, Krasta rajons): boiler houses, production sites and cafés, which need a certificate after every cleaning.

Many neighbourhoods have both types. The centre has both Art Nouveau buildings with district heating and pre-war houses with stoves. Bolderāja and Daugavgrīva have their own heat supply zones with separate boiler houses, and next to them private houses with their own boilers. That is why it helps to state in the request what exactly is connected to the flue.

Riga heating zones: what to know when replacing a stove or boiler

Riga binding regulations No. RD-24-260-sn on heat supply divide the city into three zones. In zone I, when changing the type of heating or installing a new appliance, new solid-fuel (including firewood and pellet) and gas appliances are not allowed. In zone II new solid-fuel appliances are not allowed. In zone III priority goes to zero-emission solutions or district heating, then solid biomass, then gas. In all zones it is forbidden to install new appliances burning coal, peat or liquid fuel.

An exception applies to private houses and individual flats in all zones: an existing appliance may be replaced with a new one up to 50 kW that meets the ecodesign requirements, without changing the type of heating. Before choosing or changing the type of heating you need the approval of the municipal Heat Supply Commission. If the appliance is replaced in a flat in an apartment building, the application must include a technical condition inspection certificate for the existing appliance, the flues and the natural ventilation ducts. We draw up such a certificate: chimney sweep's condition report and chimney check for a gas boiler.

Heating appliances in Riga must be registered with the Riga Energy Agency, new appliances within a month. From 1 January 2031 it is forbidden in all zones to install new individual appliances burning any fossil fuel, gas included. You can see the zone of your address on the zoning map on the commission's page at mvd.riga.lv or in the GeoRiga layer “Teritoriālās zonas siltumapgādes veida izvēlei” (heating zones).

National requirements that apply to every flue in Riga

Solid-fuel flues are cleaned by 1 November. Boilers, metal stoves and sauna stoves need one more cleaning between 1 November and 1 March. Brick flues of gas appliances are checked once a year, lined and metal flues once every two years. Solid and liquid fuel appliances and their flues need a technical condition inspection once every five years.

Ventilation ducts are cleaned and checked at least once every 10 years, and once every five years in rooms with a gas cooker, boiler or water heater. In an apartment building a certificate is drawn up after every cleaning. The owner of a private house may clean their own solid-fuel flue, and then a certificate is not mandatory: can you clean your own chimney.

Access: courtyards, attics and high roofs

In Riga the job is more often affected by access than by distance. In the centre and in pre-war blocks the chimney is often on the roof of a four- or five-storey building, the way there leads through the attic, and the courtyard can only be entered with a gate code. Wooden houses in Āgenskalns or Torņakalns have lower roofs, but the cleaning doors are often bricked up or hidden behind a wardrobe.

Three things help in the request: whether the attic is locked and who has the key, whether the roof has a hatch or a ladder, and where we can park. If it is not safe to climb onto the roof, the flue can be cleaned from below with jointed rods: chimney cleaning from below.

How much a chimney sweep costs in Riga

Chimney cleaning in Riga costs from €100 per flue, usually €100–130, with the certificate and the call-out to any neighbourhood. Fireplace, stove and sauna stove cleaning and boiler flue cleaning cost the same.

The technical condition report, camera inspection, chimney lining, repairs and ventilation duct cleaning are priced for your situation. The price depends on the length and diameter of the flue, the height of the chimney and access to the roof, the fuel, the amount of soot and whether several jobs are done in one visit. All prices: prices.

Examples of Riga neighbourhoods

Each neighbourhood has its own page with its houses, heating and access. A few examples of each type:

• Āgenskalns: the largest ensemble of wooden architecture in Pārdaugava, stoves and cookers.
• Grīziņkalns: masonry and wooden workers' houses with individual heating.
• Torņakalns: old wooden and masonry low-rise housing next to new developments.
• Ķīpsala: historic wooden houses and villas on the island.
• Mežaparks: garden-city villas with their own heating, fireplaces and stoves.
• Bieriņi: a private-house neighbourhood where detached houses take up most of the area.
• Jaunciems: private-house zones take up many times more space than multi-storey buildings.
• Purvciems: six housing estates, ventilation ducts and gas appliances.
• Imanta: housing estates near the Imanta heating plant and private-house zones.
• Centrs: Art Nouveau and pre-war masonry buildings with tall chimneys.

In the Riga region we work under the same rules, for example in Mārupe, in Jūrmala, in Ķekava and in Salaspils. All places: where we work.