Chimney sweep in Sarkandaugava - stoves in small wooden houses and pre-war buildings

An industrial neighbourhood with wooden houses

The neighbourhoods portal describes Sarkandaugava as an early industrial neighbourhood, where production areas still take up 26.7% of the land and where historically only small wooden houses were allowed to be built. Today there are pre-war wooden and brick buildings, apartment buildings, hospital complexes and port and industrial sites. There are no exact data on how many houses heat with wood, so we assess each address separately.

A small wooden house: when a certificate is needed and when not

If a wooden house has one dwelling, it is a single-dwelling property, and the owner may clean the flue of their own stove or cooker themselves without a certificate. If the house has two or more flats, it is an apartment building, and a certificate is needed after every cleaning. In the wooden houses of Sarkandaugava it is worth knowing which case applies to you, because old houses are often divided into flats.

In both cases a solid-fuel flue must be cleaned by 1 November, and once every five years a technical condition inspection with photos or video attached is needed. If we clean it, the certificate gives the name and number of the qualified chimney sweep's qualification document. More: can you clean your own chimney.

Soot in a wooden house: why cleaning is not a formality

In a wooden house the chimney runs through wooden floors and roof structures. If soot or tar in the chimney catches fire, the temperature in the channel rises fast, and through a crack the heat can reach the wood. In the first nine months of 2025 the State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) put out burning soot in 261 home flues in Latvia. If soot is burning in the chimney, call 112 first; after that the chimney must not be used until a specialist has checked it.

Burning out soot is forbidden. After a chimney fire we recommend a chimney inspection after a chimney fire to see whether the masonry has cracks. More on what to do: chimney (soot) fire.

When the stove smokes: a low house next to a taller one

In Sarkandaugava small wooden houses stand next to taller brick buildings, apartment blocks and factory buildings. If the chimney of a low house is in the wind shadow of a taller building, the wind pushes the smoke back, and the stove smokes into the room even though the flue is clean. Under the building code a chimney must be at least 0.5 m above the roof covering and at the right height relative to the ridge; sometimes a deflector cap or raising the chimney helps. We assess this on the roof. More: chimney has no draught.

Pre-war brick buildings and apartment blocks

In a pre-war brick building one chimney can carry flues from several flats and storeys. Each flue must be described separately in the certificate. If a gas boiler has been put in a flat instead of a stove, or is due to be replaced, Riga binding regulations No. RD-24-260-sn require a certificate on the technical condition of the existing appliance, flues and natural ventilation ducts.

An existing appliance in a flat may be replaced with a new ecodesign appliance of up to 50 kW using the same fuel. The zoning map on the page of the municipal Heat Supply Commission shows which zone your address is in. In Soviet-era apartment buildings with district heating the main job is ventilation ducts once every 10 years: ventilation duct cleaning.

Hospitals, the port and production sites

Hospital complexes and production sites usually have their own technical service procedures and their own boiler room or backup heating. If a certificate is needed for flues or ventilation, we prepare it for each flue and group of ducts, with the company name and the date. More: chimney sweep for a business.

Access and price

Sarkandaugava is reached along Tvaika iela and Ganību dambis; the tram runs here, and the railway passes through. Tell us where a car can stop by the house. If the roof is steep and the chimney is hard to reach, the flue can be cleaned from below through the stove door: chimney cleaning from below.

Cleaning a stove, cooker or other flue with a certificate costs from €100, usually €100–130, with the call-out included. For an inspection after a chimney fire, a camera inspection and repairs we quote the price after looking at the chimney. All prices: prices.