Chimney cleaning in Zasulauks - 19th-century wooden buildings and apartment blocks

A wooden building with several flats

Old wooden buildings in Riga were often built as rental buildings with several flats. If your building has two or more flats, that changes the rules. Under the fire safety regulations a building with two or more flats counts as an apartment building, even if it is a small wooden house. The exception where you may clean it yourself and no certificate is needed applies only to a single-dwelling house.

So in a wooden building with several flats every flue cleaning needs a certificate with the sweep's qualification document. The owners or the manager are responsible for the shared chimney, but the flues often run from particular flats, so the work has to be agreed with the residents of all the flats. More: chimney sweep for an apartment building.

Wood-burning cookers and stoves

In the old wooden buildings the flats may have tiled or masonry stoves and a wood-burning cooker in the kitchen. A masonry stove that stores heat for a long time is cleaned once a year, by 1 November. In a wood-burning cooker soot builds up most in the channels under the hob and by the flue pipe, so we clean both the cooker channels and the chimney to the top. A metal stove or boiler is cleaned twice: by 1 November and once more by 1 March.

More: tiled stove cleaning and stove and fireplace cleaning.

The attic in a wooden building

In the attic of a wooden building the chimney runs through the wooden floor and next to the roof rafters. That is exactly where we check most carefully. Combustible structures must be at least 300 mm from the flue, and in the attic the flue and the wall it runs through are whitewashed or painted a light colour so that cracks and soot marks are visible.

If belongings are stored in the attic right next to the chimney, we note it in the certificate, because it is one of the simplest fire hazards that the residents can remove themselves. If we see dark streaks in the whitewash, we look at the channel with a camera: camera inspection.

Apartment blocks by the heating plant

Zasulauks has the “Zasulauks” heating plant of AS “Rīgas siltums”, and the neighbourhood's apartment blocks usually get their heat from the heating network. There a chimney sweep is needed for the ventilation ducts: once every 10 years, and in rooms with a gas cooker or gas water heater once every five years. If a gas appliance is replaced in a flat, the Riga rules require a certificate on the condition of the appliance, flues and ventilation ducts. More: ventilation duct cleaning.

If the stove is replaced with something else

In all zones the Riga rules allow an existing appliance in a flat or private house to be replaced with a new ecodesign appliance of up to 50 kW, if the fuel does not change. Switching to another fuel depends on the zone, and it needs approval from the municipal Heat Supply Commission. The zone can be checked on the zoning map on the commission's page. Before the new appliance is used, you need a certificate on whether it can be connected to the old channel: technical condition report.

Access and price

Zasulauks has the railway, Kalnciema iela and Jūrmalas gatve, and parking near them is harder. In your request, tell us whether we can drive into the yard, where the attic hatch is and who will open it. If the roof is steep and has no safe exit, we clean the channels from the attic or from below.

Chimney cleaning with a certificate costs from €100 per flue, usually €100–130, with the call-out included. Cleaning the flue channels of a stove or cooker costs the same, from €100. In a wooden building with several flats the total depends on the number of flues. Ventilation inspection, condition reports and repairs are priced for your situation. All prices: prices.