The chimney sweep came today with his apprentice, whose role was rather simple at least on this occasion. He brought the gear in, he took the gear out, he lent Richard, the boss, his mobile phone in order to use its torch to establish the presence of a flue liner, and he brought in two business leaflets and a Certificate of Chimney Sweeping. This last headed The National Association of Chimney Sweeps, strapline 'Helping to protect the consumer'. Richard informed me my chimney should be swept every six months (six months??!!) For shame! It's at least three two years since we had it swept last. Ho hum. Well, now we know. The handful of little and not so little lumps of shiny creosote he showed me was enough to convince me. He had a face hewn from the local millstone grit and a manner to match. The sort of bloke who makes me feel posh and awkward. And he managed to take an extra tenner off me, on the basis that in six months' time he'd charge me a tenner less than the going rate. I am not quick to spot these kinds of manoeuvres. I said I'd want to talk to L (who was out, and would have spotted this) before booking the October sweep, but of course now I'll have to - or sacrifice my tenner.
We left ours for an awful lot of years, with only a chemical log each year, and it did get very smoky. When the guy finally came he made such a beautiful job of it, taking about an hour to do so, we resolved to make sure we had it done every year. Then he got an American cocker spaniel puppy called Joe and that clinched it. He takes about 15 minutes now and charges the same amount, but we don't mind.
2 comments:
Stuck with me now as well, the tune. Since chimney sweep here is mandatory every 12 months the local guys are sitting on a gold mine.
We left ours for an awful lot of years, with only a chemical log each year, and it did get very smoky. When the guy finally came he made such a beautiful job of it, taking about an hour to do so, we resolved to make sure we had it done every year. Then he got an American cocker spaniel puppy called Joe and that clinched it. He takes about 15 minutes now and charges the same amount, but we don't mind.
Six months sounds excessively frequent.
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