Chimney Sweep Job Description
School Subjects
Business, Technical/shop
Personal Skills
Mechanical/manipulative, Technical/scientific
Work environment
Indoors and outdoors, Primarily multiple locations
Minimum education level
Apprenticeship
Salary range
$25,000 to $40,000 to $80,000
Certification or licensing
Recommended
Overview
Chimney sweeps, also known as sweeps and chimney technicians, inspect or evaluate, as it is
known in the industry chimneys, fireplaces, stoves, and vents according to safety codes. They
clean, or sweep, the chimneys and make repairs, which may involve masonry work and
relining. They also educate homeowners and building maintenance crews in how to properly
care for their stoves and fireplaces, as well as train apprentice chimney sweeps. In the United
States and Canada, there are between 6,000 and 6,500 chimney sweeps.
History
The traditional image of the soot-faced chimney sweep in top hat and tails, carrying a long
brush, is still very much a part of the chimney sweep industry. Many chimney sweep
businesses and organizations use the image in advertising and logos, including the National
Chimney Sweep Guild (NCSG). The sweep of popular imagination originated in the city of pre-
industrial London, with its tight rows of brick houses. Before the introduction of central heating,
chimney sweeps thrived. The sweep took on an almost mythical quality, leaping from roof to
roof, chimney pot to chimney pot. Unfortunately, the industry didn’t have the safety codes,
equipment, and technology of today, which resulted in health hazards. Cancer and other
illnesses particularly affected the small boys and girls who, long before child labor laws, were
cruelly sent into the chimneys to do the work a brush couldn’t. Today’s chimney sweep,
however, working under the strict codes of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), is
more closely associated with health their evaluations and repairs save lives and homes from
destruction by fire.
Though chimney sw