Chimney sweeps work hard to keep it all clean
Long gone are the days when chimney sweeps danced across London roofs with soot-stained faces and black clothes.
Zach Purvis, of Black Knight Energy in Evans City, said with the tools now available, a filthy sweep "is a common misconception,"but that wasn't always the case.
The name Black Knight came from those late night jobs when his father, Robert Purvis, would come home covered in black soot.
Purvis said that the dirtiest job they do is a pour-in-place lining in a fireplace. A worker must take out pieces of the sooty fireplace and stand inside it to pour a concrete mixture into a mold. "You only see (the sweep) from the knees down," he said.
The worst kinds of soot, Purvis said, are coal soot and oil soot. "It sticks to everything," he said. "The creosote from wood isn't as bad as others."
Sweeps take every measure to keep homes clean when cleaning and repairing chimneys. They wear blue booties over their shoes, use drop cloths and keep heavy duty vacuums going from the top and bottom to suck up falling and floating soot.
When sweeping, Purvis wears a respirator mask, but the soot "gets on your ears," he said.
Black Knight workers also keep drop cloths in their trucks to keep them as clean as possible.<br></br><br></br><br></br><br></br>
