Football practice is underway, school buses and classrooms have been shined up, children have donned backpacks, and the gleeful cry of parents can be heard all across our nation.

Please drive responsibly, being extra alert around bus stops and schools. Obey those school speed zones and keep a safe distance when traveling behind school buses.

Lindemann Chimney wishes students of all ages a fun-filled learning experience this school year. Drink in the wealth of knowledge offered by our great educators. Hit the books hard, then take time to play just as hard. But most of all, be safe!

Monday, September 6 is Labor Day. Labor Day was first celebrated in 1882, becoming a federal holiday in 1894. It was established to give workers a day of rest and commemorate their contributions to our national economy. It is often celebrated with parades, picnics, barbecues, fireworks, etc. Check with your local Visitors Bureau or Chamber of Commerce to find what events are scheduled in your area. Enjoy gatherings with family and friends and above all, be safe!

Links:

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/labor-day

http://dc.about.com/od/specialevents/a/Laborday.htm

I was listening to a radio show the other day and the caller said. “The smell of fall is in the air.” The host saw an opportunity to engage the conversation. “Ah, the smell of fall – freshly falling leaves, that cool briskness in the air?” “Oh, no,” said the caller, “here in our Kansas town you can tell when fall is in the air because the manure from the cattle farms has built up enough to smell all the way into town!” Well, it wasn’t the segway the host had hoped for, but he managed to recover control of the show in a moment or two.

For those of us in the chimney business, the smell of fall is that of crisp wood smoke, the faint whisp of oil smoke in the air, and the unique smell of pellet stove fumes. But the true smell of fall for our industry is the smell of money! Soon the cool nights will signal the phones to ring incessantly and we’ll begin that rodeo ride we call “the busy season.” For many in this economy, it will be a more than welcome sight. But are you prepared? Have you been through your inventory of tools and products to make sure you can capitalize on every opportunity? Are your brushes, rods, vacuum and tools in good repair? Do you have a stock of paint, glass cleaner, stove gasket and cement to sell? How about the most popular chimney cap and dampers you sell? Are your ladders, ridge hooks and scaffold inspected and ready?

The experts say certain sensory experiences are imprinted on the brain. Certain smells trigger a childhood memory or a special day in our past. This fall, how about making the chimney sweep visit memorable for your customers? Greet them with a smile and make the visit professional, complete and enjoyable. Give them something extra – a box of fire starters, a bottle of glass cleaner, a chimney sweep figurine, or something unique to you. And don’t forget to thank them for choosing your company.

Whatever the smell of fall is to you, breathe deeply and embrace it. After all, it only comes once a year.

Posted by Chuck Phillip, Business Coach, NE Division

Fall is just around the corner and now is the time to focus on chimney repair work for your customers. So dig through those bids and contact them. They will be glad they got it taken care of before winter sets in.

For repairs to chimney mortar joints, Rutland’s Masonry Patch makes it easy! Chip out the old soft or loose mortar. Then fill in the joint with Masonry Patch, taking care to cut the caulking cartridge at an angle. Gun the material in the joint, letting it set up.

If the chimney mortar joints are cracked but the mortar is still intact you can use CrackMagik to prevent the entry of moisture into the cracks. Just paint it on the cracked joint and let it set up. It leaves a milky-white water-proofing film.

Speaking of water-proofing, soft brick or soft mortar joints can benefit from ChimneySaver. It will protect your customer’s chimney investment and prolong the life of the chimney. If your customer’s chimney is leaking and you’ve tried every other avenue of repair, don’t be surprised if it’s leaking through the brick or mortar joints. ChimneySaver is a breathable shield that stops moisture entry into the chimney, yet is still vapor permeable, letting moisture inside the chimney escape.

We carry a variety of crown repair products. Some such as CrownSeal is applied with a paint brush. Other materials like CrownSaver are applied with a trowel.

Don’t forget the flashing! FlashSeal provides a membrane between the chimney flashing and the elements. It’s easy to apply and provides an attractive finish. Best of all, the customer can put off the cost of replacing the flashing until a later time.

Soon the cold winds of winter will be blowing. You will be running a million miles a minute from one job to another. Now is the time to take advantage of these beautiful early fall days to repair your customer’s chimney before the snow flies!

Posted by Karen Lamansky, Director of Marketing

How ready are you for the busy season when everyone wants the chimney cleaned at once? Are the truck/trucks serviced? Have you replaced your SootSweeper and RoVac motor brushes and filters? Do you have extra help lined up? Fall is right around the corner. Before you can say October you will be slammed with requests. Will you be ready?

Our warehouses are stocked and we are ready to help you with technical advice, problems and tried and true business building ideas that work.

Posted by Karen Lamansky, Director of Marketing

A chimney sweep walked into our Lindmann Chimney Supply warehouse in Chicago the other day asked about the 600 buckets standing in front of him.  "What is this stuff and why do you have so much?". It was a shipment of Chamber-Tech 2000.  Many masonry fireplaces are in need of help.  Time, heat, moisture and acid attack have taken their toll on the complete system, not to mention poor design during construction. Chimneys can be relined and fireboxes can easily be repaired, but until the development of Chamber-Tech 2000 the smoke chamber between the firebox and chimney has often been neglected.  Chamber-Tech 2000 is a lightweight insulating mortar designed to insulate, strengthen and streamline fireplace smoke chambers by reshaping. Chamber-Tech 2000 must be installed at a minimum of 1 ½” thickness onto 4” nominal thickness solid masonry units as defined in NFPA 211.

In NFPA211, 3.3.78 Solid Masonry Unit is defined as;

A masonry unit whose net cross-sectional area in every plane

parallel to the bearing surface is 75 percent or more of its

gross cross-sectional area measured in the same plane.

When installed in accordance with these instructions, Chamber-Tech 2000 addresses building codes by offering the necessary protection to combustibles having a minimum of zero clearance to the masonry.  For Chamber-Tech 2000 to be a UL Listed product at zero clearance to combustibles, it must be installed on all (4) four walls of the smoke chamber from its lowest points and the bottom edge of the lintel up to the bottom edge of the chimney liner.  A very fluent, streamline shape can easily be achieved.  If this seems like too much information then please don’t hesitate to call Lindemann Chimney Supply at 800-722-7230 so we can get you started today.  We have years of experience selling and using this product in our service businss - Lindemann Chimney Serice.

By Tim Freberg, Director of Operations, Chicago, IL.

SaverSystems is offering a $20 rebate on their new V.O.C. Compliant Solvent-Base Water Repellent. Just purchase four one-gallon containers from us now through August 30th 2010 and submit your rebate online by September 15, 2010. Your rebate must be submitted online only at chimneysaver.com/rebate. Please allow 6 weeks for rebate deliery. Limit one rebate per customer.

Here is a video from WYFF4.com of lightning striking a chimney. It was shared on the NCSG discussion list by Blume who received this from fellow Sweep Chris May. It's amazing seeing the kind of damage that was done to this chimney, fireplace and the whole house structure. To view the video, click here. Having access to the NCSG discussion list is a huge benefit of being a National Chimney Sweep Guild Member where you can gain valuable busness information from fellow sweeps. For more informtion click here.

One of the new products we will be carrying is the Super Scrub Power Sweeping Whip. It's a totally new construction whip for rotary power sweeping of all chimneys. Using the large ButtonLok™ connector with 11 strands of .155” diameter shark tooth whip line.

The Super Scrub Whip is unsurpassed for cleaning chimneys gently yet effectively. Passes through dampers easily then expands out to scrub the flue removing soot and flaky creosote. Easily adjusted to give just the right amount of scrubbing. Guide ball on front helps negotiate offsets.

Here's a link that Tom Martin of A.W. Perkins shared with us regarding a sweeping job in Europe. To view it, click here.