Having a fireplace in your home is a desirable feature that gives your living room a natural focal point while creating a sense of warmth.

Even if you don’t use it, just having a fireplace creates a cozy feeling. However, if you use your fireplace, you will have real warmth and natural light from the fire.

Like everything else in your home, required maintenance comes along with use. You need to clean your fireplace to remove the soot and creosote that builds up on the bricks lining your firebox and the chimney shaft.

These different methods will help you know how to clean a brick fireplace.

How Often Should You Clean Your Fireplace?

Before we get into all of the ways you can clean your brick fireplace, you need to know how often you should clean it. Soot buildup accumulates as you use your fireplace. This soot creates a smell that will not go away and can permeate the rest of the textiles in the room.

If you neglect cleaning for long enough, the soot will eventually cause permanent damage to the bricks and other fireplace materials.

Cleaning brick should be done once you have at least 1/8th of an inch of soot buildup. So, the more often you use it, the more often you will have to clean it.

The sooner you clean your fireplace after using it, the easier it will be to remove the soot. It is best to clean it at least once a year no matter how often you use it.

You may be able to wait a bit longer if your fireplace has sealed brick. A clean fireplace is a nice-looking one and a safe one.

Gather the Supplies

Before you get started cleaning fireplace brick, gather the supplies you will need to do the job. This will make the project go faster and easier because you won’t have to stop and run to the store every time you discover that you are missing a cleaning solution or tool.

While we will cover several different methods for cleaning soot, there are some common supplies that every method will require.