A Clean Sweep As The Weather Turns Cold, Spokane Businessman’S Operation Heats Up

Richard Allen has made a living on Spokane rooftops.

He works as a self-employed chimney sweep from his Spokane Valley home, a 19-year pursuit of filth that he awakes every morning to with vigor.

Spokane, Allen said, is a good business town for chimney sweeps.

“Every time we go somewhere, it’s like `Golly, I remember that house. The job was pretty rough,”’ he said.

Plenty of Spokane homes are still heated by wood-burning. Others, which have natural gas or other, cleaner-burning fuel sources, still have wood stoves as a secondary heating source.

Allen, 39, first worked as a plumber. But he wanted a steadier income and liked the idea of working for himself, especially if it had something to do with fire instead of water.

So he started The Soot Slayer.

“I love fires,” he said recently after finishing work on a chimney-cleaning job.

Sweeping chimneys isn’t a ticket to riches, Allen said, but running a private business has allowed him to own a home and have a family. His office doubles as a daughter’s playroom.

Allen said he often works six, sometimes seven days a week, traveling throughout the county to a loyal customer base he has established over the years.

Repeat customers help him save some money on advertising. Besides licensing fees, bonding and insurance, adding customers to his client list is the costliest chore.

That’s where Allen said having a family business can help. Working with his wife, Opal, the two don’t miss many calls. She handles incoming calls while homeschooling their two daughters. Meanwhile, Allen totes his ladder from house to house, sweeping chimneys and collecting the soot with an industrial vacuum cleaner.

Cost for a standard job: about $55.

During summer months, his daughter, Jamie, helps out, and he hires neighborhood teens.

Today’s chimney sweep, Allen said, isn’t like the one depicted by Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. But it is decidedly low-tech.

While there are a few gadgets chimney sweeps employ, ultimately the job is about dislodging and vacuuming soot from the chimneys without dusting the inside of the home.

The technical part of the job is the attention to safety and training. Often, chimney sweeps double as carbon monoxide checkers and fire safety workers. They can be a homeowner’s best defense against fires, according to the Chimney Safety Institute of America.

For their own safety, chimney sweeps keep respirators. Among the most dangerous parts of the job, though, is being on the roof looking down the chimney - not being on the main floor looking up it.

Allen found driving from worksite to worksite also can be dangerous.

Last year, a van rammed into the back of his small pickup truck, causing him to hurt his shoulder and neck.

It has made his job as a chimney sweep a painful experience. The pulling and stretching of the job is harmful, and Allen’s doctor urged him to contemplate selling the business.

While the reminders are painful, Allen maintains a full schedule of visiting area rooftops.