As the temperatures drop and Northwest Montana heads into autumn, area chimney and stove businesses are preparing for an uptick in business before winter arrives in earnest.

"The sweeping this time of year is getting pretty busy," said Doug Heil, owner of Heil Brothers Professional Chimney Service.

Heil also sells and installs stoves, runs gas lines and performs general maintenance. He's a Flathead Valley native who started cleaning chimneys in high school when he worked for a stove company.

About two decades ago, he started his own company.

Cleaning a chimney entails removing creosote (a build-up of carbon material from wood-burning fires), cleaning the pipe connecting the stove to the chimney, removing ashes, cleaning around the hearth, making sure the chimney cap is open, clearing debris from the smoke shelf and making sure a chimney is safe and parts aren't degraded.

The business, which few people enter any more, has afforded Heil some unique opportunities, including meeting many people and animal encounters that range from pulling families of birds from chimneys to ferreting out raccoons and squirrels.

"I hiked into the park and did the Sperry Chalet and the Granite Chalet," he said of the chimney and stove cleaning he did recently. "I hiked up there with my wife. That was pretty interesting."

"UP WHERE THE smoke is all billered and curled, 'tween pavement and stars is the chimney sweep world," Dick Van Dyke sang in "Mary Poppins."

"Oftentimes when I'm on the rooftop, I'll look at the view," said Dave Fern, owner of Chimney Solutions. "I never take it for granted. I take 30 seconds to look and think about it."

Fern got into the chimney and stove business by accident when he was looking for off-season work near Grand Teton National Park. He found a job at a bicycle shop that sold heating appliances, wood stoves and did chimney cleaning.

"It's pretty archaic, almost," Fern said. "It wasn't a planned vocation. I was more interested in bicycles than anything else. But I found it pretty enjoyable and it's worked out pretty well. It's sort of my fitness club. I'm a former runner, I bicycle a lot. I like going up and down ladders. Without doing reckless things, it's good to be involved in a reasonably physically involved job."

Fern can clean as many as 30 chimneys in a day in apartment complexes. Other times, he maintains eight chimneys in a day as driving to and from jobs in three counties takes time. Installing a stove is an all-day event.

"I install quite a few stoves," Fern said. "I install over the course of the year hundreds of feet of insulated chimney."

Fern is happy to report that there have been no reported house fires in chimneys he's serviced.

"It's gratifying how few problems there are with installations that are professionally done," he said.

Technological advancements in tools have helped the business.

Gone are the days of blackened Dick Van Dyke-like characters toting spindly brushes through the streets. Fern uses a German tool called a Viper, a long, flexible rod like a plumber's snake.

"It's a godsend, a really cool tool," Fern said. "It's really wonderful on really terrifying roofs, especially in the winter."

Fern can only recall falling off a roof once after slipping on shingles wet with snow. He was not injured.

Additionally, Fern uses cordless tools, small lasers to find center points on ceilings and roofs, and a battery-powered stove dolly that can climb or descend stairs.

Some jobs, however, are still done the old way. Fern will close up the stove below, go up the ladder, find the right size brush and apply downward pressure to push the creosote out of the chimney. He removes and cleans the stove pipe and vacuums the whole system out.

And Fern didn't forget to mention the hundreds of conversations with customers, the dogs and cats, and the hospitality.

"I've had a lot of good cups of coffee with people," he said.

YET THE EFFECTS of a slumping housing market have dimmed the business some.

"The market is soft for us and for everyone," said Gary Richardson of Open Hearth Chimney Services.

"In our business, we're reliant on new construction. Our spring and summer business is more oriented to fireplaces in new homes. There's not many new homes being built, so numbers are down dramatically. There's such a high inventory of homes on the market, it could take a long time to reduce [that number] so people start building again. Our fall business is strong, but not as much as last year."

Technology is another reason the chimney sweep is becoming a profession of the past.

"Because new stoves burn so clean, so they don't need to be cleaned that often," he said. "It has reduced the need in this market."

Richardson has also noted a trend away from gas stoves toward wood-burning ones.

"People buy wood stoves when they move toward survival mode," Richardson said. People feel uncertain about jobs, incomes, and the price of commercial fuels. They can always go out and cut their own wood. They can be self-reliant and they don't have to worry about high gas prices."

Open Hearth currently does not employ a person to clean chimneys. The store sells wood burning, gas and pellet stoves, as well as inserts and fireplaces. Richardson still recommends regular care for stoves and chimneys.

"Everybody should have their chimney looked at yearly, to make sure everything is still in good condition."

Reporter K.J. Hascall may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at kjhascall@dailyinterlake.com