Cheboygan County
Chimney Service at the Straits
Cheboygan County occupies the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula, running from Burt and Mullett lakes up to the Straits of Mackinac. Cheboygan is the county seat, and the area combines year-round small-town housing with a heavy concentration of lake and river property.
Winters at the Straits are long and the heating season runs accordingly. Wood and wood-pellet heat are common as primary or substantial supplementary sources, which puts far more hours on a flue here than the same appliance would see in southern Michigan.
High-Hour Flues in Cheboygan County
Sweeping intervals should follow burn hours, not the calendar. A stove running most days from October through April accumulates creosote at a rate that can justify a mid-season check as well as an annual one, particularly if the fuel is anything less than properly seasoned hardwood.
Inland-lake property around Burt and Mullett adds a humidity factor on top of that, so flue interiors here stay damp longer between fires than they would on a dry inland site. Damp plus creosote is the combination that produces the hard, glazed deposits that cannot be brushed off.