No dancing on roof for this chimney sweep

Armed with the tools of his trade, the chimney sweep arrives at the house. No, it's not 17 Cherry Tree Lane in London - it's Highland Avenue in Wilmette.

And there aren't two-dozen soot-covered men dancing on the roof, just Mike Ruehrdanz. The Palatine man is married, the father of three boys. He's a Little League Baseball coach and active in his church. He's 44 years old. And technically speaking, he's a "Certified Chimney Technician," not just a chimney sweep, thank you.

In the 23 years he's been working for Lake Bluff-based Lindemann Chimney Service, Ruehrdanz has cleaned more than 12,000 chimneys. An avid reader of the trade journal "Sweeping," he's an active member of the National Chimney Sweep Guild, too.

With overnight temperatures dipping into the 20s, people are starting to light their logs.

"This is our busiest time of the year," Ruehrdanz says.

The owner of the house on Highland Avenue paid $269 for a standard cleaning. But for that price, he got a "level one" safety inspection that included a video scan.

Like an endoscopic surgeon looking for tumors, Ruehrdanz inserts a flexible tube tipped with a tiny video camera into the creosote-covered darkness. Watching the monitor, he turns and pushes the probe skyward looking for safety hazards. Missing mortar, a crack in the tiles, a gaping hole.

"You can get smoke leaking back into the bedroom," Ruehrdanz says. "Not good."

It's not all high-tech. Mike's cleaning brushes look no different from the ones Bert danced with on the British roofs. Gnarly steel wires sticking out like petrified noodles do just fine with scraping off old smoke from inside a flue.

It's a good living, Ruehrdanz says.

The pay is decent and "every day is different." A good sweep can earn at least $50,000 a year, maybe more.

"That's if he working for a good company," Ruehrdanz said.

And yes, of course, he's endured the Mary Poppins jokes.

"If I had a dime for every time someone starts singing 'Chim-chimney,'" he says with a smile.