For more than a decade chimney sweep Stafford Turnidge has been helping thousands of Elgin and Moray homes roll out the welcome mat for Santa from cottages to castles.
The dad-of-two, who is better known as Staffy, was previously an offshore oil and gas engineer.
But having a young family led him to swap life in Brazil for brushing and hoovering soot.
Today he sweeps about 2,000 chimneys a year with his business A Clean Lum while travelling from his home in Elgin across the region.
Winter, and the run-up to Christmas in particular, is Staffy’s “silly season” with slots currently booked out until February.
However, the in-demand Elgin chimney sweep still finds time to make the festive season special for young families awaiting Santa’s arrival.
The Press and Journal stopped by to have a chat with Staffy about how he has built his Elgin chimney sweep business A Clean Lum from scratch, including;
- Why he started sweeping chimneys after leaving his offshore oil and gas career.
- How a messenger bike played an unlikely role in building his local profile.
- The strong bond he has built with customers throughout the 14 years he has been in business.
- And the magic of Christmas he helps bring to homes with young families.
From offshore energy in Brazil to cleaning chimneys in Elgin
Staffy is a joiner to trade but moved into the offshore energy sector, working 10 years in the North Sea before landing a job in Brazil.
However, with a young family he only lasted three weeks in South America before the call of home became too strong.
He initially considered jobs at the forefront of the renewables sector in solar panels, wind turbines and geothermic energy. But eventually, he settled on an industry centuries old and steeped in tradition.
He said: “It was a friend of mine who said ‘Why am I trying to reinvent the wheel? Pick something in the Yellow Pages and be better than everyone else.’
“I was having a bad experience with chimney sweeps at the time, they were breaking my roof tiles.
“So I went and bought my own set of brushes to sweep my own chimney. It was awkward and hard at first, but then I put a battery drill on the end and had it spinning. It was a phenomenal difference.
“So instead of drilling down the way like I did for 10 years off shore, I started drilling up the way with a chimney brush.
“When I told my friends from offshore I’d given up my subsea engineer’s job in Brazil they would ask what I’m doing now. When I told them I’m a chimney sweep they’d say ‘Chimney sweep? What you doing that for? You’re crazy.’
“The only person that stood by me the whole time was my partner Amanda. My worry was when I started the phone wouldn’t ring, and in 14 years it’s never stopped ringing.”
How messenger bike played unlikely role in building A Clean Lum business
Since beginning his career as a chimney sweep, Staff has built A Clean Lum primarily through word of mouth in Elgin and beyond.
Working on the assumption that good customer service will encourage good business, he worked hard to get those good reviews.
However, it was an unorthodox piece of guerilla marketing that ended up being his best advertisement to drum up business.
When Staffy got a weathered messenger bike from his uncle, he gave it a new life promoting his A Clean Lum chimney sweep services in Elgin and the surrounding communities.
With a sign and wicker basket it was made to look more striking and soon became noticed.
Staffy said: “I started moving it around, so I’d drop it off somewhere when I was on my way to a job.
“What I’d find that if I left it in, say Lossiemouth, for the day I’d then end up getting six calls from Lossie that night.
“If I moved it to Hopeman the next day then I’d get calls from Hopeman and it just built up like that.
“I think it worked just because it was old-fashioned, and it went with being a chimney sweep. Since I’ve done it, I’ve seen others do something similar.
“I never rode it. I did actually think at one point my kids could, but it’s actually quite hard. The wheel at the front is very small.
“I never had it vandalised or damaged, but depending on where I left it I would get beer bottles and crisp packets in it.”
Taking care of A Clean Lum’s chimney sweep customers
Staffy is very quick to praise the support of customers in Elgin and the surrounding area who have been getting their chimneys swept by A Clean Lum for 14 years.
Every week the 48-year-old will visit about 50 homes, clocking up about roughly 200 appointments a month.
Customer service and attention to detail ensures households rebook for annual sweeps of their chimney, but Staffy and Amanda work hard to ensure they keep their return custom.
Staffy, who also sells his own honey from the 30 beehives he keeps, said: “We’re old-fashioned, so we don’t do e-mails or phone calls. We write all our appointments in a diary so we don’t lose them in spreadsheets.
“It’s December now, so December next year we’ll look at who we’re going to now and we’ll send them a postcard as a reminder.
“I think I know most of the customers now though. I consider a lot of them friends.”
Staffy added: “Some chimney sweeps will come in your house, clean the chimney and go away again, it’s not really what I do.
“I do a safety check too. It’s maybe not what people want to hear sometimes, being told they’re keeping their firewood to close to the stove, or that they should have carbon monoxide detectors, but they can make a big difference.
“Carbon monoxide is a silent killer, and something like four house fires in the UK are started every year from wood being kept too close to the stove.
“You’ve got heat, fuel from the wood and oxygen, it’s everything you need to start a fire.”
How A Clean Lum makes Christmas special for Elgin youngsters
At this time of year attention inevitably turns to chimneys, especially for younger members of households.
When visiting homes at this time of year, Staffy is always keen to remind homes not to leave their stove door shut on Christmas Eve to avoid anyone who may decide to jump down getting stuck.
And he’s also been known to find some unexpected items when sweeping out chimneys that have been left behind from Christmases past.
He said: “One day there was this kid and he was telling me ‘Oh, we’re getting the chimney ready for Santa.’
“So when I was done I passed what I said I had found in the chimney, and they said ‘Oh, that’s a horseshoe.
“And I said ‘No, I think it’s come off a reindeer.’ And the parent’s face at the time was just ‘wow’.
“I love the kids doing that, and seeing the excitement they get. A year later I went back to the same house and the horseshoe is sitting in the hearth.
“I did that years and years ago and people, who were children then, will come up to me and tell me I gave them a reindeer shoe. It’s nice.”
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