Chimney sweep
Also called sweeper, lump sweeper, flue sweeper
Chimney sweeps undertake cleaning activities of chimneys for all types of buildings. They remove ash and soot and perform maintenance on a regular basis, following health and safety regulations. Chimney sweeps may perform safety inspections and minor repairs.
What you'd do
Building structure cleaners · ILO- Cleaning exterior surfaces of stone, brick, metal or similar materials by means of chemicals, or a jet of steam or sand applied under high pressure
- Removing soot from flues, chimneys and connecting pipes
- Removing asbestos, mould and fire-damaged surfaces from buildings
- Indoors and outdoors
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Lots of contact with people, including the public
- Good freedom to decide
- Usually 40 hours a week
- Deadlines most weeks
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Limited prospectsFewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,000 a month (Bulgaria) to €5,500 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among craft and related trades workers in the EU, women earn 26% less per hour than men. Craft and related trades workers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training in building and civil engineering is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.09 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 3 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for building structure cleaners. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).