Lady in Oak Park called me out last Tuesday. Said she could see daylight through the damper. I figured she was just being picky but I checked with a flashlight. Sure enough there was a 1/4 inch gap between the smoke shelf and the flue liner. My old boss always told me to just eyeball it. Now I use a template I cut from cardboard. Anyone else had a customer catch something the old timers never taught you?
Was up on a roof in Eugene last Tuesday. Had this nice new rod I saved up for. Got through the first two flues fine. Third one the cable got hung up on something inside. Gave it a little tug and snap. There went $150. Had to drive back to the shop and grab my old steel rod. Customer watched the whole thing from their window. Anyone else had a new tool fail on them like that? What did you do?
He was using a poly head on a fiberglass rod with this weird zigzag pattern. Said he hasn't bought a new brush in 8 years because he just replaces the poly strips when they wear down. Made me wonder if I'm overcomplicating my gear for residential work. Anybody else running a similar rig for standard 6 to 8 inch flues?
I been sweeping for about 8 months now and finally had to choose between getting a rotary brush kit or sticking with the old hand rod method my mentor taught me. My buddy swears by the rotary setup because it cuts his time in half on heavy creosote jobs. I ended up going with the SootEater system for around $80 and tried it on a nasty Class 3 buildup last Tuesday. It chewed through the gunk way faster than my hand rods but I noticed it left some streaks near the top I had to go back over. Has anyone else had issues with rotary brushes leaving uneven spots, or did I just get a bad angle on the first pass?
I was working on a job in Springfield cleaning a big masonry flue and my go-to 10 inch round wire brush just broke right at the handle connection. The head fell straight down into the firebox and I had to fish it out with a shop vac hose. Has anyone else had a brush fail like that mid-job? What brand do you trust for heavy use?
Was cleaning a flue last Tuesday on a house off Elm Street in Portland. An old sweeper, must have been 70, stopped to watch me work. He said my brush was fighting the chimney, not cleaning it. Told me I was holding it at too steep an angle and going too fast. I almost brushed him off, but he showed me his way with a 15 degree tilt and slow steady pulls. The difference was nuts. I pulled out twice the soot in half the time on the next flue. Has anyone else had a stranger totally change how you do a basic thing?
I was doing a cleanout last Wednesday and the homeowner kept watching me work. He asked why I wasn't using one of those rotary vacuums with the camera. Told him I just prefer the feel of a hand brush for checking flue condition. He said I must be losing money by taking twice as long. Got me thinking whether I should finally upgrade or if the old way still has its place. Any other sweeps here stick with hand tools for certain jobs?
Bought one of those expensive wireless inspection cameras online last month. Thought it would save me time on diagnosing flue issues but the picture keeps cutting out halfway up the stack. Ended up having to use my old mirror and flashlight setup anyway. Has anyone else had bad luck with those bluetooth models?
Had a tough job in a 1920s house in Cleveland where the creosote was baked on like concrete. Tried scrubbing with the regular rods for 20 minutes with no luck, so I grabbed a burlap sack stuffed with chain links and ran it up and down the flue. That old timer method knocked it loose in 5 minutes flat. Anyone else still keep a burlap bag in their truck for stubborn jobs?
I bought a $80 carbon fiber brush kit last spring, thinking it'd last forever and clean better. After three months, the bristles started shedding and it scratches the flue lining worse than my old nylon set. Anyone else get burned by fancy marketing for basic tools?
I went back to do a whole row of houses I hadn't touched since 2019, and the creosote buildup was way lighter and flakier than before. Folks swapped out their old wood stoves for those high-efficiency EPA models after the county pushed rebates. Has anyone else noticed a big shift in soot quality when neighborhoods upgrade their burning setups?
Last week I was cleaning a flue for a historic house built in 1890 and ran into a retired sweep named Roy. He watched me struggle with my poly brush on a tight offset and just shook his head. He told me I was using way too much bristle for that narrow terra cotta liner and handed me a steel wire brush from his truck. I figured he was old school and wrong but after I switched brushes, I cleared that soot in half the time. Now I'm thinking about carrying a couple different brush types and not just relying on my standard one. Has anyone else switched brushes mid-job and gotten way better results?
I pulled up to a job last Wednesday where someone had already swept a chimney with a cracked clay liner and didn't say a word about it, just left the homeowner with a fire hazard. How do you miss that when the brush is literally rattling past broken pieces?
I was sweeping a flue in this 1890s Victorian over in Portland last spring. The homeowner kept complaining about smoke backing up, and I figured it was just a standard blockage. Turns out the previous sweep had shoved a bunch of creosote chunks down into the smoke shelf and left them there. I had to spend an extra 3 hours scraping and vacuuming that mess out. Anyone else run into lazy work like that from the last guy?
A guy named Frank from a crew up in Salem spent 20 minutes convincing me that chimney caps trap moisture and cause more issues than they solve. I listened to him last fall and left an old 8-inch flue uncovered. By March, I had a raccoon family nesting 3 feet down the liner and water damage soaking the damper assembly. The cleanout took 6 hours and cost the homeowner $400 extra for masonry repairs. Has anyone else had a 'trust me, I've been doing this 30 years' piece of advice backfire like that?
For ten years I swore by the stiff wire brushes thinking nothing else cut through heavy creosote. Last month I gave a poly brush a shot on a job in Denver and it actually got the stubborn stuff off without scratching the liner. Has anyone else found poly brushes work better on certain masonry?
I was doing a cleanout last Tuesday at a cabin up near Lake Placid where they only burn pine. Normally I see the gray powdery ash from hardwood, but this stuff was a thick black crust stuck to the flue walls. Took me twice as long to scrape it all off. Anybody else notice a big difference depending on what folks are burning?
I did a job last week where I had to clean out a wood stove flue that had about 3 months of heavy creosote buildup. First time I tried it with my old manual rods and it took me over an hour and I still had chunks falling down. Switched to my rotary brush setup for the second pass and it was night and day. The spinning action broke up that crusty stuff way faster and I was done in like 20 minutes flat. Plus I didn't have to scrape as much at the end because the brush knocked most of it loose. I know some old timers swear by the manual method but honestly I can't see going back now. Anyone else made the switch and noticed a big difference?
I started out 12 years ago using those big round wire brushes on a rod, took forever and my arms felt like spaghetti at the end of the day. Now I use a rotary drill attachment with flexible rods and I can finish a standard residential flue in under 20 minutes. Has anyone else noticed newer liners being way smoother and easier to clean compared to the old clay tile setups?
I was up in Scranton last Tuesday on a tricky flue job and decided to hammer in a new chimney cap. Long story short, I didn't double check the damper was fully open before I started and ended up jamming the whole thing halfway shut. Took me 45 minutes with a pry bar and a shop vac to fish out debris and get it moving again. My client just stood there watching me sweat, which was awkward. Has anyone else had a cap installation go sideways because of a stupid oversight like that?
I used to spend 20 minutes on a single flue with a stiff wire brush, fighting soot and scratching up the liner. Last month a guy I met at a job in Akron convinced me to try a poly brush and my arm isn't tired after three sweeps. Has anyone else had way less buildup with the plastic bristles over the metal ones?
I kept having trouble with heavy creosote in a narrow 6-inch flue where my regular brush couldn't reach the corners. Last month I tried wrapping a few chains around my brush head to knock off the stubborn stuff, and it worked way better than I expected. Has anyone else tried this trick, or do you have a better way to clean those hard to reach spots?
I was sweeping a flue on a old house in Portland last Tuesday. Got the job done fine, but when I was packing up, a loose brick from the top of the chimney just let go and smashed into the ground maybe 2 feet from my bumper. No warning, just dust and a big thud. Scared the crap out of me, but at least it missed the truck. Has anyone else had close calls like that from old masonry?
Bought one last month after a guy on here swore by it, but on my third job the cable got kinked in a 6-inch flue and now it's junk. Has anyone else had better luck with the cheap endoscope cameras from Amazon instead?
I was at a job last month cleaning a 30 foot chimney that had a really tight 15 degree offset. My standard rods kept binding up and I spent an extra 45 minutes fighting the damn thing. The homeowner was a retired mason and he just handed me his rotary brush attachment and said try this. It went through the offset in two passes without any binding. I ordered my own set the next day. Has anyone else made the switch later in their career and regretted waiting so long?