Spent 5 hours last Saturday on a nest I swore was only 3 feet down, the whole thing was 11 feet

Linda Stone · 2026-09-24T15:05:05.599606+00:00

So last Saturday I get a call about a bad draw on a fireplace over in Millbrook, older house, block chimney on the outside wall. I get up top and drop my rods and I can feel something soft around 3 feet, so I figure it's a light nest and I'll be down and out in under an hour. Five hours later I'm still on that roof, cussing, because every time I spun the brush it would break through a little and then pack back down tighter. Turns out it was three stacked nests plus a wad of leaves the squirrels had jammed in behind them, so the whole plug was about 11 feet of solid junk. My rods kept flexing and one of my brush heads finally unscrewed itself and is still somewhere in that flue as far as I know. I ran out of daylight and had to come back Sunday morning with a heavier chain and a shop vac rigged to catch the fallout, and the second trip only took 40 minutes because I knew what I was dealing with. Learn from me and probe with a weighted line before you commit to a time estimate on the phone, the quick ones are never quick. How do you all quote a job when you can't see what's actually in there?

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Spent 5 hours last Saturday on a nest I swore was only 3 feet down, the whole thing was 11 feet | Chimney Sweeps - The Community Guide