c/chimney-sweeps

My brush rod was 6 feet too short for 8 years of jobs

I always thought chimney tops were just unreachable from the roof, so I'd stretch and poke with a short rod, leaving a huge gap of black crust at the top. Last Tuesday a homeowner in Tulsa watched me struggle and said "hey, my nephew did this last month with two extra sections, you know those twist together right?" I never even looked at the rod ends, has anyone else missed something that simple in their gear for way too long?

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finley_harris5•1d ago

TIL soot from a single fireplace can weigh 2 pounds a season, who knew

I was cleaning out a customer's chimney last Tuesday in Columbus and the drop cloth felt like a sandbag, so I weighed the pile on my bathroom scale and got 2.1 pounds, has anyone else actually measured what they pull out?

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aaronlee•6d ago

Spent 11 hours on a flue offset I thought I'd fix in 45 minutes

Had a job out in Waltham last Tuesday, a straight run down to the firebox that looked easy on camera. Thought I could pop a new liner section in and be done before lunch, but the offset was off by nearly 2 inches at the top plate and nobody had flagged it on the inspection sheet. I kept adjusting the same joint, then realized the old clay tiles had shifted below the crown and were pinching the whole thing sideways. Took me three trips back to the truck for different flex couplings and a angle grinder I ended up not needing until the very end. Eleven hours total, including the drive home in the dark, and I still had to come back next morning to re-check the draft. Has anyone else had a flue that looked straight on the camera but ended up being a total nightmare below the roofline? What's your longest single-flue fix that should've been quick?

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the_miles•8d ago

Bristle brush vs rotary whip for heavy creosote, my choice

I had a flue with a solid 1/4 inch of glaze after a rental property sat unused for 8 months, so I skipped my standard bristle setup and dropped $60 on a rotary whip attachment. It chewed through the buildup in 40 minutes versus the usual 2 hours, but I did dent my vacuum hose when the cable kinked, so now I'm curious if anyone else runs the whip with a shorter lead for tight bends.

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hall.charles•11d ago

Rant: Why is everyone skipping the flue damper inspection?

I pulled a 6-year-old liner out of a house in Dayton last week that was warped from heat because the damper was stuck half shut for years, and the homeowner never checked it. That repair is gonna cost them $1,800, when a 2-minute look during a sweep would've caught it. Has anyone else seen this become a common miss on routine calls?

c/chimney-sweeps

My brush rod was 6 feet too short for 8 years of jobs

TIL soot from a single fireplace can weigh 2 pounds a season, who knew

Spent 11 hours on a flue offset I thought I'd fix in 45 minutes

Bristle brush vs rotary whip for heavy creosote, my choice

Rant: Why is everyone skipping the flue damper inspection?

Rant: Ceramic brush rods, I thought they were a gimmick, now I'm not so sure

That 200 year old creosote buildup stat still bugs me

Sheared a brush head inside a flue in Cleveland, thought I was done for

My brush angle was wrong for 6 years until a customer's dog barked at me

The landlord's 3-story flue disaster taught me to always check the liner first

Tried a creosote sweeping log for the first time last weekend, here's what my flue looked like after

The sock trick that fixed my cold chimney draft problem

Swapped my steel brush for a poly one on a steep tile roof, big mistake

That 4-in-1 brush head I ignored actually saves my back now

That guy's 'special' vacuum attachment was a total load

Tuesday was a nightmare. Three clogged flues in a row.

Just fixed a draft issue that took me 6 hours to find

Spent $160 on a fancy inspection camera, could've just used a mirror and a flashlight

Rotary brush on a steep roof changed my whole flue cleaning process

Spent $250 on a camera inspection unit, found a squirrel nest 14 feet down

Magnetic sweeping tools sounded like gimmick until my flue pipe fight in Albany

The six inch rule I keep seeing ignored on new installs

Talking to a retired sweep made me reconsider how I price my work

Soot build up on a 150 year old downtown job

That $450 rotary brush kit nearly wrecked my Sunday job in Omaha