I was talking with a mason in Philly last month and he said I was wrecking my customers' clay liners by always using the stiff stainless brush. He showed me how the older flues just get gouged up and trap more creosote over time. Has anyone else switched back to poly brushes on pre-1980s chimneys?
Picked up a SpinSweep 3000 off Amazon last month for my residential jobs. Thing just bounces off heavy creosote and eats up battery in 20 minutes. Anyone else find those spinning brushes are more hassle than they're worth?
Picked up this old rotary brush setup for $20 at a garage sale in Akron last month. Thought it was gonna be junk but the guy swore by it. Hooked it up to my drill and it knocked out a years worth of creosote in half the time my regular rods take. Still use rods for the fine stuff but man I was wrong about those spinning brushes. Anyone else run into a tool you thought was a gimmick but actually works?
I had a customer in Denver last month who watched me do her chimney and said I was pushing soot into her living room with my brush. She showed me how she wanted me to tape a plastic sheet over the fireplace opening first. I thought it was a waste of time but tried it on the next job. Now I save 20 minutes of cleanup per house and my customers stop complaining about dust. Any other sweeps here get called out by a homeowner and actually learned something?
I had this client named Mrs. Gable in Highland Park who insisted I come every month even though she only used her fireplace twice a winter. She would hand me a $50 bill and say "just in case the birds come back" every single time. Anyone else have a customer who paid you to show up for no real reason for years?
I was working a job on NE 42nd, had the rods going, and a starling came shooting down out of the top. It bounced off my face and landed right in the ash pan, (still alive, just stunned). I had to carefully scoop it out with my gloves and let it go in the backyard. Has anyone else had wild critters interrupt a service call like that?
I was just going through my logbook for last month (December is always crazy busy) and saw I did 501 cleanings. That number hit me different because I've been using the same poly brush for like 4 years now. Last week I finally swapped to a steel core brush with a smaller handle and my arms aren't killing me as bad at the end of the day. Anyone else ever stop to count how many jobs they do in a season and realize they need to upgrade their gear?
I cleaned a house in Denver last week where the homeowner had been burning wood from a fallen tree in their yard. They only seasoned it for about 2 months. The creosote inside their flue was like tar, thick and sticky, and I had to spend an extra 45 minutes scraping it out. Fast forward to yesterday, same house, they bought kiln-dried wood from a supplier and the difference was night and day. Has anyone else noticed how much worse home-cut wood is for buildup compared to store-bought?
I was up in Pittsburgh last month helping a buddy with a big commercial job, and this veteran sweep who'd been doing it since the 70s watched me grab my standard poly brush. He just shook his head and told me I was basically tickling the flue with that thing for heavy creosote. He pulled out this beat up steel wire brush with worn bristles and showed me how it actually cuts through the glaze instead of just pushing it around. I tried his method on a section that had a quarter inch of buildup and the difference was night and day. Now I keep a steel brush for the first pass on problem chimneys and switch to poly for the final polish. Has anyone else had an old timer change their tool game like that?
I was working on a job over in Oakwood, third flue of the day, and the old rotary brush I've had for like 12 years just sheared right off at the handle. The head went flying up the flue and got stuck halfway. Had to spend an extra hour with a shop vac and a flexible rod to fish it out. Cost me a $60 replacement and lost a half day of work. Has anyone else had an older tool just give out on them like that?
I keep seeing guys at job sites scrubbing stainless liners with regular steel wire brushes. Did 3 cleanings last month where I had to tell homeowners their $600 liner was rusting because of that. It causes pitting and corrosion that you won't see for a year. Has anyone else run into this or am I the only one carrying nylon brushes?
I had a customer last winter who kept having buildup issues with their insert. They burned those pressed logs from the grocery store every night. I was skeptical when they swore by some off brand polymer log they got at a farm supply. But I went back after 3 months to do a clean and the creosote was way lighter than usual. Has anyone else seen real results with those things or was this a fluke?
Last Tuesday I showed up to a house in old town Springfield and the homeowner told me the chimney hadn't been swept since her grandma moved in back in 2004. I got up on the roof and saw the creosote was about two inches thick in spots, like a black crusty mess. It took me over three hours with my rotary brush and a few different rods to finally break through it all. The stuff coming out was like thick, greasy tar that smelled worse than a burnt campfire. I ended up hauling out five full buckets of debris before I was done. The homeowner was shocked and said she never realized how bad it could get. Have any of you had a job where the buildup was way worse than you expected?
I spent 12 months fighting soot clouds and having to reclean half my jobs before I finally tried sweeping from the roof down like he said. Has anyone else had a stubborn mentor give advice that just felt backwards until you actually tested it?
I've been sweeping chimneys for about 8 years now and always grabbed the 8 inch brush for standard flues. Last month I had a job where the brush kept getting stuck halfway down, so the homeowner comes out and asks if I'm using the right size for their 6 inch liner. I measured it and sure enough, I'd been oversizing my brushes for years on smaller flues, probably costing myself time and elbow grease on every single job. Been using a 6 inch now for those narrow ones and it slides right through, way less fighting. Has anyone else had a similar moment where they just assumed their tool was right for years?
I was up on this 1880s rowhouse church in Fishtown doing a reline. The pastor was watching me and mentioned their old sweep used to hook the flashing right into the weep holes instead of cutting channels. I always sealed those off before. Now I leave them open and tuck the flashing behind the brick. Has anyone else seen this done with older buildings?
I keep seeing homeowners posting on local Facebook groups saying they just burn a creosote log and think that's good enough for the season. I had a guy in Portland last month tell me he's been doing that for 3 years and his flue looked fine when I finally got up there with a rotary brush. It wasn't fine, there was a solid 1/4 inch buildup in the smoke chamber that could have easily lit off. Why do people trust a chemical fix over actually having someone clean the chimney?
Last spring I was cleaning out a flue for a lady over on Maple Street, and she came out to watch me work. She said something like, "You're awfully quick with that brush, but I hear scraping more than sweeping." At first I was annoyed, but later I realized she had a point. I was so focused on getting the job done fast that I was jamming the brush in and out without letting the bristles fully expand. That was leaving lines of soot on the walls of the clay liner. Now I take an extra 10 seconds per stroke and let the brush drag slow and steady. The difference in how much debris comes down is night and day. Has anyone else had a customer's offhand comment change how you sweep?
I was reading the NFPA report from last year and it says 3 out of 4 chimney fires happen in solid fuel appliances like wood stoves. That shocked me because I always assumed most fires came from clogged flues with animal nests. Has anyone else seen these numbers and changed how they inspect?
I used to always scrub clay flue liners with a standard wire brush. Old guy named Charlie told me I was scratching the glaze off. Switched to poly brushes after that. Has anyone else had early work come back to bite them years later?
I was up in Baltimore last month doing a routine sweep on a rowhouse, and the neighbor came over to ask if I could check his chimney too. Turns out he had done his own lining job with some flex pipe he bought at a hardware store. He used regular duct tape instead of high-temp sealant, and the liner was sagging so bad it was blocking the flue by almost 40 percent. I tried to explain that this setup could cause a chimney fire or carbon monoxide leak, but he said it had worked fine for two winters. I get that people want to save money, but this is the kind of thing that gives the trade a bad name. Has anyone else run into botched homeowner repairs that were just dangerous to look at?
I was reading through some NFPA chimney reports last night and saw that nearly 75% of chimney fires are caused by creosote fires. That number seemed way higher than I expected, even after 12 years in this trade. Has anyone else looked into those stats and found them surprising compared to what you see on the job?
I was working on a job in the Hawthorne district and my poly head snapped clean off the rod about 30 feet up inside a tight clay liner. Had to fish it out with a magnet on a rope, took me an extra 2 hours and the homeowner watched the whole thing from her kitchen window. Has anyone else dealt with a failed brush head mid-job?
Old timer at the bar told me they were just sawdust and paraffin but I had a customer last winter who swore by them. Grabbed one on a whim after I couldn't get a brush up my rental's crooked chimney. Burned it, ran a camera up there a week later and that fluffy crap was actually gone. Still don't trust em for heavy buildup but for light maintenance? Okay fine they work. Anyone else had one actually do something or was I just lucky?
I always thought the brush was part of the final sweep but now I'm wondering if I've been wasting time on something that doesn't matter, any of you skip it and still get clean results?