Old timer on St. Mary's Street taught me something I still use

I was doing a clean on a 1920s house in Baltimore and this guy came out, maybe 80 years old, said he swept chimneys since he was 12. He showed me how to spot a bad flue by the smell of the soot, not by looking. Anyone else pick up a weird trick from a customer or old pro like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

seana145h ago

That old timer said you can spot a bad flue by the smell of the soot. Thing is, that's not really a shortcut you can use on its own. Soot smell changes depending on what wood they burn, how dry it is, and even how old the buildup is. I've smelled soot that was perfectly fine from a clean flue that just had a funky odor because they burned pine. You gotta look at the flue itself for cracks or creosote buildup. The smell can give you a clue, but it's more like a warning bell than a sure thing. Relying on just the smell is how you miss a real problem.

richardrodriguez3h ago

My uncle once tried diagnosing a car engine by ear and drove it off a cliff.