Rant: Old timer told me my brush technique was all wrong last winter

I was cleaning this massive chimney in a Victorian house up in Portland, Maine back in February, and this old sweeper who's been doing it since the 70s just watched me work for a minute. He told me I was scrubbing too hard on the flue tiles and that I was wearing them down faster than they naturally degrade. Honestly, I always thought you had to really crank on the brush to get the creosote off, but he showed me how a lighter touch with the right poly brush actually cleans better because you're not scraping the glaze off the tile. I switched to his method on the next job, and ngl, I got way less dust flying back in my face and the liner looked a lot cleaner when I was done. It felt weird at first because I'm used to that aggressive scrubbing feeling, but the results spoke for themselves. Has anyone else had an old timer call them out on something basic like that and totally change your routine?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_robin16d ago

Gotta disagree with you a little here. I've seen way too many chimneys that get a thin film of creosote baked on because people baby the brush, and that stuff turns into a real fire hazard over time. Sometimes you need that aggressive scrubbing to knock off the hard buildup, especially in older chimneys that haven't been cleaned regularly.

mason20916d ago

Honestly, that baked on creosote is no joke. @the_robin brings up a good point about how it can sneak up on you if you're not careful. Reminds me of this one time my buddy tried cleaning his chimney with a leaf blower and a shop vac, thought he was being clever. Ended up with a mess that took twice as long to fix, so sometimes the rough stuff is the only way to go. Just gotta know when to switch to the gentle method after you break through the hard layer.