Vent: That one chimney with the offset baffle that ate up my whole Tuesday

So I get a call about a chimney that hasn't been cleaned in like 5 years (which is way too long, but whatever). I show up, normal house in Boulder, looks straightforward. But then I get to the top and find this weird offset baffle that someone installed wrong. It was like a shelf halfway down the flue, catching all the creosote. Took me 3 hours just to get the rods up past it, plus another hour of scraping and vacuuming. My normal clean takes maybe 90 minutes tops. Has anyone else run into a baffle or damper that was just installed in the dumbest possible spot? I'm curious if this is a common issue around here or if I just got lucky.

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelrodriguez16d ago

My buddy Jake had a similar thing happen up in Loveland. Some homeowner installed one of those locking dampers upside down so the plate sat right across the flue opening. He spent two hours on his back with a shop vac hose taped to a stick trying to get past it. Said he almost just told the guy to call someone else.

barnes.morgan15d ago

Those locking dampers are actually meant to go above the flue opening, not across it. I've seen a few of them installed backwards in older houses around Boulder where people tried to DIY it. The problem is the instructions that come with them are usually just a diagram and people guess at the rest. If the plate is sitting across the flue like that, you lose like 6 inches of working space above it. I had one last month where the homeowner installed it with the handle pointing down instead of up so the plate was blocking everything. Had to take the whole thing apart and flip it just to get a brush through.