c/chimney-sweeps

Tried using a shop vac to pull debris down instead of brushing up yesterday

Been sweeping flues for 8 years and always fought to get everything up from the bottom. Tried strapping the vac hose to the top of the flue pulling negative pressure from above and it caught 90% of the soot in one pass. Has anyone else tried reverse draft cleaning on a straight run?

Old timer told me to stop scrubbing so hard on stainless liners

I had a customer complain that their liner looked scratched up after I cleaned it. I thought I was being thorough but this guy with 30 years in showed me how I was basically sanding the finish off. He said 'you ain't polishing a car, you're just removing soot' and handed me a softer brush. Now I use a nylon bristle brush and almost no pressure, and the liners look way better. Anyone else get told they were overdoing something on the job?

Cleaned a 15-year-old creosote build-up today that looked like tar

Had a regular customer call me out to their old farmhouse, said they hadn't had a sweep since they moved in. Pulled the cap off and it was just solid black crust about an inch thick in places. Used a rotary brush with some extra passes and the difference was night and day - chimney went from nearly blocked to able to see sky in about 45 minutes. Anyone else run into a flue that bad where you wondered how it was still drafting at all?

Caught a guy using a shop vac on a creosote log job

Saw a newer sweep at a job site last Tuesday. He was sucking out creosote chunks with a regular shop vac. No filter bag. No HEPA. Just straight into the canister. Told him that stuff is flammable and fine particles go right through. He looked at me like I was nuts. Has anyone else run into people skipping proper vacuum setup?

PSA: Check your wire rope before it snaps like mine did last Thursday

I was doing a routine clean on a wood stove in a old house downtown and my wire rope just gave out halfway through. The snap happened right as I was pulling the brush back up and it scared me half to death (plus the brush got stuck for a good 20 minutes). I had been using that same rope for about 8 months without really inspecting it for frayed strands. Learned my lesson the hard way - now I'm checking every inch before each job. Anyone else had a close call with equipment failure like this?

Talked to an old sweep about brush bristle wear and it made me check my own gear...

I was at a supplier in Des Moines last week just picking up some rods and this guy in his 60s who's been sweeping since the 80s starts chatting with me. He noticed I was grabbing a new poly brush and asked to see my old one. He pointed out the bristles were worn uneven on one side and said that's why I've been fighting with stubborn creosote deposits lately. I never really looked that close before, I just figured brushes wear out eventually. He showed me his brush and the bristles were all uniform length still after way more jobs than mine. He said he rotates his brushes every 30-40 cleanings and marks them with a paint dot to keep track. I checked my brush when I got home and sure enough it's shot on the left side. Has anyone else noticed uneven bristle wear causing poor cleaning on one side of the flue?

That one chimney took me 5 hours to sweep

I had a job last Tuesday where the liner had a massive creosote blockage hidden behind a offset that I couldn't see from either end. Has anyone found a reliable way to check for those without just running a camera up every time?

Hit 2,000 sweeps last Wednesday and had to sit down for a minute

I was just going through my old logs from when I started back in 2003. I keep a paper notebook for every job I do. Last Wednesday I finished up a routine clean on an old masonry fireplace over on Maple Street and wrote down number 2,000. It hit me hard because I remember being nervous on job number one, a dirty little insert that barely had a liner. 2,000 jobs is a lot of soot, a lot of weird animal nests, and a lot of different flue setups. I wonder how many miles of chimney I've actually climbed over these 19 years. Anybody else keep track of their total numbers like that?

Appreciation post for the triple-brush poly system I switched to last month

Read a forum thread saying the triple-brush setups are overkill for residential chimneys, but after cleaning a 15-year-old creosote buildup in a house near Boulder last week, I think the extra reach alone is worth the weight, has anyone else found a specific job where a different tool just made more sense?

Old timer named Hank told me to use shop vac on my brush kit and I laughed at first

Been sweeping for 8 years in Portland and I always just shook my brushes out over a trash bag. I figured the soot would destroy a shop vac in minutes. But this guy Hank, he's been doing it since the 70s, he told me to get a cheap $30 shop vac with a drywall filter bag and just suck the soot right off the brushes between jobs. I thought he was crazy. Finally tried it after a particularly dirty oil boiler job last Tuesday and I'll be darned it works great. The filter bag catches everything and the vac didn't even choke. Only thing is you gotta empty it outside not in your truck or you'll be breathing stuff all day. Anyone else use a vac for brush cleanup or is that just a rookie move still?

Old timer told me to skip the chemical cleaning and I should have listened

There's a guy who's been in this trade since the 70s, named Frank, works out of a shop in Lancaster. He told me to stop using those chemical logs for creosote removal, said they just make a mess and don't solve the real buildup. I didn't listen for about two years until I had to deal with a chimney in Ephrata that had this hard, glazed layer that took me three hours to scrape off. Has anyone else found a better way to handle that sticky glaze without spending all day on it?

That old timer swore by vacuuming chimneys from the bottom up... I called him crazy for 5 years

Been sweeping for about a decade now and always did the top-down method like everyone else. Last month I tried this guy's advice on a tough job in Denver where the creosote was caked on real bad, and I'll be darned it cut my cleanup time by half. Anyone else ever try working backwards or is this just a weird fluke?

Can we talk about how I used to fight with creosote buildup for years?

For the first 8 years of sweeping, I just used a standard wire brush and spent an extra 45 minutes per job scraping off heavy glaze. Then last fall I switched to a rotary whip system after a customer complained about soot falling back down. That thing stripped a quarter inch of glaze in 5 minutes flat. Has anyone else made the switch from manual scraping to rotary tools?

The old brick chimney at that diner outside Richmond made me remember what we've lost

Lost a full weekend on a single stubborn creosote log jam in a 100-year-old flue from a house in Columbus

Spent 8 hours Saturday and another 5 Sunday breaking through what I thought was a minor blockage, and I still had to come back Monday with a rotary kit - has anyone else had that kind of fight with old masonry?

Spent an hour talking to an 80-year-old sweep at the supply house yesterday

I was picking up a new set of rods and this old timer started telling me about how he still uses a hand brush for certain flues instead of a rotary kit. He said the rotary was fine for straight runs but you miss the real junk stuck in the corners and he was sweeping before I was born. Has anyone else found that some of the old school methods actually work better than the fancy power tools?

Bought a cheap soot vacuum off Amazon and it died on my first job

I figured I'd save some cash and grabbed a no-name soot vacuum for about $60 online. First big job last Tuesday in an old house downtown, I'm brushing out a flue and that vacuum just stops working after 20 minutes. Smelled like burning plastic inside the motor. I had to finish the job with a bucket and a dustpan, messing up the homeowner's living room floor with soot trails. Learned my lesson the hard way - you really do need a proper HEPA-rated unit for this work. Has anyone else had a cheap vac fail on them like that?

Watched a guy use a shop vac backwards to clear a flue in 10 minutes flat

I was at a job site in Nashville last Tuesday helping a buddy with a tough bird nest blockage. He pulls out his shop vac, swaps the hose to the exhaust port, and shoves it up the bottom of the flue. The air pressure blew all the debris right out the top like a leaf blower. Has anyone else tried this method or is there a reason we shouldn't be doing it?

Hit 500 sweeps this week, never kept count before

I've been sweeping chimneys for 12 years and just realized I passed 500 flues cleaned last Tuesday. Has anyone else tracked their numbers and been surprised at the total?

Just realized a lot of guys skip checking the flashing before they sweep

I've been noticing more calls where the chimney is clean but water is getting in, and every time it's because the flashing was loose or cracked. Spent 3 hours on a roof in Portland last week fixing someone else's missed inspection. Has anyone else seen this becoming more common?

Watched a 50-year-old chimney in my town get a full reline and the difference was night and day

I had to do a full stainless steel reline on this old house in Portland last week. The original clay flue was cracked in three spots and had soot buildup probably a inch thick in places. After we pulled the old liner out and ran the new one, the draft changed completely. The homeowner said her fireplace used to smoke up the room every time she lit a fire, and now it pulls clean and steady. I think the main issue was the cracks letting air in and messing up the flow. It took me about 6 hours total with my crew, but the before and after was something else. Has anyone else seen a old clay liner cause that much trouble with smoking? I'm wondering if I should push more homeowners to reline instead of just patching.

Warning: That $40 plastic rotary brush I bought off Amazon melted inside a hot flue liner after 3 uses

I tried saving money on a chimney sweeping kit from a random seller and the bristles literally fused to the creosote at 350 degrees, leaving a mess I had to chip out with a hand tool for 2 hours, has anyone else had cheap gear fail on a real job?

TIL a wire brush can actually damage stainless steel flue liners

I was using a standard wire brush last week on a customer's liner and my buddy stopped me saying it causes micro-scratches that lead to rust, and now I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this happen or if I should just stick to poly brushes?

Dropped $120 on a soot vacuum filter and it paid for itself in one job

I was cleaning a wood stove in an old house near Salem last week and my regular shop vac just spewed fine dust everywhere, making a huge mess. So I grabbed a HEPA-rated soot vacuum filter from the supply house for $120 and it trapped everything, no more scrubbing walls afterward. Has anyone else found that spending the extra cash on proper gear saves you time and frustration on messy jobs?

Wasted $300 on a 'premium' brush kit that fell apart in 2 weeks

I bought this fancy new brush kit from a popular online supplier, thinking it would make my sweeps faster. The bristles started shedding on the third job, and by the end of the second week the whole head was wobbly. I'm back to using my old $80 Home Depot brush that's lasted three years. Anyone else get burned by overpriced gear that just doesn't hold up?