Used to think a wire brush was fine for cleaning flues until I hit a heavy creosote glaze on a job near Ellensburg

Spent 45 minutes with the brush barely scratching it, then the homeowner handed me a poly whip and I was done in 10 minutes, has anyone else had that kind of stubborn buildup?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice_wilson737d ago

You said "baked so hard it looked like black ice" and that really got me thinking, @masontorres - was that near saltwater or just really dry heat? I'm trying to figure out if coastal humidity makes that glaze form differently than the desert stuff we get around here.

masontorres7d ago

Yeah you mentioned 'stubborn buildup' and that's exactly the kind of stuff that makes me wonder if people are confusing creosote with actual glaze. I mean, a poly whip works great on soft creosote but if it's that hard glassy stuff, sometimes you need a rotary cleaner with a metal head to really break through. Idk, maybe it's just me but I've had a few jobs near the coast where the creosote was so baked it looked like black ice and the poly whip just kinda bounced off it.