Appreciation post: the old sweep in Des Moines who told me to brush bottom-up on shallow fireboxes
For my first two seasons I always started at the top of the flue and worked my way down, and I thought that was just how it was done. Then a retired sweep in Des Moines watched me fight a shallow firebox for 40 minutes and said, "You're pushing soot onto yourself, flip it." Now I run the brush up from the smoke shelf first on anything under 30 inches deep, and my drop cloths stay way cleaner. Takes me about 10 minutes less per job too. Curious if anyone else switches direction based on firebox depth or if you just stick with one method.