Hit 500 sweeps last month without a single callback

That number scared me more than any chimney fire I've seen. Means I'm either getting lucky or finally doing something right with my inspection process.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_lucas21d ago

500 in a month is a hell of a milestone. What clicked for me was slowing down on the visual check and actually reading the flue liner report before I even look at the pipe. If it's a class A, I'm looking for creosote in the cap screen, not the stove pipe, and I started checking the damper blade seating with a mirror instead of just a flashlight glance. That caught three small fires waiting to happen last winter alone. You're probably just getting sharp, but double-check your camera settings on the snaking camera - I had mine on the wrong focus mode for months and was missing hairline cracks.

young.spencer20d ago

Preach. The damper mirror trick is gold. Nobody talks about that.

shah.ben15d ago

I'll be honest, I used to think the flashlight trick was good enough for damper checks. Had a few close calls before I finally tried the mirror method last season and saw what I was missing. That small change alone probably saved me from missing a couple of issues that would have turned into real problems. Makes you wonder what else we're all overlooking with the old shortcuts we take.