Thought I could squeeze a quick clean in before lunch. Took 4 hours.

Had a single flue that looked straightforward from the ground but the creosote had built up into a hard glaze near the top. Spent forever chipping it out with a hand tool instead of just using the rotary brush from the start. Anyone else ever get humbled by a "quick" job?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_mitchell11d ago

Oh man, I feel that one... my version of this was trying to swap a single toilet flange in an hour before dinner. Three hours later I'm still crawling around under the house with a hacksaw because the old PVC had been glued with some kind of industrial strength nonsense that refused to let go. The worst part is you always know about halfway through that you should have just done it the slow way from the start but you're already in too deep to back out now. At least now you know to just grab the rotary brush first thing next time... unless your luck is anything like mine, then the next "quick" job will invent a whole new way to humble you.

grant82611d ago

Glazed creosote is a whole different beast. People don't realize it's not just buildup, it's basically tar that got superheated and turned into a hard shell. Hand tools are useless against that stuff. You need the rotary brush with the chain attachments to really break it up. Next time just start with the heavy duty stuff. Save your elbows.