Does a sooted liner really need replacing or is that just fear talk?

I was on a job in Toledo last month pulling a cap and the liner looked like a black velvet pipe, homeowner offered to pay triple for a new one but my gut said brush it and check the draft, so I did that and it ran fine, but now I'm second guessing if I should've pushed the upsell, what do you all do when the carbon is baked in but the tiles still hold?

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the_logan6d ago

Brush it and check the draft is the right call when the tiles are still solid. Baked on carbon is normal, it just means the liner has been doing its job. What matters is whether the tile face is spalling, cracked, or missing chunks, and whether the joints still hold. If the clay is intact you can run a brush and a camera down it and send it. Tripling the price on a homeowner who already trusts you is how you lose the referral, not how you make a living.

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