The landlord's 3-story flue disaster taught me to always check the liner first

Last month I showed up to a rental in Portland and the tenant said the smoke was backing up so bad they'd been using the fireplace with the door open. Turns out the previous sweep had installed a new liner but left a 4-foot gap at the top, so the whole stack was just dumping into the attic. Do you guys trust the last guy's work or re-inspect everything before you even touch a brush?

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rowanw3119d ago

...and honestly that's exactly why I never trust the last guy. I've seen too many jobs where the "new liner" was just a flex pipe shoved up there and abandoned. I re-inspect everything now, even if it costs me an extra hour on site. It's annoying but way cheaper than a callback or a burn down. Plus if you find the mess you can usually bill the homeowner double for the extra work.