Took me 6 hours to clean a single flue in St. Louis last Tuesday

Everyone talks about how quick rotary brushes make the job, but I ran into a real mess on a 1920s house with heavy creosote buildup that was almost like tar. I tried my regular 8 inch poly brush and it barely made a dent, had to switch to a chain knocker and scrape by hand for most of it. The homeowner said they hadn't cleaned it in 15 years, and I believe it from how thick that buildup was. Has anyone else dealt with creosote that hard where your usual tools just don't cut it?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas_johnson12d ago

And yeah, that's the kind of job where you just accept your day is gone before you even start. I've had creosote so hard it felt like scraping asphalt, and no brush in the world is gonna touch that stuff. The chain knocker is about the only thing that works, but even then you're basically chiseling it off. People see those YouTube videos of guys blasting through a flue in 20 minutes and think that's normal, but they've never hit a 15 year old tar pit. You did the right thing by not half-assing it with just a brush, that's how you get chimney fires.

chen.james12d ago

Hold on @thomas_johnson, I gotta push back a little here... I've been doing this 12 years and I've seen way more damage from guys going in with chains and knockers than from someone just brushing. That hard glazed creosote you're talking about? Yeah it's tough, but there's chemical treatments that'll soften it up over a few days if you plan ahead. A chain knocker can crack the tile liner, and once that happens you've got a way bigger problem than any tar pit. YouTube videos are fake sure, but so is the idea that brute force is the only answer for tough creosote. Sometimes the smart play is telling the homeowner they need the flue relined instead of chipping away at it and hoping for the best.