Cleaned a 30-year-old flue last week and the before/after was unreal

I got called to this old house in Burlington that hadn't had a sweep in probably a decade. The homeowner said they were getting smoke back every time they lit a fire. I ran my brush through and started pulling out this thick, sticky creosote that was almost like tar. After about an hour of scrubbing and using a rotary tool, the difference was night and day. The draft went from barely pulling to roaring so loud you could hear it from across the room. Honestly made me realize how many people just ignore their chimney until something goes wrong. Do you guys ever just clean a flue that looks totally fine but then find a huge block of creosote hiding up near the crown?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan_perez19d ago

Found a creosote icicle last winter that looked so nasty I almost offered it a job at the chimney company.

wesleyjohnson19d ago

I get what you're saying @ivan_perez but honestly I think people make too big a deal out of creosote sometimes. I've seen plenty of flues that looked bad but still drafted fine and didn't cause any real problems. A little bit of buildup near the crown isn't always a disaster waiting to happen. It depends more on how often you burn and what kind of wood you're using.