Old timer told me to skip my monthly sweep and it backfired hard

A guy named Hank with 40 years in the business said I was overcleaning and to push it to every 3 months. I listened for about 6 months and then pulled 15 pounds of creosote out of a flue on a job last Tuesday. Customer's liner was half clogged and I felt like an idiot for trusting that advice. Has anyone else had bad luck skipping schedules?

3 comments

3 Comments

moore.beth12d ago

That old timer gave you bad advice and it sounds like he was talking about something else entirely. Monthly sweeps exist for a reason, especially in cold climates where people burn wood all season. The problem with skipping to 3 months is you let that wet, sticky creosote just bake on there and harden into the dangerous stuff. What most people don't talk about is how different wood types and burn habits change how fast creosote builds up, so one schedule never fits everyone. Your customer could have ended up with a chimney fire and you would have been the one who told them to wait. Stick with your gut and the proven schedule, that old advice was dangerous.

phoenix_lewis12d ago

Man, you nailed it @moore.beth. I see so many people think one size fits all with chimney cleaning and it drives me crazy. Seasoned hardwoods burn way different than that wet pine a lot of folks throw in there, and that changes everything about how often you need to sweep. The real danger is that hard glazed creosote that takes a torch to actually clean out.

susan_adams12d ago

I mean, I can barely get my own chimney cleaned on time, let alone someone else's.