Ran across an old chimney sweep logbook from 1880 at a flea market in St. Louis

It listed a single sweep doing 12 chimneys in one day back then, which floored me since I'm lucky to hit 4 with modern gear. The entries mentioned using nothing but a brush and a cloth sack for soot collection. Makes you wonder how those guys managed without vacuum setups or masks, huh?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith_bennett12d ago

Bet those 12 were half-assed jobs that fell apart in a week lol.

jadej5012d ago

oh yeah my buddy hired some dude off facebook marketplace to do his driveway last summer. showed up late, left tire tracks in the grass, and the whole thing started cracking within two weeks. the guy kept saying "it needs to cure longer" but it was clearly just a thin pour over dirt and gravel. had to pay someone else double to rip it out and do it right. some people really just take the money and run.

rileygarcia12d ago

@keith_bennett I dunno man, those old sweep logs show they did serious work without cutting corners.