Discovered the plastic bag trick for stubborn soot build-up on curved flues

Been fighting this one curved flue in a 1920s house for like 6 months. Regular brushes just wouldnt grab the soot on the bend. Tried everything from whipping chains to wire brushes. Then my uncle who retired from sweeping 10 years ago told me to shove a plastic grocery bag over my brush head before going up. Sounds crazy right? The static actually pulls the soot off the walls way better on those tight curves. Took me one pass and the flue was clean. Anyone else got weird old timer tricks that actually work?

2 comments

2 Comments

graceprice2d ago

Grocery bag trick is GENIUS. I had a similar problem with a fireplace insert flue that had this weird offset, and I swear I was about to take a sledgehammer to it. Tried the bag out of desperation after reading about it on some old forum, and it worked like a charm. The static really does grab the fine soot that brushes just push around. Also learned from an old timer that soaking your brush heads in hot water with a little dish soap before a job softens the bristles just enough to get into those weird angles without scratching up the liner. Works on glazed creosote too, just let it sit on the brush for a minute before you go up.

luna_clark382d ago

The dish soap trick is solid gold, my grandpa used to do that with his old chimney stuff. Also learned the hard way that trying to force a dry brush through glazed creosote just makes a bigger mess on the floor. The bag method really shines on those offset flues where you can't get a straight shot at anything.