That stubborn creosote glaze took me 6 hours yesterday, rotary tool and all

I got a call last week from a house over in Maplewood, and their flue was so glazed over it looked like someone painted the inside with tar. I figured my regular brush and rods would handle it, but after an hour of scraping I was barely making a dent. Ended up running back to the shop for my rotary cleaner with the chain whip, and even that struggled for another 4 hours before I got a clean pass. The homeowner kept asking if I was done yet, and I had to tell her no, twice. Has anyone else hit a glaze so bad that you had to switch to chemical treatments, or do you just keep grinding it out? That job made me rethink my whole pricing for heavy buildup.

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1 Comment

paulw6323d ago

Man, I saw a thread on another forum where a guy said he had to hit a glaze like that with a chemical wash just to soften it up before the mechanical stuff would even bite. Sounds like you earned every penny of that job though, six hours is brutal. Maybe worth quoting those nightmare flues higher upfront so you don't feel like you're working for free.