The day I pulled 40 pounds of creosote out of a single flue

Last January in Cleveland I had this job that still gives me the creeps thinking about it. The homeowner called me out because smoke was backing up into their living room, and when I ran my brush up that flue I hit a solid wall about 3 feet up. Took me over an hour just to chip through the buildup with a rotary tool and some heavy rods. I ended up hauling out four 10-pound buckets of that hardened creosote, which is way past what I normally see in a season. The scary part is the homeowner admitted they hadn't had it swept in 12 years, just burned whatever wood they could grab. Their chimney liner was cracked in three spots from the heat, and I had to tell them they needed a full reline before using the fireplace again. I charged them $450 for the cleaning and liner inspection, but the reline cost them almost 3 grand on top of that. Anybody else run into a chimney that was that neglected?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley_hart21d ago

Wait, you charged him 450 bucks to break his own chimney?

nathan_barnes21d ago

Ended up having to do the same thing myself once @wesley_hart, cheapest fix was still over 300 bucks.