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Got a chimney fire call last tuesday that shook me up pretty bad
I showed up to this house over in Oakwood, nice old Victorian place. The homeowner had been burning green wood all winter, never got it swept. Said he thought it was fine. I look up and there's creosote buildup like I've never seen, thick and shiny like tar. He had a fire going and it was roaring up the flue, could hear it from outside. I put it out with my dry chem extinguisher and some water, but man it was close. The whole liner was damaged, gonna need a reline. I told him he's lucky the house didn't go up. Now I'm wondering, do you guys ever turn down jobs where the buildup is that bad? Like, do you refuse to clean it if it's a fire risk or just go ahead and do the best you can?
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robinson.quinn19d ago
Have you ever tried offering to knock back the worst of it with a shop vac before you even touch a brush? I had a job last winter where the creosote was like that, so I carefully vacuumed out the loose stuff first to cut down on any chance of it igniting while I worked. That extra step made me feel a lot safer and the homeowner was grateful I didn't just walk away on him.
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I read a piece in Fine Homebuilding last year where a veteran sweep said he had to walk away from a job once because the creosote was so bad he could hear it crackling just from opening the cleanout door. Said it wasn't worth his life or the homeowner's.
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