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A homeowner in Salem told me my brush strokes were 'too polite'
I was doing a routine flue sweep for a lady who restores old fireplaces, and she watched me work for a minute before saying my brushwork was too gentle, that I needed to really lean into the brick. She showed me her own technique with a stiff wire brush on a test patch, and sure enough, the soot came off way faster with more aggressive scrubbing. I switched to a heavier rod and angled my strokes, but now I'm wondering if I'm being too rough on older clay liners, anyone else get feedback that made them second-guess their touch?
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ray2101mo ago
Old clay liners are where you have to watch it. I've swept chimneys for 11 years and learned the hard way on a 1920s house over on Chestnut Street, went at a spalled liner with too much force and knocked loose chunks right into the smoke shelf. Real soot comes off with angle and speed, not brute force, so keep your rods spinning and let the brush do the cutting instead of jamming it straight down the wall. A stiff wire brush is fine on firebrick and newer liners, but on old clay tile you want poly or a softer wire and lighter passes, more of them, and you'll get the same result without cracking anything. Do the fingernail test on a test spot first: if the glaze is already flaking or the tile sounds hollow when you tap it, back way off, because once you gouge a liner it's a repoint or a reline and that's a whole different job. The lady wasn't wrong about technique, she was just used to her fireplaces and not the soft stuff underneath.
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