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Finally clicked why my flue brush kept getting stuck halfway down
Was cleaning a chimney in an old 1920s house in Cincinnati last Tuesday and realized I'd been trying to force a 10-inch brush into an 8-inch flue for the last 3 years because I never bothered to measure the liner properly. Anyone else ever just assume the flue size based on the fireplace opening and get burned?
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the_viola14d ago
Is this really a huge deal @gavinb97 or just a minor mixup?
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gavinb9714d ago
“I'd been trying to force a 10-inch brush into an 8-inch flue” - oh man, that is such a classic move. I once spent a whole afternoon fighting a stubborn toilet auger in a customer's bathroom before realizing I had the wrong size. Felt like a real genius when I finally took a second to actually look at the thing. It's funny how you can do something wrong for years and just assume it's the tool or the house being weird, not you skipping the basic step. Props for finally figuring it out though, better late than never!
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noahmartin14d ago
Well I mean, I kind of have to disagree with you there. Forcing the wrong tool into something is never a good idea, but I actually think there's something to be said for stubbornness in this trade. Sometimes you learn more from fighting with the wrong tool than you do from grabbing the right one right away. You figure out the limits of stuff, you know? Like you learn how much pressure a pipe can actually take before it cracks, or how to finesse something even when it doesn't fit right. Not saying it's the smart way, but there's a weird value in making mistakes that way.
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