Chat with an old timer made me rethink my whole brush setup

Was cleaning a flue at this Victorian house in Portland yesterday, and the homeowner came out to chat. He was probably 75, said he swept chimneys back in the 70s. He told me he never used poly brushes, just a burlap sack with rocks in it. Honestly it made me question if I'm overcomplicating things with my fancy fiberglass rods and plastic bristles. Has anyone here ever tried the old school burlap method?

3 comments

3 Comments

terryk109h ago

1973 was the year my granddad showed me his burlap rig with a coffee can full of river rocks. He swore by it for opening day on the old stovepipe he cleaned, said the weight did all the work and the burlap scrubbed better than any plastic ever could. But that man also thought asbestos was perfectly safe to breathe and used to spit in his hands to test for draft issues, so maybe take his wisdom with a grain of soot.

james_campbell122h ago

Kinda changed my view on old-school methods right there.

robertb479h ago

Honestly, are we really acting like one bad cleaning hack cancels out decades of chimney experience? The guy was wrong about a few things sure, but that burlap rig probably worked just fine for its time. Feels like people get too hung up on nitpicking old-timers instead of just taking the useful bits and moving on.