Just finished a job where the old creosote had built up so thick it looked like a tree branch growing sideways out of the flue

I was working on a 1920s house over in Oak Park last Tuesday and after 45 minutes of scraping I had to break out the rotary brush just to get through a foot of that stuff, anyone ever found something that weird jammed in a flue?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wyatt12d ago

That sounds about right for Oak Park. The older houses out there have some real stubborn buildup. I had a spot in a 1910 Victorian near Lombard where the creosote had basically turned into this hard, shiny crust. It was like scraping tar off a driveway. Took two full days and I had to use a chain knocker just to break the worst of it loose. Funny thing is, the homeowners said they'd never had a fire in that fireplace. Just the flue from the boiler venting into the same chimney for decades. Stuff cakes up like concrete if you let it sit long enough.

elliot_barnes12d ago

And yeah, I feel that, @the_wyatt. That shiny crust stuff is the worst kind - it's like trying to chip away at glass almost. I've seen it in some of those old Chicago two-flats where the boiler was tied into the same stack, and you're right, it hardens up like nothing else. It's a real pain when a job you budgeted for a day stretches into two or three because of that hidden buildup. Makes you wonder how many of these old chimneys are just ticking time bombs nobody's looked at in thirty years.

eva_adams6812d ago

Not sure it's that dire... people been saying that for decades.