Shoutout to the old mason who yelled at me for using wire brush on his historic flue

He said I was scarring the clay liner and pulled out a stiff nylon brush from his truck instead, says he's been doing flues in Philly since 1972 - who's right about brush materials for older chimneys?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_john17d ago

I saw a chimney guy on YouTube say the same thing actually, that wire brushes can gouge old clay liners and cause cracks over time. Sounds like that old timer knows his stuff.

jamesc7917d ago

Makes you wonder how many other things we've been taught wrong by the "experts" over the years, right @the_john? It's like how everyone used to say you gotta warm up your car for five minutes before driving in winter, but now they say that's actually bad for the engine. Funny how the "right way" keeps changing.

jana50917d agoMost Upvoted

Yikes @jamesc79 I get what you're saying but that car thing actually isn't a great example. Modern cars only need like 30 seconds to get the oil circulating, idling for five minutes just wastes gas and wears out the engine faster. The old advice made sense for carburetors though, not fuel injection.