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PSA: I was brushing chimneys top-down for 6 years until a cracked flue tile in Des Moines set me straight
Last Tuesday I was on a two-story colonial out in Des Moines, and the homeowner mentioned her upstairs bedroom always smelled like smoke on cold mornings. I had been brushing that flue top-down for years, same as I always do, and I figured it was just creosote buildup near the cap. But when I ran my camera down, I found a cracked tile about four feet below the crown that I had been gliding right past every single visit. A guy I work with, Marcus, had told me back in March that I should be checking the smoke chamber and flue tiles from the bottom up with a mirror before I even climb the ladder, and I blew him off because I had done it my way since 2018. Turns out brushing top-down can push soot and debris right into those hairline cracks, making the smell worse instead of better. I spent two hours that afternoon with a 4 inch poly brush and a hand mirror going section by section, and I found two more small cracks I would have missed. Now I do a bottom-up inspection first, every time, no matter how long the drive is. Anybody else get a wake-up call like this from a customer comment? What is your first move when you pull up to a house you have never serviced before?
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