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That job in the old farmhouse near Lancaster really got to me
The flue was packed with about eight inches of creosote, hard as rock, and the owner kept telling me his 'uncle used to do it with a chain and a brick'. Took me almost six hours with rods and a heavy duty brush just to make it safe. Has anyone else run into a liner that bad and what did you do to get through it?
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the_hayden1mo ago
Yeah, that "chain and a brick" line is a classic. For creosote that hard, I've had to use a rotary drill attachment with a heavy duty chain flail head. Sometimes you gotta go slow and let the heat from the friction help break it up, even if it smokes a bit. Regular rods just bounce off that rock-hard stuff.
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Man, eight inches of rock hard creosote is a nightmare. I had one last winter that was just like concrete. Ended up having to use a heavy duty drill with a special carbide scraper bit, going inch by inch. That heat from the friction trick is real, it’s the only thing that softens it up. Those jobs make you earn every penny.
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sean488d ago
That 8 inch creosote line reminds me of how people forget basic maintenance until it's a crisis. It's the same with my buddy's truck he let rust for years then wondered why the frame snapped. @the_hayden nailed it with the chain flail head though, I've seen guys at the hardware store swear by that method when rods wont cut it. Sometimes the old school brute force approach is the only way through a problem, even if it smells like burning regrets.
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