Spent 4 hours fighting a soot dam in a Victorian flue last Wednesday

I had a call in an old house near downtown Portland, built in 1890s. The homeowner said the insert was smoking back into the room. I figured a standard brush job would fix it. But after 45 minutes of scraping, I hit a hard soot dam about 8 feet up that was baked solid from years of wood burning. It took me three different rods, a rotary tool attachment, and a shop vac to finally break through. That one stubborn spot ate up my whole afternoon and made me late for my next job. Has anyone else dealt with concrete hard soot in old chimneys like that? What tool actually works for that mess without damaging the clay liner?

3 comments

3 Comments

jade5171mo ago

A buddy of mine swears by those carbon scraper wheels you can get for an angle grinder, says they chew through hard soot without gouging the liner. He warned me to go slow though, one bad angle and you're looking at a clay repair bill instead. Might be worth a shot if you're stuck dealing with another concrete dam like that.

ninaowens1mo agoMost Upvoted

Laughing at myself a bit because I tried one of those carbon scraper wheels last year and somehow managed to hit the liner anyway. Guess my hand-eye coordination is worse than I thought - at least the repair bill was a good reminder to stick with the wire brush and elbow grease next time.

piper_kim1mo ago

@jade517 the carbon scraper sounds smart but yeah one slip and you're hosed, really feel your pain on that concrete dam.