TIL the hard way: brush direction matters more than pressure

In Baltimore last February, an old sweep named Pete told me I was pressing too hard and going top-down on a heavy creosote build up. I laughed it off, thought he was stuck in the 80s. Three flue fires later on the same commercial job, I finally tried his way, light pressure and bottom-up only. He was right, the flue came out cleaner in one pass and I stopped scraping the liner. Anyone else fight this habit or did you learn it the first time someone showed you?

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the_joel17d agoTop Commenter

Saw a guy on a chimney forum last month saying the same thing, called it the "upside down rule" and swore it saved his liner too. Took me two jobs to stop fighting it once I read that, but yeah, bottom-up really is the move.