Rant: That day a bird nest almost cost me a chimney liner

I was on a job in Portland cleaning a flue last Tuesday, and I didn't spot the nest until I shoved the brush in. It collapsed and wedged the brush halfway down, took me 45 minutes with a shop vac and a hook tool to pull it all out. Has anyone else had a nest turn a routine clean into a nightmare?

3 comments

3 Comments

julia_carter6116d ago

Bet that nest was full of old creosote chunks too. Now you have a fun new fire hazard to worry about.

charles_baker2816d ago

Man I had a rental chimney that was basically solid creosote when I moved in, took me three weekends just to chip it all out. Glad you got it cleaned before something bad happened.

fisher.thomas16d ago

Did you get any splinters from the wood while you were fishing that mess out? A buddy of mine had a similar thing happen last fall, and he said the nest was so packed with dry twigs and leaf litter that it basically exploded into a cloud of dust when the brush hit it. He spent the next hour coughing and digging chunks out with a claw hammer, and the shop vac kept clogging every few minutes. By the end he just gave up and called a pro to finish the job, which cost him twice what the original cleaning would have been.