And the chimney sweep left that in there? If I pay money to a “professional” to get a job done I expect it to get done. 100%. Not half arsed. But that’s why I prefer to do things myself. I don’t even trust most “professionals”. My dad was right when he used to tell me, “If you want something done right you have to do it yourself.”
All I can do is offer a modification to the phone down the chimney idea. I attached a phone and led headlamps to my chimney sweep rods. Before sending the phone down I started a video call, FaceTime,...with my kids phone. Then I had a live feed and could turn, stop, move setup around for a better view. The mirror and sunlight down the chimney, when it all lines up is awesome. My fat head looking down the chimney seems to block the sun a lot.
I hate having "professionals" come to my house. I don't need to hear their editorial comments about what is wrong with my house, what else I need to fix besides what they are there for, and how they are so busy they really don't have time to be here. Then I have to wonder if what they did actually fixed the problem. All this after their not showing up as planned. I will avoid having contractors come as much as possible.
X2 And then having to either fix their mistakes myself, or hire someone else to do it, again! Unfortunately the last guy to fall in this category is family
This house came with a new hvac system and an extended warrany that requires us to have the installer's company do yearly maintenance. The fella stopped by yesterday and afterwards told us the ducts are leaking a little where they join the big sheetmetal distribution box. They can seal them with duct mastic. Ten connections for $399 per connection. $4000. For $20 of mastic and maybe 2hrs of work? Excuse me? Yeah, I'll just do things for myself as long as I'm able.
Yes, and much more on the walls of chimney (including the big chunk he mentioned) as well as what did come off with his brush laying on the top of the of the stove.
About 18 years ago, I bought a house that came with a home warranty included. One time the element in the oven stopped working so instead of trying to buy a new part to fix it myself I decided just to go with the Warranty. So I called the phone number and they sent out some repair man and he came into our house. And I told him that the oven wasn’t turning on. He flipped the switch and the problem apparently was intermittent because it worked for him and the oven came on. He was a scraggly looking fellow with his pants half down and butt crack showing when he leaned over to look in the oven. He just shrugged his shoulders and said “well it’s working now” then took a couple pieces of candy from our candy bowl on our counter and walked out. Yeah, wasn’t impressed. After that, I’ve never had a need for home warranties and I’ll just fix it myself. And of course a day after he left the problem returned so I just ordered a new part off the Internet and replaced it myself.
Well...sweep couldn't make it Monday due to weather and some mechanical problems. Decided to try the black pipe method myself with the help of my son. I bought enough 1/2 schedule 40 black pipe to reach the bottom. We drove the pipe as far as we could go until it bottomed out on something hard. It was about a foot above the flue but couldn't get through. We tried looking down the chimney but couldn't identify the blockage. Almost certain it is a piece of collapsed liner. Anyone have any thoughts or info on relining a chimney?
6" flex liner (or even rigid) with 1/2" insulation should fit just fine, once the blockage is removed, but the chimney will still need to be cleaned...lining a creosote coated chimney is a no no.
