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Had a weird thing happen with a new type of creosote remover spray
So I was working on a fireplace in an old house in Bellingham last month. The homeowner had bought this new spray can creosote remover from a hardware store, said it was supposed to turn the creosote to ash overnight. I was skeptical, but I figured I'd let them try it before my sweep. I came back the next day and the stuff had worked, but it left behind this hard, crusty white residue all over the flue tiles. It was like cement, way harder to get off than the original creosote. I had to use my stiffest wire brush and really go at it for almost an hour. I learned that some of these DIY chemicals can make our job a lot harder, even if they do part of it. What's your take on using chemical cleaners before a professional sweep? Do you tell clients to avoid them?
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claire_bell13d ago
Yeah, it's like those bathroom cleaning sprays that promise to dissolve soap scum but just leave a weird filmy layer you have to scrub twice as hard to remove. People buy the quick fix, but it often creates a whole new problem that takes more work to undo. I've seen it with so many products that are supposed to make things easier.
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rowanellis9d ago
Totally, it's the worst when the fix makes more work. Remember those magic eraser sponges that just spread the dirt around into a gray smudge? You end up needing three of them and a whole new bucket of water just to clean one wall. Feels like they design half this stuff to sell you the next product that fixes the mess the first one made.
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