Picked a wire brush over polypropylene brushes on a job last Thursday

I was up on a roof in South Boston and had to decide between a standard wire brush and the polypropylene kind for a heavy creosote job. I went with the wire brush because the buildup was over a quarter inch thick and I figured plastic would just bounce off. Took me about 45 minutes to get through the whole flue, but the wire left some scratches on the liner that I wasn't thrilled about. Now I'm wondering if the poly brush would have done a slower but cleaner job. Has anyone else had liner damage from going too aggressive with wire?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaretm2327d ago

Buddy of mine used a wire brush on a terra cotta liner in an old triple-flue stack in Cambridge. Scratched it up so bad the next inspection flagged it for needing a new liner. He switched to poly after that and said it took longer but didn't screw up the surface. Said the poly handled the heavy stuff if you went at it in layers instead of one pass.

jones.anna27d ago

Huh, I actually gotta push back a little on that. I've used wire on some pretty gnarly creosote jobs and yeah you'll get some surface scratches but they don't usually cause real problems unless you're going at it like a maniac. If the buildup is that thick the poly brush just isn't gonna cut it, you'll be up there all day.