Pro tip: I had to choose between a standard brush and a poly brush for a 12-inch flue in a 1920s brick house last Tuesday.

I went with the poly brush and it cut my clean-up time by half because the soot didn't cling to the bristles nearly as much, anyone else have a strong preference for one over the other?

3 comments

3 Comments

rose_cooper1mo ago

Read a chimney sweep blog that said poly brushes work better on older mortar, which makes sense for your 1920s place. Owens.ben has a point about sticking with what works, but saving time on cleanup sounds pretty good to me.

owens.ben2mo ago

My uncle used a standard brush on his 1948 chimney for forty years and never once complained about the soot. I guess it comes down to how much you really mind a bit of extra scrubbing at the end of the day. The poly brush sounds fine, but I've never felt that held back by the old way of doing things. Sometimes a job is just a job.

the_kevin2mo ago

Forty years of scrubbing soot sounds like a choice, not a proof. Maybe your uncle just got used to a harder job than it needed to be. Calling it "just a job" is a good way to keep doing things the slow way forever. New tools exist for a reason, even if the old ones didn't kill you.