Can we talk about how I used to fight with creosote buildup for years?

For the first 8 years of sweeping, I just used a standard wire brush and spent an extra 45 minutes per job scraping off heavy glaze. Then last fall I switched to a rotary whip system after a customer complained about soot falling back down. That thing stripped a quarter inch of glaze in 5 minutes flat. Has anyone else made the switch from manual scraping to rotary tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles_perez2d ago

The rotary whip system you're talking about - that's actually a "power sweeping" setup, not a rotary whip. A whip system uses flexible rods, not a spinning brush head. I made the same mistake when I first heard about it lol. Anyway, I still use a wire brush for the first pass because it gets the loose stuff without kicking up too much dust. Then I hit it with the power sweeper attachment on my drill for the hard glaze. It saves maybe 20 minutes per job for me but your mileage may vary depending on how bad the buildup is.

brian_coleman2d ago

Right there with you, switched last fall and it cut my worst jobs down by half easy.