Caught a client using oven cleaner on their fireplace bricks

I showed up to a job in Akron last month and the homeowner had sprayed Easy-Off all over the firebox trying to whiten the bricks. That stuff eats through mortar like nothing, and it leaves a chemical smell that sticks around for weeks. I had to repoint the whole lower section and it took me an extra 6 hours. Has anyone else run into DIY cleaning methods that messed up a flue or firebox?

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sethr1112d ago

Watched a guy try to clean his pellet stove glass with Windex and a razor blade, ended up scratching the ceramic so bad it looked frosted. He called me to fix it and I just had to tell him there was no fix, that glass was done for. Cheap lesson for him, funny story for me.