Showerthought: I'd been skipping the final inspection for months

I used to finish a job and just pack up without doing that last look up the flue. One day a homeowner asked me to check a weird smell, and I found a bunch of soot buildup I missed from my rushed cleaning. It hit me that I was leaving unsafe conditions for the folks living there. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized a step you skipped was actually super important?

2 comments

2 Comments

patel.leo13d ago

Did you see that article about chimney fires from skipped inspections? Scary stuff. I read somewhere that like 90% of those fires could be prevented with a simple check. It's wild how easy it is to forget the small stuff when you're in a rush, but that one step can make a huge difference for safety. Glad you caught it before something bad happened.

joseph52913d ago

Something I haven't seen anyone mention is that skipping that flue check actually messes with the structural integrity of the chimney over time. My buddy who does masonry work told me that heavy soot buildup combined with normal creosote can eat at the mortar if it sits there long enough. That's a whole different kind of problem than just a fire hazard because now you're looking at needing a rebuild instead of just a cleaning. It's like that one skip snowballs into a much bigger expensive repair down the road.