That old timer's brush angle tip saved my back after 15 years

I was doing a routine sweep on a 3-story colonial in Columbus last Tuesday and this 70 year old homeowner came out to watch, then told me I was holding the brush rod too low and putting all the strain on my lower back. He showed me how to brace the rod against my hip and use the natural pivot of my legs to push up instead of my arms, and I swear the next two flues felt like half the effort. Has anyone else gotten a random tip from a customer that completely changed their technique, or am I the only one who's been fighting physics this whole time?

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piper_thompson312mo ago

My neighbor Gary had the same thing happen to him back in 2017 on a job in Dayton, only his customer was a retired physical therapist who watched him struggle for like ten minutes before saying anything. She pointed out he was gripping the rod with both hands like a baseball bat and told him to let his dominant hand just guide the top while his lower hand barely touched it. He said the next flue he did felt so loose he thought he broke something, turns out he was just fighting his own grip strength the whole time. What gets me is how these older folks can look at you for five seconds and see what you've been doing wrong for years, no tools, no diagrams, just pure observation. Makes me wonder how many other little fixes are sitting in the heads of people who've been doing this since before I was born, waiting for a random Tuesday to drop them on us.

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