Unpopular opinion: The way we deal with wet creosote is completely wrong

I was on a job last month where the homeowner used their fireplace all winter without a cap, so rain got in and made the creosote into a sticky, nasty paste. My usual drill and brush setup just smeared it around and clogged everything up. I wasted half a day before I tried something different. Now I keep a cheap plastic putty knife in my truck just for this. You can scrape most of the gunk off the walls first, then sweep like normal. It adds maybe ten minutes to the job but saves you from a huge mess. I don't know why this isn't taught more often. It turned a terrible day into a simple fix.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_robin3mo ago

Took me three ruined shop vacs to figure out the putty knife trick.

oliver_ward143mo ago

That putty knife trick must save your back too.

nina_hall3mo ago

Scraping first makes total sense, it's like cleaning a greasy pan before you wash it. @the_robin losing those shop vacs is proof the hard way works. What gets me is the safety side people miss, wet creosote is a slipping hazard on a roof if any drips out while you're working up there. That paste can be like black ice. Your putty knife idea probably stops a lot of that mess from ever making it to the ground.