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Had a homeowner in Denver ask me if I could 'sweep' their gas fireplace insert with a vacuum.
I was setting up for a routine cleaning on a standard prefab unit. The guy was watching me get my rods and brushes ready, and he just pointed at my shop vac and said, 'Can't you just use that? It's got a hose.' I had to explain that the brush is what actually scrapes the creosote off the liner walls. He seemed genuinely surprised there was physical scraping involved. He thought it was just sucking out loose ash. Ever have a client who had a totally wrong idea of what the job actually is?
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mason.paige2d ago
Honestly though, can you blame the guy? From the outside it just looks like a dirty tube that needs cleaning. If you've never seen the process before, a vacuum seems like a logical tool. Maybe the real issue is that trades don't get shown in detail anywhere. People see the before and after, not the actual work. So they fill in the blanks with what makes sense to them, like using a hose to suck stuff out. It's not about being dumb, it's about having zero context for the job.
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sagey6922d ago
Totally get that. It's like people thinking a car wash just sprays off the mud, not knowing about the clay bar and polish. You see it with everything now. Folks watch a 30 second video on how to fix a leaky faucet and think they know the whole trade. The gap between seeing a tool and knowing how to use it right is huge. Makes you wonder what other jobs people think are just pushing a button.
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william6621d ago
Wait, you mentioned a clay bar? People actually think a car wash just stops at the spray? That's wild, @sagey69. It's the same with cooking shows. They see a chef chop an onion fast and think that's the whole skill, not the years of knife work to get there. Or someone watches a quick clip on laying tile and misses all the prep with leveling and spacing. The real work is always in the details nobody films.
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