Noticed a weird draft after cleaning a house in the hills

I did a full sweep on this old place up near Mount Tam last Tuesday and felt air moving after I was done. Took me forever to find a tiny gap around the flu where the mortar had cracked off. Anybody else run into air leaks that only show up after you clean the soot away?

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2 Comments

river_hart182mo ago

Heard old chimneys often leak once the creosote buildup is cleaned away.

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rose_hart312mo ago

Actually @river_hart18 I gotta respectfully disagree with you there. My grandpa had a 1920s brick chimney that he cleaned out every spring for forty years and it never leaked once after he scraped the creosote out. The key is making sure the flue liner is in good shape before you do any heavy cleaning, because creosote can actually seal up small cracks over time and once you remove it those gaps open back up. If your chimney is lined with unglazed clay tiles or has missing mortar joints, yeah you might see some moisture after cleaning since that protective gunk is gone. But a properly maintained chimney with a sound liner should handle the cleaning just fine and actually breathe better without all that buildup. So really it comes down to the condition of the chimney itself rather than the cleaning process causing the leak.

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