I finally stopped using those wire brush attachments everyone swears by

Last month I had a job in Portland where I tried that twisted wire brush on a clay flue liner and it left deep scratches all the way down. Took me an extra 2 hours to smooth it out with a poly brush. Am I the only one who thinks those wire things do more damage than good on certain liners?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_nina2mo ago

Wait, are you talking about the ones with the crimped wires or the straight ones? I had basically the same thing happen on a job in Seattle last spring. This old house had a terracotta liner that was already kinda rough, but after two passes with the wire brush it looked like someone took a razor blade to it. The homeowner was watching me the whole time so I had to act like that was totally normal. Ended up buying a set of those nylon abrasive brushes on the spot and spent the rest of the day smoothing it back out. Now I only use wire on stainless steel liners, and even then I'm real careful.

fox.derek2mo ago

Wait, are terracotta and clay the same thing though? I think @the_nina meant clay liners.

ellis.mia1mo ago

Heck, that's wild. I can't believe you had to fake being calm while the homeowner watched that mess happen. I had a similar experience a few years back on a chimney in Beaverton. That twisted wire brush chewed up a clay liner so bad I had to stop and buy a whole new set of nylon brushes from the supply house just to fix my mistake. Those wire things are downright dangerous on anything that's not steel.