Customer in Evanston asked me to clean a fake chimney last Tuesday

I show up at this house on Oak Avenue and the homeowner points to this decorative brick column on the side of the house. Swears it's a chimney. I tap on it and it's hollow, no flue liner, just a shell. Took me 15 minutes to convince her it was built for looks, not for any fire. Has anyone else run into people mistaking dummy chimneys for the real thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannah_wells15d ago

Oh man, that's hilarious. I mean, I once spent a solid hour cleaning a decorative well in someone's backyard because they swore it was their septic tank access. So honestly, I feel your pain way more than I'd like to admit. It's kind of funny how people just decide something is real because it looks the part, right? At least you didn't climb up there and try to sweep it, that would have been a mess. Hope the rest of your day went better after that.

emma_baker6115d ago

Olivermason Hannah's well story beats both our chimney tales for wasted time.

olivermason15d ago

@hannah_wells, a decorative well sounds even worse than a fake chimney. I guess people just assume if it looks real enough, it must be functional.