Tight flue jobs leave me feeling wired at night

I've been cleaning a lot of old, narrow chimneys lately. It makes my mind race when I'm trying to fall asleep. How do you deal with the restlessness after confined work?

4 comments

4 Comments

ray_sullivan1mo agoMost Upvoted

I mean, "replaying every twist" sounds a bit dramatic, doesn't it? Like @avery_shah worrying about cracks. Is it really that bad or are we just overthinking it after a long day?

paul_ramirez19d ago

Yeah, "replaying every twist" used to sound over the top to me too. Then I got stuck on a weird offset in an old farmhouse flue for like three hours. Now I totally get it, my brain won't let go of those details either.

derek_hill1mo ago

Cleaning those narrow 8-inch flues from the 1920s has the same effect on me. I lie in bed replaying every twist and turn like a bad movie. My solution is to count imaginary bricks instead of sheep, but I usually lose count around the damp course. It's a special kind of torture reserved for us chimney folks.

avery_shah1mo ago

Forget counting bricks, the REAL torture is remembering every crack in the mortar.