Can we talk about the lady on Oak Street who blamed me for her fireplace smoking after I told her the flue was too small?

Mary Sanchez · 2026-10-07T15:10:03.430064+00:00

I was on a job in Springfield two weeks ago, and the homeowner had a 1920s fireplace with a 8x8 flue running a firebox that needed a 12x12 minimum, so I told her straight up it would smoke and she needed a liner or a smoke guard. She said her husband built fires in it for 30 years with no problem, so I cleaned it, wrote "flue undersized, advised liner" on the ticket, and left. Three days later she calls my boss saying I left soot all over her white carpet and her house smells like a campfire, which was total garbage since I lay drop cloths everywhere. I went back with my camera, took pics of the clean firebox and the untouched carpet, and showed her the smoke stains above the damper that were there way before me. Now I put a quick phone video in every ticket on old fireplaces, so what do you all do when a customer swears you caused a problem that was already there?

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Can we talk about the lady on Oak Street who blamed me for her fireplace smoking after I told her the flue was too small? | Chimney Sweeps - nhfree.com