An old sweep in Boise told me he checks the smoke shelf before the flue, and it changed how I run every job
I was up in Boise last month helping a guy close out his business after 30 years on the ladders, and he said something that stuck. He told me the smoke shelf is where you find the real story on a chimney, not the flue, because that is where the creosote settles and the birds build. I have been checking it first ever since, and I already found a cracked shelf on a job in Nampa that I would have missed on my old routine. Anybody else switch up their order of checks and see a difference?
Wondering what your actual check order looks like now, like do you hold a light up the shelf before you even pull the damper? I ask because the creosote on a shelf tells you how the whole chimney has been running, so if it is glazed and heavy up top you know the flue is likely worse below. The cracked shelf you caught in Nampa, was that a crack from heat or just rusted out from years of moisture sitting there?