Appreciation post: That old brick flue in Spokane taught me to trust my eyes over the camera

Last week, I inspected a 1920s home in Spokane with a tricky offset flue. The homeowner showed me a video scan from another company that said it was clear. I still ran my brush and pulled out a whole crow's nest, about 3 pounds of junk. The camera missed it because of the angle and the soot buildup. Everyone pushes for the high-tech gear, but sometimes the old ways just work. Has anyone else had a camera fail them on an older chimney?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant82621d ago

Three pounds of junk? That's a whole crow's nest, not just some twigs. I can't believe the camera scan said it was totally clear, that's a huge miss.

michaeljones21d ago

Yeah @grant826, that's the kind of thing that gets me. It's everywhere now, you trust some system to check things and it just totally whiffs on something obvious. Feels like we're all supposed to just accept what the screen says, even when our own eyes tell us a completely different story. Makes you wonder what else is getting missed because a machine gave it the all-clear.