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The before and after on a 1920s bungalow flue in Dayton still has me laughing, 3 weeks later
Got a call three weeks ago from a nice older lady in Dayton with a 1920s bungalow, said her flue was "breathing funny" and she wanted a sweep. I pulled up and the fireplace looked normal from the living room, but when I got up on the roof the rain cap was gone and a family of starlings had moved in through a gap the size of my fist. The before photo I took shows a nest packed down about two feet deep, twigs and dryer lint and what looked like an old receipt from 2019. The after photo, taken about 90 minutes later, shows bare tile and a flue brush sitting at the bottom, which took two passes and a shop vac to get there. The funny part is she came out while I was on the ladder and asked if I could tell what the birds were "talking about" up there, dead serious. I also found a cracked crown I patched for $45 in materials, and she tipped me $20 in quarters from a coffee can. Any other sweeps run into starlings this time of year, or is it mostly squirrels for you?
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oscar_hunt615d ago
Thought starlings were just a spring thing until one nested in a November flue last year.
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