Dirty Jobs - Discovery Channel Mon 9/3 4pm

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kwburn

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
Nov 19, 2005
253
Connecticut
This coming Monday Sept 3 at 4pm on the Discovery Channel the show 'Dirty Jobs' will be doing a thing on chimney sweeps. Could be interesting. It's on both the original channel and Discovery HD at that time so I'll be DVR'ing it in HD :)
The guide says its a repeat from 2005 so maybe some have already seen it.

Tonights episode they were cutting trees and pulling them out of the woods with mules (nice ones, not your average donkey!). It was pretty cool as the way they were hooking up the mules was just like you see the draft horse pulling competitions at your local fair. Back'em in, hook'em up, and off they go.
 
Both reruns. The chimney sweep episode was sort of a letdown, so don't go in with high expectations.
 
I had a friend who in his younger days cleaned out the chimneys of steal mills and such, when they did their shut downs. He has some great stories. He has really long hair and he talked about getting such a stactic charge from holding the vacuum hose, that his hair stood up. Apparently they didn't have grounding straps or didn't use them. He said when you got a charge like that going the only thing to do was to back up towards something metal. He said getting zapped in the hip didn't hurt nearly as much as in the arm or hand. He also said you could see a good two or three inch spark and it did leave a mark.
 
Yeah the sweeps one was a let down.

They did one here in Madison where they cleaned out septic tanks and schools grease traps. Then they showed how they just empty it all out into a big parking lot so it can dry up. Then they scrape it out with a bull dozer and put it in the landfill or something.
 
thats too bad the sweep one isn't that good. i had a feeling it might not be. i'll still check it out though.

funny the septic tank one is coming up in the next week as well. i had already set it to record (how pathetic is that?). last night was the first time i saw the show and thought it was good. i like anything in HD though (although i dont' think their portable cameras are all that great, the resolution isnt exactly spectacular).
 
I thought it was ok. It was some great exposure for the CSIA and showed some of the dangers of dirty chimneys. Granted all they cleaned were open fireplaces, but honestly the open fireplaces are probably the most camera friendly and "dirty job" looking ones. All the soot hitting the floor, cloud of dust etc. I think he should have had to retrieve a dead bloated racoon, or a live mamma not so happy your peeping at the babies
 
kwburn said:
This coming Monday Sept 3 at 4pm on the Discovery Channel the show 'Dirty Jobs' will be doing a thing on chimney sweeps. Could be interesting. It's on both the original channel and Discovery HD at that time so I'll be DVR'ing it in HD :)
The guide says its a repeat from 2005 so maybe some have already seen it.

Tonights episode they were cutting trees and pulling them out of the woods with mules (nice ones, not your average donkey!). It was pretty cool as the way they were hooking up the mules was just like you see the draft horse pulling competitions at your local fair. Back'em in, hook'em up, and off they go.
Click to expand...

I saw the one last night when they were cutting trees and hauling them out with mules. All I could think was I can't believe they are doing this without any PPE. See how much influence you folks have on opinions. Two years ago I never would have thought about it. Now I can't believe they didn't have anything on, no chaps, helmet, eye protection, nothing. Go figure.

Eric
 
Eric said:
Two years ago I never would have thought about it. Now I can't believe they didn't have anything on, no chaps, helmet, eye protection, nothing. Go figure.
Click to expand...

Same here two years ago. Now I look like RoboCop going into the woods.
 
Well I must confess. I have been cutting in shorts this summer. I wear gloves, goggles, and ear protectors, but I don't have chaps and I know from motorcycle riding that jeans don't do a thing to protect you. Anyway, I have been cutting up dead fall and I have a little stand I made to hold the wood, so I don't think I'm being overly dangerous.
 
If I had a video camer at the time I have been unfortunately in situations not fun.

I own excavation equipment doing a an addition excavation in the neighboring town where the swere pipe passed threw

I knew where it was and was real carefull not to hit it with the machine. So in in a particial dug out hole, using a d
hand shovel to dig around it to expose it. as soon as T remover the earth around it blew apart and filled the
area I was standing up to my waist almost instantly. I seemed they had septic problems and added a chain
maybe 5 other overflow tanks and had the system pumped out. Normally one should only find a trickle flow in that pipe but they system never worked right
and always backed up Naturally I find this all out after the fact the original clay pipe was still functioning but only due to ground pressure support
once I uncovered it and removed the ground popressure support the old pipe burst and the back flow filled the excavation hole. i was standing in

Today this home could never be built because the clay soil would never pass a perk test.

I have seen heavy equipment flipped over and one time rescued an opperator while doing an inspection
he was on the edge of a bancking when the vibration of the machine caused the banking support
to give way The machine was just about to rool over down the 30' banking when I was walking to my truck.
he ws trying to push his way back to a safe position but ever movement caused more soil to give way. Finally he noticed me yelling at him to get the hell out of there
I had some rope in the truck and tossed it to him so he could get out of the hole and leave the machine. Man when he made it he was shaking and looked quite pail

He was so worried about loosing the machine that he forgot about his own personal safety I stayed with a while so he would not do something stupid like try to rescue the machine and called some other contractors to help get the machine pulled to safety. there are times when you can't predict what can happen IF he had swung the boom to the other side or the downslope to push himself back up the boom opposite the slope was the counter balance weight he would have been gone
 
Just a follow up on the chimney sweep episode. I thought it was ok. I guess how much can you really expect them to cover with it?

The part where they simulated a creosote fire in that chimney was interesting. When they lit the smoke coming out of the chimney like a blow torch, wasn't that actually just secondary combustion they were demonstrating and not a creosote fire? Also, I know the whole idea is to make the host of the show feel uncomfortable and dirty about the job but I thought sticking his face in that smokey fire was a little dangerous. You could tell being stuck on that platform in front of it got a little hairy.
 
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