Festool CTL Midi for Soot

[Marineboy]

Hi all

I'm preparing the old fireplace in readiness for woodburner installation. It used to house the old back boiler which was stripped out 3 years ago and replaced by a combi in the bathroom. Because of the size of the original fireplace I'm guessing that when the house was built (1900s) it contained a range. As a result there is some soot in the fireplace and up the chimney - not a lot, but enough to make working in there a pain, so I'd like to suck up the soot on the walls up to about 2 metres so I have a cleaner working environment.

Question is - can I use my CTL Midi for this? The comparison chart on the Festool website has only one vac (an expensive one) which has a tick against soot. It seems to me that if my Midi will cope with MDF dust without clogging up the filter and/or expelling dust into the room it will be fine with soot, but I would value the opinion of anyone who has used it for this.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Hi - in my experience this is a very mucky job. Soot from woodburning has an oily/waxy component which stains easily, soot from coal is slightly less oily but still pretty nasty stuff. The other thing you're likely to encounter in the flue is lime parging which was used (perhaps like a cement render might be these days) to consolidate and help to seal the inside of the flue. Lime dust is unpleasant stuff as it's alkaline - a strong vacuum may pull out lumps of this stuff. Soot and lime are all somewhat hygroscopic which adds to the fun. All told, I wouldn't choose to use my best (most expensive) kit to hoover it up! An old Henry would be a good option. Cheers, W2S

 

[Marineboy]

Hi W2S. Thanks for the reply, yes there are some loose lumps of mortar as well, quite crumbly which I am reluctant to disturb further. I was wary of using the Festool for such a filthy task so I will take your advice and just cope with the mess till I've got the recess lined.

 

[wide74]

Take my advice from someone doing this several times before. Don't use any expensive vacuum for soot, especially if it's in any way damp it stinks! Just buy a Henry with good bags and go for it they just keep going.......and going.....and going......and if you do manage to break one they are cheap to replace. I have two festool extractors and have gone through many Dyson vacuums but Henry does the mucky stuff every time.

Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

 

[Marineboy]

It's always good to get advice from someone with experience. Many thanks.