Chicken wire in foam is a bad idea. It can rust and cause more problems than it fixes. The rust stains bleed through and weaken the whole patch job. There are better ways to reinforce foam that won't fail in a few years. Your old boss was using a shortcut that creates long term issues.

Honestly @derekjenkins, you're onto something. Tbh, I never really thought about how proofreaders basically save us from looking like total fools online. They catch all the tiny mistakes that completely change what you're trying to say. It's wild how a missing comma or a wrong word can make a whole sentence mean the opposite thing. We should probably thank them more.

That old steel brush probably polished the creosote glaze instead of removing it.