James Ball Chimney Cleaning

He must be very busy because he was unable to schedule an appointment for several weeks. However, an employee came right on time. He did a visual inspection of 2 fireplaces, reported that only one of them needed sweeping, and did the work on the spot. He was cordial, professional and efficient. I would definitely use again.

Great overall. Provided good recommendations of other services and followed up with quote via email. Would use them again.

They were very professional and knowledgeable, but claimed I needed thousands of dollars of work done...a little overkill compared to other estimates given

The service was done perfectly. The appointment was made reasonably soon, he came on time, we polite, respectful, made recommendations but not press. Did the work cleanly. No complaints at all.

Over all it went well - I wasn't there when the service was performed, but the owner took time to explain everything that was done to the chimney and basic chimney maintence the next day on the phone. The website is also very helpful with tips and FAQs for chimeny and fire safety

We hired James to clean our two chimneys in our newly purchased antique house. We knew that one of them was sealed up, but did not know why. James uncovered some significant problems with the venting of our furnace and overall safety issues. We were very grateful as we had no idea these problems existed and wanted to get them fixed before the weather turned cold. He was able to fix them by installing a new liner and resealing the connection to the furnace. When the town's inspector came by to check the work he paid James a very high complement by telling me that he knew James' work and it was always done right (and this was before he had taken a look at it), which it was. James fabricated a custom temporary chase pan cover to seal up the top of our chimney (where the furnace vents) until we could get a mason to re-mortar our loose bricks and cement the liner into place. James worked with the mason to create a plan for the chimney top as the job was complex due to the unique problems of our old chimney. The job has been completed now and we feel much safer! James really stands by his work and wants things to be done correctly. When we had a problem with our other chimney with smoke seeming to be coming in on the second floor he came out and looked at it free of charge and put together some diagnostic tests for us to do to so we could work together to it figure out rather than just start blindly spending money on possible fixes. We really appreciate his respect for our wallet and we know that when he does have the information to figure it out, it will be done correctly. We feel like he has provided us an exceptional level of service and would definitely recommend him to others.

I appreciated the prompt and courteous call back even though they could not handle the job in my town at the present time. They will do work during the fall season in southern Fairfield County only.

Whoa! Beware of Mr Ball?s tantrums?? Ball Chimney was scheduled to come between 8-9am today -An appointment we booked with Ball one month ago- and he decided to leave a voice mail on our phone at 7:58am this and say he wouldn?t be coming. Why you ask? Mr Ball says that in December 09 we asked him for a quote on some Chimney work and that we told him we were going with another provider because their quote was lower. So he feels like to work for us now would be, in his words, ?A waste of my time.? Keep in mind Mr Ball was NOT coming to give us a quote, but actually was scheduled to come and clean our Chimney today. I can only assume Mr ball was calculated in his choice to wait an entire month and cancel literally two minutes before he was due to arrive. My wife called him back and said, ?So your punishing us for using another firm three years ago?? Mr ball responded, ?Ya, that?s about right.? We are big fans of Angies list, used it religiously to both do our home renovation and find all our service providers. And, with the exception of Ball Chimney, we have been 100% satisfied with all the providers we?ve found through A.L. (Note our other reviews) I?ve taken the time to write this review not to ?punish? Mr ball but to help any other families who rely on prompt and professional value added service providers. When it comes to fire safety I?m not willing to compromise the Safety of my family. Mr balls tantrum has given me the opportunity to give work to another local business that both wants and deserves the community?s patronage.

No work was performed but he came as he said he would and he made a suggestion of someone who would have a permit to do the work.

Showed up on time and showed me ways to make fireplace safer and did an excellent job. HIGHLY recommend

Mr Ball and 2 assistants arrived on time, assessed the chimney and dryer vent and gave a proposal. They cleaned the chimney right away & we will likely have them replace. The dryer vent in the near future.

I called and he was available to come out the next day to clean the chimney. He brought his son and a helper. They were very careful while cleaning the chimney not to get any dirt anywhere. The chimney was very dirty and they did a great job. He inspected our dryer vent and furnace exhaust. he didn't find any problems and gave suggestions on how to improve the dryer vent.

Mr Ball came and quoted the job. His quote was $350. I had the work performed for $190. Mr Ball said my chimneys need other work but I will look around and have several quotes before proceeding.

We were very pleased with Jame's service. He was very patient in answering all our questions even before we had committed to doing the repair work with him. We found him to be very knowledgeable. James was very communicative and responsive (via phone and email). James also communicates clearly (using pictures he takes) what is good and what should be corrected and why. With the fireplace chimney he inspected it and told us it did not need to be cleaned yet. With the boiler chimney, which did need to be repaired/relined, James ultimately billed us for less than the amount he quoted (presumably, based on the job going smoothly). James earned our trust and we never felt that he was trying to create work for himself. (Indeed, my only complaint is that appointments are difficult to come by because James is in demand.) James is a consummate professional. He got the job done quickly, efficiently and with no drama. We will use James Ball again for our future chimney needs, and would not hesitate to recommend him to others.

We needed a dryer vent and tubing replaced. The old tubing from the dryer had unraveled and was full of lint. In order to prevent a further fire hazard, we decided to have the tubing and vent replaced. One of our neighbors just two block over lost their home to a dryer fire. We called James and made an appointment for an estimate. We really appreciated the thoroughness in examining our situation with photos taken inside the wall area where the dryer tube was located. After analyzing the data James called us with an estimate. This kind of research into our situation was much appreciated and the estimate was very reasonable. James and his employee are very punctual. Additionally, they are very professional and took great care as they moved about the tightly enclosed area where the dryer tube was located not to chip, knock over, or scratch any surface or appliances. James was extremely responsive to any questions, the quality of work was outstanding and he came just under the estimate. When all the work was done, we could not tell that James had ever been in our home, his cleanup was so thorough. Highest recommendation!

James met all expectations. He was right on time for all appointments. Gave a clear estimate of costs and clearly explained the need for all services. When doing the project he was flexible to work with us to deal with challenging timing and completed the tasks as agreed. He left our home clean.

The job was not done by James. The landlord decided to give the job to another company, because James estimate was higher.

James came to do a chimney cleaning but told me our chimney was clean. He also checked our dryer vents which were also clean. He didn't charge me anything. Very knowledgeable and friendly.

Very professional. set an exact time and came then. Did the work quickly and cleaned up. About as professional as you could get.

I called the office to make an appointment, which was an early morning 7:30 am. He arrived promptly with an assistant and examined not only the primary living room fireplace, but also one downstairs, as well as the utility room with our heating units and the dryer. He pointed out deficiencies in my setup that I didn't know about. His email estimate was sent promptly. Although we will not do anything about the broader issues right now, if I do need to make these changes in my system, I will call him in the future. (His proposed fix for the fireplace, which is why I called him, was probably right, but I felt more extensive work than I needed, so we opted for a lower tech and lower price alternative.)

Excellent job, very thorough. He went above and beyond the call in helping me understand and research possible options for fixing a problematic furnace venting issue I have. I would definitely use him again.

Overall excellent service. Mr Ball was very responsive and always provided a ton of information. Everything was explained thoroughly and executed exactly as described on time. Minor complaint- Omar (Mr Ball's capable assistant) left soot scattered fairly widely in the living room and poured out a small amount of concrete (after patching) on the back lawn to dispose of it. I consider neither to be serious but would have given an A for quality if not for these minor complaints. Otherwise, we are very pleased and I would very happily use them again.

They were excellent. They came out and looked at the chimney. It was fine and they didn’t charge me anything. What impressed me was how honest they were about what was going on and the fact that it was clean. It was a new house that I bought and I wanted to check on the chimney before I started using it. They told me that it was clean and good and that I didn’t have to worry about it. They were very pleasant.

James Ball is great. He responded right away to my call, came to do a review of our chimney and dryer, and gave us an estimate for the work. He was very fair and reasonable and advised us that some of the insulation our chimney between the damper and flue was wearing away. As an example of how honest and fair he is, he told us that we did not need a chimney sweep and that our dryer vent was working very well, with no need for any maintenance. He explained how he would fix the insulation problem and what was involved, both in labor and materials. He was very accomodating with our schedule, including a last minute change in the service date due to an issue on our end. When the work was done, it was done very professionally, and everything was clean. Mr. Ball was a pleasure to deal with, and has promised to provide us with guidance on how to best use of our fireplace (as we never used it before). He also sent us pictures after the work was performed to show the before and after. I would recommend Mr. Ball for anyone who needs work on their chimneys or dryer vents.

From the beginning, working with this company was challenging. I found Mr Ball's company on Angie's list. He had good reviews so I called him. He made a big deal about how he normally doesn't work in my town, but he would make an exception for us. So he came to look, showed up on time, with his assistant Omar. Omar did all the looking and Mr. Ball did a lot of talking (and not all about chimneys). He was pleasant enough, but it felt a little sales-pitchy. He said he would email me an estimate in a few days. A week went by and nothing arrived. I called and emailed him to follow up and he did not reply. I emailed and call two more times and when I finally got him on the phone, he swore he had emailed us the quote, and that he remembered me from my "high pitched voice," (or some similar descriptive thing about my voice - a statement I found a bit off-putting). But when he went to look up the estimate for me on the phone, he couldn't find our home in his records, and says he must have misplaced it, and could he come back to do a new estimate. I said no, but if he found the estimate he could call me. So he did call me later that day to say he found the quote and would email it in a few minutes. HOURS went by and there was nothing in my inbox. Finally the next day after I emailed him again, I got the estimate. His price was fair. He had some items on the quote that didn't interest us, so I told him. He adjusted the contract and also gave us a discount for using Angie's list and for our trouble with his finding our estimate. We thought that was nice. ON the day of service, Omar showed up to do the work. BUt he had the old contract and so thought he was doing a bunch of stuff we didn't want. I told him exactly what we had expected would be done. Omar did the work and left. Later Mr. Ball left me a message about how I needed to pay him. We paid him by mail. Later there was still water in the basement (we were aware that the caps may not fix the issue entirely) but when I called Mr. Ball to ask if the gap was sealed, he told me no. I asked him if he could come seal it because he said he would. Mr. Ball's attitude changed dramatically at that point. He said it was just a nice thing he had offered to do and now he was too busy and he might be able to come seal it in 7 weeks. I said 7 weeks seemed a bit long considering he had said he would do it and simply did not.. He then got a bit cross and said he would be over during the current week. I said thanks, but later called back to ask him not to come and that I would find someone else to take care of it. He then told me he didn't care for me and that he had already put a note on my file not to do business with me in the future....which actually is fine, because I won't be calling him back. The good side: His price was good and Omar seemed to know what he was doing. I do not recommend this company (but would hire Omar if he starts his own business).