Custom Brick and Stone Co., Inc

Description of Work: Cleaned and inspected chimney.

Description of Work: Our chimney caps blew off in a typical Iowa winter storm -- snow, high wind, rain, sleet-- and water was coming down our living room chimney almost faster than we could sop it up with towels. We quickly called Custom Brick and Stone, and they immediately sent two workers out to examine our chimney and determine what work needed to be done. Obviously, the chimney caps were the highest priority. We were given a very reasonable estimate, and the scaffolding was set up that afternoon. The crew began working the next day, repairing the outside and inside of the chimney, sweeping both flues (we have a fireplace in the basement, too), and installing the chimney caps. The crew were cheerful, efficient, and went beyond just the work that needed to be done. They didn't just install the new chimney caps at the top of the chimney. They very carefully tuck pointed the chimney above the roof line, tinting the mortar mix to match our metal roof, and finished off the top edge of the chimney with a rounded edge so that rain water would not run down the chimney but would run out onto the roof and into the gutters. They also tuck pointed the entire chimney down to the ground. All this was done in below-freezing temperatures. My father had done some masonry, but he had never done any in the wintertime. I asked the workers how the mortar could set up properly in the cold temperatures. They told me that they have various mortars that are formulated to set up properly in all temperature ranges. One of the workers noted in the next block a house that the company had completely tuck pointed a few years previously. He said it was quite a different perspective from the top of the scaffolding around our chimney and he would like to take some photos from that angle. My husband quickly came into the house, got out his camera, instructed the worker on how to use it, then emailed the photos to the company.