Ely Stokes Inc. Chimney, Fireplace & Masonry

Follow up fix was required. The job took too long

There were a few issues found that were thoroughly explained and put into writing for us. We asked about our options and were given good information.

The service professional did a great job, and explained the results of the inspection very clearly.

Overall the service was fine. I bought the $129 cleaning and inspection deal several weeks ago and kept waiting to hear from their office about scheduling. No luck so I finally called and got an appointment. The tech was on time and efficient about the cleaning. He advised us we were missing a damper clamp which is apparently a pretty standard safety item. $30 to add one but I declined since the part is around $10 and we can easily do it ourselves. I asked about replacing the media in the bottom of the fireplace and that would be $99 to do. I'm sure that's a good price but we're also looking at needing to replace the chimney cap so we'll just replace the media on our own. I thought the service was good overall, the tech was observant and clearly explained what he saw, things to keep an eye on, etc. There was definitely an effort to upsell but that's their job and it's wasn't overly pushy and most of it was about things I asked about anyway. He did mention the chimney cover plate was very rusty and it's something we'd want to replace sooner rather than later. I thought he was going to get up on the roof and actually inspect it to get a more clear description regarding the state of the cover, but that didn't happen.

John was punctual, completed the work quickly, and answered all my questions thoroughly. Extremely friendly and helpful! I previously had the crew out for some creosote cleaning and they were great then, as well.

John was very professional & answered all questions asked. Would definitely use services again...................

Other than being about 20 min late, without a call, the appointment went well. It was completed in a timely manner and the tech gave me a recommendation for a flue replacement that was completely optional.

They did a good job and were careful to portect the carpet in front to the fireplace.

Went very well, would definitely hire for next year.

The tech was very good and identified some foundation issues. He did a great job on the chimney cleaning.

Excellent job. Fireplace looks great and the area around the fireplace is no worse the experience.

The Ely Stokes technician was very knowledgeable and explained everything he was doing. Both fireplaces were cleaned and looked almost like new when he was done. He even gave us advice for future maintenance.

Not well at all. They swept our chimney and they've been sweeping our chimney for 37 years and every other year and decided this time that we could no longer have fire in our fireplaces it was totally dangerous and they needed $12000 for the repairs. They were very good at rescheduling the chimney sweeping when we had to go out of town. The chimney sweep that we had come and look at the chimney who does not do chimney repairs said it's swept nicely so they did a god job sweeping it's the inspection they gave that we are upset about.

They were great. They identified some major issues with our fireplace that other companies had missed in previous inspections. Since fixing those problems we have had fewer problems with smoke leaking into the house and the cold air drat has been reduced significantly.

Originally bought coupon for inspection which was done timely. Unfortunately, they found large cracks in flue and needed to reline. The estimate for a reline was appropriate and they really worked to get it done within our timeframe. Looking forward to many more fires in the fireplace!!!!

After several attempts to reach them, I have not received a phone call back. They are not very responsive.

Got an estimate for further work but no cleaning was required.

The cleaning itself went fine. Afterwards, the gentlemen said we needed a new cover for the top of our chimney which would be $1100, and we needed to have our internal tubing completely rebuilt which would be several thousand dollars. I was told the owners of the company would have to provide a more accurate quote. I contacted the company 3 different times over the next couple of weeks hoping to get clarification. I have yet to receive a call back. Since this time, a competitor fixed my internal "issue", the one I was going to be charged several thousand dollars, for $50.00, and a new cover (with the same warranty and material) for $950. 2nd opinions are worth the extra effort.

Very well. John was very professional and helped fill in our knowledge of our fireplace and chimney.

My fireplace smoked upon the first usage of the year so I called this Chimney sweep because of his A rating. He came out late, took a look at the fireplace, said that it was CLEAN AND LOOKED LIKE IT HAD RECENTLY BE CLEANED (I guess I must have burnt out any blockage when I let my log burn). Swept up some loose ashes and charged me $130.00. I will never do business with companys like this again.

He really didn't do a very thorough inspection. I am used to my usual company which does a great job. He told me I couldn't use my fireplace because the chimney was clogged but he was wrong. I tried calling afterwards to follow up and they weren't responsive.

The cleaning portion of their visit went very well. They were very considerate not to make a mess and keep the living room clean. He even put on paper "booties" as not to track dirt and mud in from outside. We paid $450 up front and another $450 after installation of a customized stainless steel tray on December 9, 2016. Overall, we were happy with Ely Stokes Inc. Chimney, Fireplace & Masonry. A little pricey for the repairs, but I guess that's the price of doing business these days.

Ely Stokes gave us an estimate of ~$3000 to get the chimney functional. We negotiated that amount from the seller. After we closed, we asked Ely Stokes to perform the work, for which they had provided us an estimate. Ely Stokes said that in order to fix the chimney, they'd have to send a camera down the chimney to see what was needed, and the charge for that would be $65. It was baffling. We paid them to inspect the chimney so we knew what work was needed AND what the cost of the work would be. Apparently, that couldn't actually be done without sending a camera down. As the experts, Ely Stokes should have said that they needed to send a camera down at the time of the inspection--not after they gave us an estimate, not after we negotiated the price of the house based on their inspection/estimate, and not after we called them to do the work they gave us the estimate for. It was only after we had another A-rated chimney sweep look at the chimney (after Ely Stokes wouldn't honor their estimate) that we realized how poor their "inspection" was. Ely Stokes told us we had a flue liner, but they didn't tell us that it was in poor condition. Without a camera, the other chimney company was able to see that the flue liner needed to be replaced. Once they pointed out what you looked for, even my non-trained spouse could see the issues--again without a camera. The cost of the work to get the chimney functional is in excess of $9000. Three times what Ely Stokes told us, and which we relied on in purchasing our home essentially because they either didn't look at the flue liner or have the skill to identify the issue (which was the whole point of the inspection). If we had asked for a free estimate, perhaps that would have been one thing, but this was a paid for inspection.

Very well. Also no unexpected charges was nice too.

On time and courteous. Didn't try to up-sell, but made suggestion after I asked. Was able to do extra work on the spot.