The Mad Hatter Chimney Service

Very prompt service at a reasonable price. Have used them in the past and would continue to use them in the future. I asked for an estimate on the cost of replacing the vent covers at the top of the chimney and, despite taking pictures (the chimneys are over 50 feet in the air), never received the estimate. Not sure why?

The day started with the chimney pro calling and saying he was going to be early by about 45 minutes. Excellent. I was happy about that. The technician was pleasant the entire time and took the time and the effort to not make a mess. He also seemed knowledgeable and answered all of my questions. However, my "inspection" was using a flashlight looking up through the chimney. The exterior of the chimney and chimney cap were never checked. I was ok with having the chimney sweep for my own peace of mind. To me, for a $149 sweep/inspection, I expected a full inspection. The work performed was a "Level 1 inspection; routine sweeping of the chimney flue; and, visual inspection of readily accessible area of chimney, structure, and flue in accordance with section 1-5.2.2" -"Readily accessible areas of the chimney and structure" - I expected more of an inspection than just being readily accessible via my basement. Areas that it apparently doesn't include is checking the top 3/4ths of the structure. I was expecting the professional to at least walk around the exterior of the chimney. I called a couple days later and was told that the ground up inspection is the usual method of inspection unless they found something of concern. We've had a good rain in the last week and I can see rust stains on the interior and exterior of my chimney/fireplace (inside the house) so I will have to have another inspection soon. Perhaps my expectations are too high, but I feel the initial inspection should have been more thorough.

We were very pleased with the service we received. The owner arrived on time, quickly solved our problem, and ended up just charging us the minimum trip charge. We plan to hire them for some additional work, and would definitely recommend them to others.

Experience was not positive. I spoke with a service representative and understood that the company had a $100 fee to estimate our job that would be applied if the work was performed. We described the job to be done and the representative provided us with a ballpark estimate for the job over the phone, which was a standard chimney cap replacement. We understood this was a rough estimate, but it was significantly less than another quote we had already received and the company was highly rated, so we went ahead and asked them to come out. The actual quote we received was about 3x the ballpark estimate and 50% more than another local competitor that is also A rated. Wish we would have saved the $100 and gone elsewhere to begin with.

Our chimney cap was the wrong size when it was installed. Bats could crawl under the edge and make entry into the house through the damper. The proper cap was installed and the bats are gone. Makes for a happier wife.

Mad Hatter provided excellent chimney cleaning services. They were about 30 minutes later than expected, but did call my home and cell phone to let me know they were running late. They were very knowledgeable and efficient. They cleaned up after leaving footprints and handprints on our floor/doorway. We also received a personal thank you note in the mail after the service was complete.

I had a HVAC system replaced by another company and requested that the company subcontract someone to clean the air ducts as well. They disclosed that they use the Mad Hatter for these types of requests, and I had no issue with that since I've used the Mad Hatter previously for a chimney cleaning and have had good experiences with them. The Mad Hatter came and cleaned the ducts a few days prior to the HVAC installation. The guys were professional and courteous. They were careful to take their shoes off so they didn't track in dirt, etc. The HVAC system was then installed and turned on. That's when debris (bugs, small pieces of wood, insulation, dirt) came flying out of all the first floor vents. I spoke with the HVAC company and they asked me to bag up some of the debris so that they can work with the Mad Hatter to figure out what was going on and how to resolve it. Since I was first working through the HVAC company at first and then with a representative at the Mad Hatter that appeared to only work part-time, communication initially was slow and inefficient. The Mad Hatter representative asked if she could send someone to look at the debris so that they could see what they were up against, which was fine and I had no issue with it. However, I hadn't heard back from her in a few business days and Thanksgiving was coming up, so I needed to vacuum, dust and wipe down the house but didn't want to destroy the "evidence" before they came by to look at it. So, I called and spoke with another representative since she was not in that day, and the owner quickly made time to assess the situation. (I appreciated this as I do understand that it was right before the holidays and they are quite busy this time of year.) The owner arrived, took a look at the debris, looked in a couple of vents, and spoke with me about how he's talked to the guys who did the work and believes that the debris may have been due to debris being dislodged during the HVAC installation. However, regardless of what the cause was, he would have it taken care of and work with the other company to resolve their end. He apologized that he wouldn't be able to send someone before Thanksgiving (which was 2 days away), but he would work with the schedule to have the guys come back out to clean it again the following week. I explained that I didn't need the work done before Thanksgiving; I just needed someone to take a look at the evidence before I cleaned it up for Thanksgiving company. They would have rescheduled it for the Monday after Thanksgiving if my schedule would have allowed for it, which is a quick turn around for a resolution of this sort. They ended up coming back the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and the guys were here to do their thing. They were careful to lay down tarps, take their shoes off, and such since it was snowing when they were here, and they brought in their own vacuum and cleaned up afterwards. Overall, even though there were some issues (which may or may not have been due to their work), I would hire them again and recommend them due to how they resolved issues and stand by the quality of their work.

I contacted Mad Hatter to inspect and clean my chimney as I had recently purchased the home and wanted to make sure it was safe to use. The lady I spoke with was very friendly. They arrived as promised to clean and inspect my chimney and sad all was safe and clean. The cleaning and inspection did not take very long 30 minutes maybe. While there I asked the tech about whether or not they could replace my old dryer vent on the roof as the old one did not have a built in damper to keep out the cold. He said they could and he would have the office get in touch with me to setup a time for the install. I agree to the price and they came out and installed the vent while I was not home. I am in construction and am familiar with how this should have been installed but I am very busy and did not have the time and since the price they quoted was reasonable I let them do it. Upon inspection of the work done I noticed that they used the wrong sealants and had installed the vent improperly without tucking it under the shingles to keep water out. At this point I was irritated and repaired the vent properly and sent photos and an explanation to Mad Hatter. Over the course of 2 weeks with very little communication from Mad Hatter they finally issued a refund for the dryer work. Due to the poor workmanship on the vent I am skeptical of the quality of work done on the chimney.

Excellent service. They did a great job!

I received the estimate via email, on September 29th, for the work to be performed. We accepted the offer on October 10th. Communicating via email with Jennifer Kincaid at the Mad Hatter's office, we were told that a crew would be out on the 17th to measure the cap and it would take about 2 to 3 weeks to get it. The reason for the extended time was that the new cap was going to be custom made of stainless steel. The crew showed up this morning (October 17th) around 9 a.m.; made their measurements - which I faxed to their fabricator. The crew said they should have the new cap by Thursday or Friday of this week. They returned around 4:30 this afternoon with the newly fabricated chimney cap and had it installed by 5 o'clock! This really is a great example of super-service! As I'm too old to go climbing on steep roofs 40 feet in the air, there are no before and after pictures of this install.

We have had an interior leak in a wall that is backed by a chimney, and thought that a video viewing of the inside of the chimney would help us figure out what was the source of the leak, so we called The Mad Hatter and explained the situation. What I expected was that the person who operated the video and I could look at the view together, and see if there was anything that would explain the leak. That is not what I got. From the moment he arrived, the workman was brusque and in a hurry. I showed him the wet spot on the wall, then took him to the access point to the chimney, in the basement. As he set up his equipment, continuing to move very quickly, I asked if he had a lot more to do that day, since he seemed to be in a hurry. To my surprise, he said "no, this is it." I asked him some questions about how the process worked, which he answered with apparent reluctance, in as few words as possible. He set up the video viewer in a way that made it difficult for me to see what he was looking at, and continued to answer questions with clear reluctance. There are 2 flues in that chimney, and he began to put the viewer into the one that is NOT next to the wet wall. When I pointed this out to him, he gave me a look that suggested he didn't believe me, but I was able to demonstrate that I did know which way was which in the house I have lived in for 10 years!! I was quite surprised at how roughly he treated his equipment (he knocked over the viewer twice). When I asked if the equipment could measure how far up the chimney it was going, he said "yeah, but I didn't set that up before I started." By this point, I was sufficiently uncomfortable with this person that I did not ask him to start over with the measuring capacity in place--although that was my preference, since it would have told us when he was going past the wet spot, 2 floors above us. In the end, he said that he did not see anything that would explain the leak. By the next morning, I was still upset by this experience, so I called the owner of the company. He apologized for the employee's "curt" manner, and acknowledged that "he can be intimidating." To me, that means this person should be re-trained or re-assigned. There are a number of highly rated chimney sweep companies on Angie's list. Next time I will try one of the others.

Everything went great. They called to say they could come over earlier than scheduled if it was all right with us. Once here, they were very neat and we didn't get any dirt or dust in the house. They also inspected the chimney and flashing as we had some water damage on the ceiling that looked like it might be from a problem with the chimney. They told us the flashing is insufficient and that we also have missing mortar. Normally they would be willing to do the masonry work, but since this is their busy season they gave us the name of a mason they often refer people to. The overall experience was great. Dennis discussed our chimney's problems in detail and took time to make sure we understood everything.

The prior owner of a house I just purchased stated The Mad Hatter had recently cleaned the chimney but he did not have a receipt. Prior to fireplace season, I wanted to verify the chimney was ready to go. I contacted the company via the email link for on Angie's List. The next day the owner replied and also followed up with a call. He not only confirmed the prior service call but also told me they had recommended the prior owner do a camera inspection of the chimney and firebox. The prior owner declined that service, I assume since the house was going to be sold and the new owner could do that inspection. I decided to schedule a camera inspection and scheduled that service call. Shawn was the service tech that provided my service, and he was prompt and efficient. He even told me about a loose furnace exhaust vent cap he saw when he was inspecting the chimney cap. Overall, I am very pleased and will definitely have this company continue my chimney service.

He was very straight forward and told me exactly what I needed.

They were prompt in all activities, very professional, sharing pictures and video from the existing damage, work in progress, and then completed views. Worked with me to install quality equipment, explaining pros and cons of options along the way. We had agreed to rebuild the entire chimney based on the damage we could see, but after they had started work they discovered that the existing bricks were the solid versions. Not the more common ones with holes drilled through them. Thus the existing brick structure was much stronger than previously suspected and we only needed to rebuild the top 8-10', saving me over $2000! It would have been very easy for them to keep that information to themselves and move ahead.

Our chimney was leaking during heavy rain storms. Dennis the owner came out and assessed the situation. He found that the crown on our chimney (the cap) was rusted and damaged due to age. The collars on the vents were also rusted and deteriorated. He took numerous photos of the damage to show to me when he came down. Dennis recommended a custom stainless steel cap and gave me a good price for the work. He had the cap fabricated and came back out in less than a week to do the installation. He showed me the old cap and new photos of the work performed. He did a great job and was very professional. I highly recommend his work.

They are professional. They do a good work. Their price is reasonable.

The service technition showed up on time. Started his work by cleaing the chimney flue. I left the house for 15 minutes. When I returned he was working on re-motaring the loose brick in the chimney fire box. I asked him when he was planning on cleaning the chimney and he told me it was already done. He told me he works from the bottom up to save time. This must have taken him less than 15 minutes. The previous chimney sweep took much longer and worked from the top down. Internet research descrbes top to down as the perscribed/preferred method. Roughly 15 minutes later he went out to his truck and wait while the mortar inside the firebox was drying. I inspected the fire box and realized that instead of removing the cracked and loose mortar, he simply mortared over it. I went to his truck and asked him to come back in and review his work with me. He acknolwedged he made a mistake, apologized and then pulled out the old cracked mortar and then re-mortared. The chimney cap and chimney sealant went smoothly and probably took an hour in total. For all this, less than 4 hours work, (much of that waiting for mortar to dry, and including the re-work) and $100 materials, I paid over a $1,000. Finally, when I began to re-install the fireplace doors, laying on my back, looking up, I noticed significant cracking above the chimney lentil - which should have been addressed during the repair. I ended up going to Lowes to buy the materials to complete the job myself. I called Dennis Lamb to discuss this matter and he was very unpleasant and highly defensive of his technition. Clearly I would find no satisfaciton with Dennis Lamb and The Mad Hatter.

Quick response time, timely updates and pleasant rapport with customers.

They came out and replaced my old chimney. The new one looks great. They were very quick and efficient. The only down side is that I wish the owner would call me to give me a little update on how long it would take each day. I didn't know it was a 3 day project, so a heads up would have been nice.

The smoke alarms went off and they came out right away to check everything out. We thought there might been a problem with the chimney. I felt very comfortable with them.

They gave me an estimate and made an appointment for me. Everything went well and they did a great job. After they did the job, I had another part of it where they put a wash on the chimney and it had to dry. They will be coming back in a couple of days to finish it. I would use them again in the future if I ever need work done on they chimney.

I called The Mad Hatter to evaluate some chips of tile I noted falling into my fireplace. They came out and performed a basic cleaning and a scope of the whole chimney to determine the nature of the problem. They found only superficial damage to a few tiles and said no further work was needed. They were prompt and cleaned the work area well. I appreciated their honesty and I didn't feel pushed to do unnecessary work. I would definitely use them again.

They showed on time and did the service flawlessly without leaving a mess.

Everything went great. They were very clean and swept after the job. They really did a good job overall. I would recommend this company and use them again. They were very reasonable when it came to price.