Southern Sweeps LLC

Description of Work: Closet Shelves in new construction home

Description of Work: They came out to make an initial inspection and planned a solution.

Description of Work: We had a fireplace that had been poorly installed by my wife's ex-husband, such that, over the years, it began to leak around the chimney chase, causing water damage on an inside wall and dripping onto the woodburning fireplace insert. Also, the fireplace insert bricks had completely deteriorated. Contacted Provider's office, reached answering machine, and call was returned promptly by the owner's mother, who runs the office. Within a couple of days, the owner showed up for an inspection and quotation. He agreed to install a new metal chimney pipe and new fireplace insert. From there, everything went downhill. He gave dates when he said he or his workers would be here, and they never arrived on those days. I work from home, and, on the days they arrived, they showed up without notice, never knocked on my door, but just began working. This dragged on for weeks. Owner NEVER answered his personal phone, and his mother never returned my phone calls. Once he began working on the chimney, it was discovered that there was significant water damage to the roof. We agreed on a reasonable price for him to repair the roof decking and shingles, and we would end up with a metal chiminey pipe free-standing and extending out of the roof, thus not replacing the chimney chase. In the coming days, he and his workers showed up sporadically, unannounced, and work on the roof. At one point after not having heard from them or returning my calls, I drove to their office, approx. 30 miles away, and asked his mother when I could expect him to finish the work. (I had had to completely rip out the dry wall around the old fireplace, and new dry wall had been installed. However, this left air gaps around the old fireplace which could only be completed after the fireplace was installed, and I was concerned about possible leaks from the unfinished roof repair.) She stated that her son would finish the job in a few days. Very late one afternoon, he and a worker showed up and frantically began finishing the work, including the installation of the new fireplace insert and stovepipe chimney. He mentioned that he was trying to finish in time to get home for his daughter's 10th birthday dinner When he indicated he had finished, I went on the roof and discovered that the stovepipe chimney was very wobbly and completely unsupported, and I brought this to his attention. I also suggested that he go home to his daughter's BD party, as it was now past dark and approx. 7-7:30 p.m. However, he climbed back on the roof, made some adjustments, then said that a worker would have to come back to stabilize the chimney pipe. Although he did not say anything, it was apparent that he was disgusted that he missed his daugher's party. I paid him for the entire job, and he said a worker would come back to stabilize the pipe and bring a big magnet to detect nails in the yard and also clean the yard of roof and repair debris. I must state that, it was not my fault he missed his daughter's party. He showed up too late in the day to do all the necessary work and still be able to get home on time. Instead of showing up the next day as I was led to expect, several days later a worker showed up unannounced and worked on the chimney. After he left, I got on the roof and saw that the worker had hurriedly installed some sheet metal screws in a collar that overlapped the outside pipe in order to stabilize the interior chimney pipe and, although it decreased the amount of wobble, the pipe was way off-center. The yard had not been cleaned, and I picked up dozens of nails plus small pieces of roofing debris and shards of sheet metal. The large pieces of debris had been removed. the night of the fireplace installation. I did not contact this company again. However, when the tile installer came to place tile around the new fireplace insert, we discovered that the fireplace was about 1" off center. This may not sound like much, but it made a difference in the look of the tile pattern. Obviously, the owner had been in too much of a hurry to check his measurements. Since then, the fireplace has worked well, and, to my knowledge, we've had no leaks (though I've not been on the roof to inspect it). The stovepipe chimney rattles a little bit during high winds but not as badly as it would have if I had not checked it at the initial installation. For references, this owner had given me the names of several contractors, so, in my opinion, he gives his complete priorities to working for them. I would never under any circumstances recommend him again. The only positive things I can say are that the price was reasonable and, so far, I've had no problems with the products he installed.