Ultimate Chimney Sweep

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The two men were pleasant and were on time. The problem I had was that they found several problems, cracked flue and masonry problems (approx. $2500+ in repairs). Because of the cost, I had other companies come out to quote and found three problems with Ultimate. 1) My chimney was in good condition and needed NO masonry repair. 2) the oil burner flue was swept but debis was never cleaned. It just sat in a big pile when you opened the flue door. 3)My flue is cracked and I will need a new liner but many of the extras that Ultimate quoted, were included in other companies estimates therefore costing me a lot less than Ultimates quote .Overall I felt they were trying to take advantage of me. I will no longer use or recommend.

Was hearing clicking in the chimney and thought there were squirrels in it. Called Ultimate Chimney late Friday afternoon and they were here first thing Saturday morning. Noise turned out to be insects in a log. Had the fireplace chimney cleaned while they were here. Whole thing took about an hour. The service technician Eric, was very professional, and clean. Recommended some other services but was not pushy.

I chose not to do business with them.

They were very nice and professional and accommodating on the phone when setting up the appointment for the estimate, which was admirable because I didn't have much flexibility about the date and time of the appointment. However, 3 weeks have gone by since they came to the house for the estimate, and I haven't heard anything from them. I just called the company to inquire about the estimate and was informed by the representative on the phone that they cannot give me the estimate because I am not the legal owner of the house (we close tomorrow!) and that they need the current owner's permission. Not only that, but even after we close they cannot give it to me because I was not the legal owner at the time of the estimate! It would have been nice if someone had told me that when I called to schedule the estimate (I was very clear about the fact that I did not own the house currently, but am in the process of purchasing it), or if they had contacted me since then tell me. Very poor business practice.

They have done work for us in the past. Replacing the chimney cap improved the draft and helped spruce up our house. They were very careful and good. They kept things clean and are very professional. I will use them again in the future.

The technician cleaned the chimney, but then upped the price saying that more than a brush was required so there was an additional charge. In prior years, using more than a brush was included in the price. I used this company a number of times previously. Then, the technician tried to sell us additional services. Not cool. I hate when service technicians are required to try and sell additional services. This chimney has been cleaned at least once a year since we have owned the house. I do not believe we had anything unusual in our chimney that should have been unexpected. When a company gives me a price for a cleaning and then I am asked to pay more, I am not sure if this is a profitable upsell or a safety issue that is something necessary to do, leaving me feeling trapped towards paying the extra just to be safe. I feel more suspicious when I am quoted for several other things not asked for after the is done, especially when I have to sign a paper saying I have received a quote that I did not request - such as for a new chimney liner. That says to me the technician is not only asked to sell but also made to prove the attempt. Perhaps, at a minimum, it would be better to give a price for the basic cleaning and then explain ahead of time which services would require an extra charge to get a clean chimney, instead of providing a surprise and no opportunity to shop around or research the necessity of the work the day of the cleaning.

They did a good job. No complain. No other contractors I contacted would do the same job in this weather. Fortunately, 2/18 was sunny and temperature is above 50oF.

They were incredibly polite and very courteous in my home. They didn't even want to come in the actual house. They were really nice, polite men. They got on the roof and did a really good inspection. They were very clean; I didn't even know they had been there.

The guy was trying to make several thousands of dollars on me. He went on and on and told me about things I needed to have done that really weren't necessary. He went on and on, it was more of a sales kind of thing instead of service. I wanted my specific service done, I didn't need the other stuff. He was pushy and unethical even in the threatening kind of way. He would say he's friends with people at the gas company, he probably wouldn't turn the gas on if you don't have the liners put on.

Disaster! Ultimate Chimney arrived on time, but had brought the wrong supplies. They left and didn't return until noon. This was supposed to be a one day job! The installers then proceeded to smash out the existing clay liner. We thought the new liner would be inserted inside the existing clay liner (as every other company was going to do), but Ultimate shook and smashed the chimney so much we thought it would come crashing down. We still think they have ruined our chimney! The installers were very unprofessional, their tools were old and broken, barely working. The chuck on the drill they used couldn't be tightened and they had to stop every 2 minutes to try to tighten it. They were irritated and kept throwing their tools down on our roof. My husband was so disgusted by their lack of professionallism, he wanted to kick them off the job and hire a different company. It took them 2 days to finally finish. To top it off, their work did not pass inspection. The building inspector was agahst at the duct work from the chimney to the furnace. It failed for 7 different issues! When I called Ultimate, they did send someone over and at first they claimed the duct work wasn't their fault! We insisted they fix the problems they created and they did send someone (other than the original 2 installers!) who did make the necessary changes. This job was totally blotched from start to finish. We still think they wrecked our chimney. We will never use them again and recommend you don't either!

My carbon monoxide alarm went off. After having several people out (gas company, heater specialist), one thought the problem could be a clogged flue. I called the Ultimate Chimney Sweeps around noon and they were there within 5 minutes of when they said they would - by 3pm. They found some animal debris at the top of one flue and cleaned both flues. While they did try to garner more/future business by inspecting the parts around the chimney as well, they were not pushy at all. Everything was completely cleaned up, and my carbon monoxide alarm stopped going off. A second time I called them for a routine flue cleaning, and they were again right on time, did the work very quickly, and kept everything clean afterwards.

Excellent work; punctual and professional.

At first things seemed to be going well. The mason and his helper seem amiable enough. After the work was done they showed me the work, of course I did not go up on the roof but the masons work looked good from where I stood. The next day I went into my basement to find the whole place covered in an oily film (you could not see it but it came off on your hands when you touched anything) and this was just not in the work area but the whole basement. I contacted the Ultimate chimney sweep (UCS) and after a number of unreturned calls I spoke with Julie the manager. She had sent another tech out who looked at the trouble and took pictures I was informed that someone would be in touch. I wait a few weeks and again tried numerous times to contact the company to find out what they were going to do. Finally I spoke to a receptionist who informed me the Julie and the owner had told her that they did not deal with the client directly in matters like this and to call my insurance company. My insurance company came right out and handle the matter to the cost of $3000 for the clean up (I only had to pay my deductable) some companies are responsive not UCS. Well I thought it was over, not so, a few months on and I noticed a orange stain on my roof (which had been installed after the chimney work by a reliable company) I called my roofer who came out that day to look at the roof, the verdict was the so called 100%stainless steel cap had rusted and the rust was running down and ruining my roof. I once again called UCS and once again after a number of unreturned calls they sent someone out to look at it. Lo and behold the tech that came out was amazed and never saw the like before. He took pictures and said that someone would call me back within the week, no calls, I finally had to call them and they set an appointment. A technician came out and replaced the cap, then told me that he was informed the would have to contact the manufacture to get advise on how to clean the roof and that they would again call me back, 3 weeks went by and I, again had to called them back Again I spoke with Julie who told me “oh yes I have a note here on the board that I was to call you back” then why didn’t you? I asked excuse, excuse, excuse. We finally agreed that someone would be out on 11/25/09, I asked Julie if they would indeed be out on that date seeing that it was the day before Thanksgiving, I was informed that they were working on that day and they would be out before noon. At 1pm on the 25th I called and spoke with the receptionist who informed me that no one was there and that she had me on the schedule for 12/02/09. After ranting at her and then apologizing (because she was just their receptionist) she told me that she would absolutely guarantee that someone would be there on the 2nd before noon and that she (the receptionist) would take the responsibility. (Someone needs to be promoted) As 12noon approached on the day no one came, then miraculously I got a call at 11.50am from the technician who said he was running late but was on his way. He showed up with a small bottle of fluid got up on the roof sprayed it with the stuff rubbed a brush over it and sprayed it with my hose, then sat on the roof and waited for it to dry. Did it work…no, some came off but not all or even most. He informed me that he had no more of the product and that they had only given him 1 small bottle and that he had spoken with someone back at the office who told him that… you guessed it someone would call me back within the week once again no calls were returned. By this time it had snowed and Christmas was upon us. I call UCS for the last time on 1/8/10 and informed the poor receptionist (this time it was Holly) of my complete and utter dissatisfaction with the company, she was very apologetic (but only the receptionist). So all in all absolutely do not use this company for anything… I beg you. And if I see one of their trucks on the road at someone’s house I will stopped and inform the home owner about them to save someone else my headache.

He explained exactly what he was doing and he did an excellent job.

I hadn't used my fireplace in a number of years and when I tried to open the damper, I couldn't get it to budge. When a friend did get it to move, lots of ash-like debris fell down. I decided it was time to call a chimney sweep. The technician explained that years of "sluffing off" of the chimney had accumulated because I hadn't opened the damper in so long. He arrived on time, calling ahead as requested, answered all my questions, and left the place spotless. He strongly reocmmended that I have the gas furnace flue cleaned, since I could not remember ever having done that. He did that also. The price was exactly what I had been told it would be when I made the appointment.

The "tech" Justin made a cursory inspection of the stove (stuck his head in the stove and looked up the pipe (it is a straight pipe ), looked at the metalbestos above the roof from the back yard, and said we needed to replace the entire chimney pipe. After phoning the boss, he gave a written quote of $1895. The $159 for the "inspection" was on top of this. Justin couldn't explain exactly what was to be done for the $1895, and said another person would need to come out the next morning to identify what parts were needed. The quote provided no detail on the work to be done, and the inspection report only said the chimney needed to be "chain whipped." It was obvious that Justin knew no more than I did; his job was to get a check from us for the "inspection" and a deposit for the work. We had a second company re-do the inspection. Result: the chimney only needed cleaning. The cleaning was $149; the inspection would have been $59, but was "free" with the cleaning. The chimney works fine.

Overall, pretty good service. Timely, clean, explained what was going on. I also needed an estimate on exterior chimney repair, and he explained the estimate very thoroughly. During the cleaning, he recommended new liners and explained the pros and cons. He cleaned up properly at the end and wrote up the estimates. I asked about getting comparison estimates. He was open to it, and suggested they would match a similar estimate.

The best thing about them was that they found a squirrel nest in my chimney with 3 baby squirrels and a mother squirrel. I thought they would just kill them, but he took extra time rounding up the mother and babies and relocating them to another tree in my backyard. I am a huge animal lover, and I couldn't believe how great that was. I was very impressed, and he really made my day. I'll always call them again.

It went okay, our biggest challenge was getting them to call us back. The woman in the office always said she would take a message and contact whoever needed to be contacted regarding our problems. It took often times up to a week for them to respond. In general they fixed a few problems but made the most important one bad. They added a cap to prevent water from leaking down the chimney and rotting the boards underneath, that was good. They added a separation wall to prevent exhaust fumes from our hot water heater and boiler from exiting through the fireplace which was okay except it then caused a significant reduction in upward draft so now we have constant smoke leaks. They added a brand new damper but dropped mortar on the hinge causing it to not open and even more smoke leak. They fixed the mortar but could do nothing about the separation wall. It was built to code but pretty much makes having the chimney obsolete. We now have learned that direct exhaust would have been better.

Horrible! The chimney that needed re-pointing had cracked and crumbling mortar. They sent out 3 technicians and none of them was able to complete the job. Mortar is still cracked and crumbling in several places, there is mortar smeared on the face of the chimney, and they didnt match the color of the new mortar to the old. They stopped returning our phone calls and eventually reimbursed us for the re-pointing after we threatened to take them to small claims court.

Each year they come out and find a new problem that no one else ever sees.

HE CLEANED THE OIL FLU, DID A CHIMNEY SWEEP, INSTALLED A CLEAN OUT DOOR, AND SAID WE NEEDED TO REPLACE THE LINER. HE WAS VERY GOOD.

THE FIRST TIME I USED THE FIREPLACE AFTER THE CLEANING, SMOKE POURED INTO MY HOUSE. THE COMPANY REFUSED TO RETURN MY PHONE CALLS. SEVERAL MESSAGES WERE LEFT WITH JULIE THE OFFICE MANAGER, BUT WERE NEVER RETURNED. IT SEEMS THAT THE COMPANY IS INTERESTED IN YOUR BUSINESS, BUT NOT INTERESTED IN FOLLOWING UP WITH YOU IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG. PATCH WORK THAT WAS DONE IN THE BASEMENT DIDN'T STOP THE LEAK THAT I WAS ASSURED IT WOULD. NOT AT ALL HAPPY WITH THIS COMPANY'S SERVICE. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.