ABE CHIMNEY

The owner gave me an estimate which I thought was a little high but was pleasant, seemed qualified, didn't ask for down payment and told me I should beware of anyone who did expect money before job was done. Not being someone who does chimney work, I had to take him at his word for what needed to be done. I told him there was water running down into my cellar and "I" thought it was because there were a few spots on my chimney where the mortar was old, loose, missing. He told me the chimney had to be taken down to roof level and completely rebuilt. He was convincing, I hired him. The morning he arrived he had a hard time backing his open work trailer into my driveway, it's fairly narrow, just wide enough for my small SUV. He damaged one side of my wooden gate, along with a scrape on the side of his truck. I actually thought (stupidly) that he would contact me about repairing the gate, but after A YEAR I guess I should give up on that. I was surprised after the job was finished that he didn't use new bricks, they all look old and used, probably all the ones he removed as he took down my chimney. When a friend stopped by, looked up, said, "oh, I thought you hired someone to rebuild your chimney, guess not, looks like the old one." And quite OBVIOUSLY, the water running down into the cellar has to do with a few roof shingles, NOT the chimney....rain continued to run down in the same area. WOULDN'T YOU THINK A "PROFESSIONAL" CHIMNEY REPAIR PERSON WOULD KNOW THAT??!! After the job was done, there was a lot of cement powder/dust in the driveway which SHOULD have been JUST swept up but the "assistant" turned the hose on it basically just enough to wet it, it eventually dried and there were several large off-white blotches of dried cement sitting for about a month or more. For $1,950.00 , I think he got paid way too much and wasn't as honest and forthright as I first thought. The rain WAS NOT running down into the cellar because of some missing or loose mortar, he SHOULD have known that. According to Home Depot, bricks are pretty cheap. And one side of my wooden gate remains damaged and no longer closes properly. As an older person, retired and definitely not wealthy, this put a strain on my budget. One more example of life's crappy lessons.

Very well.

Extremely well! I had hired Mike 10 yrs. ago to line my boiler chimney and water- seal my fireplace chimney which had a 10 yr. warranty. I was very satisfied with the work done then, which was the main reason for calling him back.

Courteous, timely, trustworthy, and job done right.

Great, Mike was professional start to finish He returned initial and every follow up call promptly he inspected and went over in detail current status of chimneys and reviewed options (unlike the previous contractor who didn't even look at the interior of the chimeny's before he had quoted a price for repairs) Mike also offered to properly cap off one fire place chimneys that had been taken down by the previous contractor and ensured a water tight seal at no extra charge. In the middle of the project, He went over a misunderstanding I had about one of the chimney repairs he complete the job in 3 days as quoted He cleaned up the area just as it was prior to him starting The chimney's look and function great Very happy with the work and every interaction

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Originally I had contacted A.B.E. Chimney back in November 2014 and Mike had come out to quote the Liner, Cap, and repair work. After receiving other quotes from other masonry contractors, I reached out to Mike about executing the quote originally done in November this past May 2015. He responded within 24 hours and was willing to honor the quote. The day he said he was going to be there at 7:30 am, he was there ready to go at 7:30 am. He had to to increase his quote by $100 due to the condition of the mortar which was understandable and reasonable on my end. For the amount of work that he performed on his own, he was packed up, paid, and gone by 2:30.

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Initial appointment was on time. He explained the problem and the work to be done. We scheduled the job. He came on the day we agreed on. All work was completed in a timely manner. All debris was cleaned up. Job looked good. The price was the same as quoted. I didn't check around for prices. I assumed his was fair. The quality of his work was very good.

When we were getting quotes for this job, Mike was the only one to ask to come into the house and examine the chimney from the bottom where it connected to the furnace. It had been so long since it had been cleaned that it was just horrible! He showed me, using a mirror, all the debris from 25 years of burning oil and having fires in the fireplace. It was frightening! He explained to us that our fairly new furnace was not working efficiently because of the clogged chimney. Then he sat with us at the dining room table and explained everything to us and what each item in the quote was. He showed us all his proofs of license and insurance as well as a list of references. He was so professional and knowledgeable as well as very polite and personable. His quote was quite a bit higher than the others but no one had included the major cleaning, steel cover or the repair of the damper. In fact the others had merely stepped out of their trucks, looked up at the chimney, and quoted a price that covered the chimney only. I so appreciated Mike's thorough examination and complete restoration of our chimney system to restore us to safe and clean use of our fireplace again.

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ABE Chimney were good, the person came on time, as a matter of fact it was done this week, and they were good. He was here before the time he said he will be here. In fact, it was an one-man operation that was down here, but it in the past I know they had other people. He came down, did the job and has gone, as far as I know I can't rate him as far as under quality of work, but he seemed to know what he was doing. The person from ABE Chimney was experienced, very professional, right to it and did everything I asked him to do, and as a matter of fact works straight through. He came in around 8:30 AM in the morning and left about 2 PM. Regarding price, he wasn't the lowest or the highest.

Chimney is great. They cleaned up well, too. Even matched mortar to existing mortar. The only tiny flaw is they were late to arrive to give us the estimate... but they were on time for the actual job (super prompt in fact).

We used Mike back in 1995/1996 at our previous residence to install a rain cap for our chimney due to leaking into basement from rain. For the 16 years we were there, not one problem with the cap or any leaking into chimney, so when we moved to our new residence, we called on Mike to clean our new fireplace/chimney before we started using it. We knew the damper was problematic per the previous owners and once he did his assessment, he was able to offer a solution by removing the old damper and installing the combo rain cap (there was none at this house too!) and damper along with a full clean. Mike scheduled promptly and showed up on time. He put down tarps in living room, did the full clean, installed the rain cap, removed the yucky and corroded damper all while it was raining heavily. Once done, he showed me how easy it was to operate, when to clean chamber, and that we were all set to use fireplace. Mike is very personable, has many many references, and we can attest that his service and workmenship stands the test of time. Thanks Mike!

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Very pleased with the service ... I have used ABE several times, and will continue to do so.

As stated before, a Quality company

Their quality of work was good, but they were sloppy as far as cleanup went.

Owner came on time, provided comprehensive estimate for a stainless steel chimney liner, and later faxed insurance coverage. Said, he could begin in about weeks. Few days later, called to hire him but, said he couldn't do the job for yet an extra two weeks. Would d try to fit in sooner but, would make no promises. I decided to cancel (if he got sick, hurt, etc--I'd be into November with no heat) and hire a guy who could start sooner. I left a message and apologized. He called back and said, he could now come the very next day. He sounded perturbed as if I'd canceled a signed proposal(I'd signed nothing) or was canceling a job he was about to start(not by weeks). I told him I'd hired another. Suddenly, he hung up on me in mid sentence. Few days later, sends copy of the original proposal with following added paragraph. Inspection/appraisal; Thanks for not keeping your word. I operate my business based on trust. You are not trustworthy- Inspection/appraisal + wasting my time--$45.00". If there s a cost for an estimate, should he not have told me at our first meeting? You can decide for yourself if his behavior is Relevant to using his services or not.