American Professional Chimney & Masonry

It went fine. it was not very dirty. they pointed out several cracked fire bricks in the fireplace, offered to replace for $50/brick. These bricks are less than $10 on line and are simply pushed in place, so this seemed unreasonable. otherwise, it went as expected

They were very pleasant. They were quick with their work. Scheduling was fine.

I ordered twice for two different homes. It took less than an hour. They're great.

Went well and they kept the house clean

The work was fine. The workers were fine. They left the area clean. I would recommend them to a friend.

Excellent job, arrived within 30 minutes of the original phone call, awesome!~ was detail and professional~

They did an awesome job. They arrived a bit after their time window, but not badly so.

Everything as expected except for proper replacement of the flue lever which was removed for the cleaning and inspection, with no evident note as to why it wasn't left in working order. It's a very old chimney with several problems due entirely to age, so it may have been unavoidable to disassemble the parts, but we had to return the lever to proper working order ourselves. I have no real complaints and I would use them again if I found their estimates to be competitive with other quotes. Still, it's a point to note.

We bought this service through a deal on Angie's List on a Thursday evening. By Friday midday, we had already scheduled the service for Saturday morning. They were on-time, very professional, and efficient. I would highly recommend them.

We were not impressed with this service - they left a lot of soot and dirt both in the chimney and on the floor around the chimney. We had to use a shop vacuum to clean up all the dirtiness that was left behind on our floor, and then had to mop after that. We just don't think they cleaned as thoroughly as we were led to believe they would. As for the inspection, it was fine and they did not try to upsell us or pressure us at all - one of the two things that they told us about we already knew we needed from our home inspection. The employees themselves were nice enough.

They cleaned the chimney very well. The communication could have been better.

They decided after looking over my chimney that I did not need the cleaning and informed me I could request a refund.

They were pretty good and I didn't have any bad experiences.

The cost, for the work they did, was fine. Scheduling was also fine with them.

I gave an overall B - but the company and the guys who came to do the service were very professional and responsive, however I have to write the review from my perspective . . . in terms of quality and and price. The cleaning went very well, however when they inspected the chimney I was told that most of the top part of the chimney needed replacing ($2000) and that there were gaps in the terra-cotta liner so that needed replacing completely ($2900) . . . Photographs were provided and a full written report - some of the bricks looked like they needed replacing and I guess I could see some gaps in the 'down the flu' photographs - but was $5000 worth of repairs the only recourse here, maybe it was maybe it wasn't - I just know it was way too much money to spend !! Bottom line is that cost to benefit ratio is just not there - I paid $119 for a clean and inspection and then got handed a $5000 quote so I could light a fire I don't know enough about chimneys to say if this is a realistic quote - all I know is that its a wildly expensive amount of money to spend for a fire when I can (for a lot less) put an electric or gas fire in there :-) As I say, nice guys who came round & Catherine was very nice and professional - maybe I got unlucky but if spending $5K was the only option to light a fire, I just won't light a fire and they priced themselves our of any additional work hence why I say I won't use them again just because there will be no need.

The sweeps called me at the time the appointment was to start and said they would be 45 minutes late. An hour after that they called again, this time from my Angie's List home address, not the address where the services were to be performed (a home we are moving into). They arrived at the right location 30 minutes after that. I told them that I understood the late arrival. Two polite young men came in without shoe covers carrying brushes and a shop vac. The entire "cleaning" lasted no more than 10-15 minutes. As they were packing up in the house, one (named Alex) commented that, I "...must not use the fireplace much because it was in such good shape." He then said he would go up on the roof, inspect the chimney and give me an "estimate of the repairs that would be required." I thought this was odd since he had just commented about the "good shape" of the fireplace. When they were done on the roof one Alex told me that the mortar and flue were in bad shape and need to be totally removed and replaced with a metal flue liner, new damper and other interior work. I asked if we could safely convert to using gas logs (my intent in calling American) and he said he "couldn't recommend it." He returned 10 minutes later with an estimate for $3325.00, to reline the flue ($2800), point the chimney ($450) and paint the furnace exhaust stack with heat-resistant paint ($75). He showed me an i-phone photo of the flue interior to confirm it, but I couldn't see any detail in the photo. After they left I went up on the roof to review their recommendations. The furnace stack indeed needed painting and the chimney brick was in need of repointing in a few spots. They had removed and replaced the cap the chimney cap, but didn't retighten it so I just lifted it off. Inside the chimney the first section of flue pipe (about 18 inches long) showed evidence of vertical brush marks from "the cleaning", but was far from clean. Despite using a bright xenon flashlight, I could see no other evidence of the "sweeping" of any other parts of the flue. I examined the mortar between the sections of flue liner that I could reach, and while it looked old and was still filthy, I could see no evidence of the "dangerous gaps" alluded to by Alex as the basis for the $2800.00 flue relining recommendation. There did seem to be some debris on the smoke shelf I felt should have bee removed during the cleaning. I enquired about the estimate on repointing the rest of my home's brick work and Alex said it might take "a week or two to get someone out". A review of internet information on chimney sweeping suggests that it typically takes 45-60 minutes to do the job correctly. Given the brevity of the "cleaning" and the comment of the sweep about the good interior condition of the fireplace, I can only conclude that either the chimney really didn't need cleaning or that they did a poor job. I did appreciate their observations about the furnace stack needing paint and the chimney needing repointing. The proposal to "completely gut and replace my chimney and fireplace" for $2800 seemed inconsistent with his observation of the fireplace's good condition. Even after going up on the roof myself, I was unable to visually confirm the "dangerous condition" of the flue that made them recommend that I "not use the fireplace for gas logs" as I had planned. In short, this service provider added to my uncertainty about the condition of my property rather than reducing it as I had hoped and I am not sure of the extent to which they actually "cleaned" my chimney.

Very easy to set up. Called to confirm the day before service was to be performed. Prompt and reasonably priced. Will definitely use again.

The technicians arrived on time and were very polite. They cleaned and inspected the chimney and left me with an estimate of close to $2K to correct some issues. The same issues were deemed cosmetic by the home inspector in the year previous, so I would want another third party opinion before I went ahead with repairs.

Arrived on time. Did the services fine. I asked about the cold situation in the lower level, and the technician recommended installing a damper system, for which he provided an estimate. He also did a visual inspection (from the ground) of the outside of the chimney and recommended fixing the mortar, as he said the staining indicated there were cracks in it which could prove problematic if not addressed.

It was excellent all the way around.

We no longer have a leak but the work does not look good when you get up and look at it. It's just not as neat. You could tell obviously that it has been redone. It looked wider than what I would have anticipated. The leak was fixed but the work looks sloppy.

Service was prompt and fairly quick. Inspection results and info provided was professional. I would use them again.

The project began with a cleaning and inspection. The the rest of the work was done over two days, due to weather. Catherine manages the office and is incredible. She is really responsive. She also helped me find Angie's List discounts that I could apply to the project. Julio was the crew chief. He is meticulous and obviously takes a lot of pride in his work. He was dealing with a very tight smoke chamber and extremely cold weather, but he took his time and did excellent work. He always showed up on time, was very careful to leave things very clean, and took the time to explain warranties, etc. I would definitely hire them again and plan to use them for next year's cleaning. I should note that I haven't yet built a fire, as I'm waiting for everything to dry, but I feel very confident that there will be no issues.

It worked out fine. They were responsive and courteous.

I purchased a discount deal through Angies List and was able to set up the appointment online. They emailed me back confirming the date and time. I also asked if they would take a look at our fireplace in the basement to see if there it was safe to use. While we use our living room (upstairs) fireplace, we have not used the fireplace in the basement since we purchased the house 8 years ago. Two men arrived a little over a half hour early on the day I scheduled the appt. They didn't put anything over their shoes when entering (as I hoped they would and other chimney cleaners had done in the past). They did lay down a small blanket in front of the fireplace that didn't cover the oriental we had in the room as much as I would have liked, but my husband stayed in the room with them to make sure ash and so forth did not get on the rug. The fireplace had already been swept out well after last season. They didn't sweep up anything in the fireplace - it basically looked the same as it did before they came. However, my husband said they did perform an inspection of the chimney to his satisfaction and gave it a clean bill of health. We told them that every time we had a fire in the fireplace, the rear of the house and the basement would smell strongly of smoke - and we asked them to look at the fireplace in the basement, which they did. They said that, although the fireplaces did not share a chimney, smoke would drift down and out of the basement fireplace. One of the men showed my husband how to correctly start a fire to reduce the smokey smell in the upstairs, and what he showed us worked to eliminate the overwhelming smokey smell we had experienced before. However, we were told that the only fix to eliminate the strong smoke smell in the basement would be to install a damper-type device that would seal the fireplace more completely to keep smoke from "down drifting" in through the basement fireplace while we burned in the upstairs fireplace. There would be an electric switch to open and close the damper since it would have to be placed in the flume out of reach. The cost would be $400- $500 to install this device. We were told that it would be fine to use the basement fireplace - that it was in good working condition. All in all, they performed the service we paid for and also checked out the basement fireplace without charging extra - even though we offered. And it was very helpful to learn how to correctly prepare the room and fireplace before lighting a fire to reduce the strong smoke smell upstairs. I would have liked them to take more care in protecting our floor and carpet from soot tracked in on their shoes or while cleaning the fireplace - though I did not notice any dirt or otherwise left behind.