Tip Top Chimney Cleaning & Repair

Avoid at all costs. House sale inspection requested a chimney inspection and cleaning as part a request prior to the closing. Realtor gave me the number to Tip Top (Rick Pierce - 218.290.5370) to call and get a quote on what a Cleaning and Inspection would cost. I had an 8 minute 41second phone call to get his price to clean and inspect a chimney. Received a lot of unsolicited advice about the situation. We were going to set up a time for him to actually go on site to do the work and told him either I'd call him back or he could call the realtor to get the lock box code. A couple of hours later received a photo of an invoice in a text stream that included the realtor for $150 charge that concluded that I should have a cleaning and an inspection. Very aggressive attitude on the text stream. I imagine trying to coerce people and extort money may work, but please avoid. Definitely not an ethical business.

He made a chimney cap, delivered it, but never returned to install it. I had a different repair person look at it and told us the cap wouldn’t fix the problem. He had a different fix which he performed on budget and on time. I would NEVER recommend Tip-Top

This guy is a total joke...rude, unprofessional, scam artist at best! Long story short, he charged us for a product & service which we paid upfront for, and did not fulfill his end of the deal. We were scammed. He took us for a ride. This whole transaction was a nightmare. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SO CALLED BUSINESS!!

Well this was a complete disaster he would never answer his phone Said he was coming wouldn't show up every time I talk to him the price went up. one day he told me he had to go get some parts in Duluth at 11:00 a.m. And he would be back to complete the job. 4 hours later I started calling him no answer no answer no answer finally he text me and said can't talk pulling a trailer never showed back up that day. This guy is terrible with communication he even blocks me on his phone because I called too much The only time I called him was when he was supposed to be at my house so I could plan my day and he would never show up when he said he was going to. My job took 16 days to complete my theory is the reason it took that long was because he had bigger and better things to do. I would guess to say that he was at my house for a total of 6 hours of work time and it took 16 days and that's because he had bigger and better things to do and put me on the back burner. This guy also thinks that first thing in the morning is 12:00 noon. Read the reviews people It all sounds the same from everybody. He's got a couple on the better business bureau too they all sound the same.

Terrible. When I called him for an estimate on a cleaning and inspection he told me that he couldn't quote that until he saw it. I said "Ok, but I just don't want to waste your time if it's going to be hundreds of dollars." He said, "Oh no, it won't be hundreds of dollars, my customers are very happy with my prices". So I agreed to have him come out. He was here within the hour with a "friend" in tow who sat in the truck and stared in my window the whole time. Rick took a few pictures of my chimney with his phone from the front lawn and took a look at the wood stove downstairs. He took a few measurements and told me that the pipe was too close to the wall but he had (a very expensive) replacement pipe that would fix the problem. I asked him if you needed a ladder to get on the roof and he replied, "No, I don't think I want to get on a roof today." Ummm.....hello, wasn't that why he was here? He was here for about 45 mins total. He said that he would send his son to clean the chimney the following day. I was at work but my husband was here. Mike got up on the roof and took a few pics of the chimney with his cell phone. He "cleaned" the cap by banging it against the chimney and littering soot all over the roof. Later, when he put the cap back on he did not fully attach it. My husband had to get up there the next day and secure it. As he was up there my husband asked him what the fee was going to be for the cleaning (because I never did get my quote the night before). Mike told him that they start at $300. My husband told him to come down from the roof immediately and that we would not be having it cleaned. Rick had told me that it wouldn't be hundreds of dollars. When my husband later disputed the $300 bill that he sent us anyway Rick argued that "hundreds of dollars" is a loose term. I would say that anything over $199 would qualify as hundreds of dollars, wouldn't you? The $300 bill that he sent us included two "trip fees" of $50. It certainly wasn't my preference to have them come at separate times, yet I was charged for two trips. I sent him a check for what I considered fair for the amount of time spent here and gas for the trips. When my husband talked to him about the bill he said, "I'll take another look at the bill and send you a new one." When it showed up, he had added $65 to it in additional fees!!! That was seriously laughable! Since then he has continued to harass us with text messages and bills (with interest attached) in the mail. DO NOT hire this man. He has many negative online reviews that I unfortunately didn't find until after I called him. I never take the time to write reviews but I feel that people need to be warned about this con man.

The owner showed up a day after we contacted him to give us an estimate, and that was the ONLY professional service we received. From there it was a disaster. He told us we needed to remove the fireplace insert, so he could get a better estimate. We did that and once again contacted him to come out for an estimate. When he finally showed up, without calling first, he advised us about $300 to do the cleaning and 2 minor repairs. He would be there on Saturday to do the work. Late Saturday afternoon, he text us to say he was working on his truck and would not be coming over to do the job. He asked us how Sunday would work? He also said he wrote up a "little" quote for us. Haz-waste $80, Refractory cement $46, TRAVEL $40 (he lives about 20 min away), labor $320......Total $486??? We questioned the raise in the amount and asked if he could do anything to bring the price down. He then said he could do the job for $350, labor and materials. His employee "mike" would be out on Sunday to do the work This was on Tuesday , I returned a text asking what time, NEVER heard a word till that Saturday, when he responded he would "talk" to his guy. He text us Sunday, saying they would be out in a couple hours.....text us 20 minutes later saying "too much rain" We had blue skies....Have not heard another word from him. STAY AWAY FROM THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!

I think it went terribly. They first showed up app. July 10, 2014 for what was estimated by him to be about one week of work.There was some demo above and below the roof line on the chimney. No consistent daily start time or continuation seemed to happen. We left our house open for access after being told they would show up, they did not show and the house was left open for 3 days when we were out of town. This out of town trip was 1 week past the estimated finish time of the job. Changes in the way the job was going to be done were agreed to by me several times because the company owner had made some errors in the original estimate. The job was finally finished August 10, 2014 after once again promising to show up and failing to. There is no way I would ever use or recommend this contractor again.

Arrived on time. Provided estimate and recommendations on items I had missed on some interior cleaning and closing off unneeded venting. Provided estimate on work, but also acknowledged that some additional bricks and mortar might be required. Would know more once work commenced. Started work to address some immediate needs same day. Came out again as agreed to perform bulk of work. Exterior work required a few additional items that he detailed out (and had suggested might be needed), all at reasonable rate and cost. Final product is of fine quality and craftsmanship. Chimney looks almost like new! I have referred several neighbors as they were impressed by the craftsmanship too.

He immediately started repairs on some items he had supplies for, and came back to perform the majority of outdoor work as promised, on time and budget. New bricks on exterior of chimney match great and the overall quality is excellent.

I think the word would be and quot;seamless.and quot; After the initial cleaning, we decided to and quot;trustand quot; TipTop to do the additional work. Professional, polite, and efficient.

I contacted Tip Top at the beginning of September to clean our chimney. The work was scheduled to be done on the morning of Saturday, September 8th. I received a call well after the appointment time asking to reschedule for the next day - which I agreed to. The owner arrived later than expected on Sunday, and announced that he did not have the right equipment (it is a 2-story house) or enough available personnel to do the job that day. The job was rescheduled again, for the following Tuesday evening. On Tuesday I received a call from the owner who asked to further postpone the appointment to Sunday, September 16th to which I agreed. On the 16th, they did not call or show up - ever. Very disorganized, unprofessional, and failure to follow through. We will not attempt to work with this company again.

Rick did all the repairs and after some discussion, he painted the cap (hat) and put it back in place. Although all the repairs were a surprise, when I had a house inspector do the whole house, TipTop's repairs exceeded what may have been required, but additionally, he 'fixed' the cement work in such a way that he eliminated theopportunity for the water to break (or pop) the brick again. Talk is cheap, and I'm not a (chimney expert) but when the house inspector 'checked' the work, he said it was done to perfection, more throughly than he's seen before, absolutely needed and done neatly. YEAH!