Ryan & Son Chimneys

Inspector was on time and very thorough. He got right to work and did not stop. Mr. Ryan kept me in informed throughout the process of what he was doing, why and its importance. I received a well written thorough report with photo evidence to back up his claims. Money well spent.

They arrived on time and were very professional. They performed the inspection which confirmed the home inspector's suspicion. They advised that the repairs would be very costly. However, they would not give a detailed estimate. They said that under the circumstances it would be a conflict of interest for them to give a detailed estimate and advised that I obtain an estimate from another company. I found their integrity on this issue to be very refreshing.

Service was executed very professionally and well. We are using them again for some minor chimney repair and update.

This might have been the best money I ever spent. Our inspector has been doing home inspections for decades and he recommended Ryan and Sons because they have a long history of good work (I believe that spans two generations) . In general, unless you know how to install fireplaces and fix chimneys yourself, you are at the mercy of the firm you hire. If a firm says "Pay me X amount of money to fix y and z" it's impossible to know if you're being scammed until it's too late. That's why it's important to have a good referral. As for my experience, I was under contract for a house in Westfield. Our inspector found some issues, i.e. some renovations had not been done well, but as far as my wife was concerned there were no dealbreakers He recommended (and my realtor concurred) that we get a Level II fireplace/chimney inspector. (Naturally I had never heard of such a thing, but the best description was 'colonoscopy for a chimney." I called Ryan and Sons on a Monday and had an appointment scheduled two days later. The fireplace was advertised as working, but there were many serious problems (not enough depth for a masonry firebox, combustible wall in contact w/ the chimney, the firebox had even been altered with refractory walls meant for a factory firebox and not meant for a masonry firebox, missing mortar joints in the flue tile liner, masonry damage at the top of the chimney. There were other issues as well that I won't go into. The owners' furnace uses the chimney also. Ryan & Sons found that the lining was deteriorated to the point that it was falling apart. They even noticed that the connector pipe was too large for the furnace. Ryan and Sons gave me the report the same day. It was detailed and contained plenty of photos. So how much money did they want to fix it? Well, that's the beauty of their honest work. They didn't provide a cost estimate - they simply concluded that it's not worth it to fix everything. Their recommendation - take the fireplace and chimney out of service and get a HVAC firm to get a put in a direct venting furnace. If you are like me, you're always worried about contractors wanting to take as much money from you as possible to fix this, that and the other thing and you have no idea if they are b/s ing you. Here, they basically said the job can't be done without exorbitant cost so go see an HVAC professional. There were other issues with the house and we are no longer under contract. I am under contract for another house and hired Ryan and Sons yesterday. It has a similar, old interior fireplace but we knew from the owners it was not functional. Ryan and Sons checked it out but without needing a full level II (the fireplace flue was sealed and the furnance was a direct venting one). I got some good recommendations and advice and they did not charge me at all. So if you want to buy a house with a fireplace advertised as working, hire Ryan and Sons. Don't get scammed by less reputable firms. Like I said, this was the best money I ever spent.

They came on time. They were courteous and professional. I would definitely recommend them and use them again.

Service was on-time, and thorough. Was able to watch the camera monitor and see the issues inside of the chimney after it had been sweeped.

PHENOMENAL JOB!!!! Very neat and clean and they were very professional. No surprises or hidden costs.

Prompt, courteous and professional service. We didn't have major work done but needed to make sure that the gas fireplaces in our new home were serviced & in good working order. The tech (I wish I could remember his name be because he was great) also explained to us how to clean & how often to maintain the fireplaces which was helpful since neither of us was familiar with gas fireplaces. I would definitely use their service again.

The experience was a very good one. It went exactly as scheduled and I was very pleased with both the cleaning and the results of the inspection.

Overall except for the lack of follow up, the experience was excellent. The inspector was professional in every aspect of his performance. He had modern tools and was able to show the problems rather than have the homeowner rely on merely his say so.

They were good. I don't know how chimney cleaning works in general, but he went into the chimney and cleaned everything out then he vacuumed up all the debris. And I told my husband if I had a Shop-Vac I could of done it for nothing. It was really elementary for $175 and I think he was at our house for maybe 30 minutes. He also did an assessment of the chimney and recommended we get our Chase top replaced which was not in the description of our home inspection when we bought the house in May. Thats not to say that what they told us is not accurate. They are chimney experts. The cost to replace this top would be very expensive because it needs to be custom built and stainless still. We just don't know, we don't think they are trying to rip us off, but it is concerning since it is different than the report we received earlier. We are talking about to completely different pieces, one was in the $200 range the other was in the $1,000 range. We can see the part the needs to be replaced but we thought it was a different piece that was a lot less expensive. My husband was very blunt and told them if you can do it for X amount of dollars, okay. But if you can't we are going to have to wait or get somebody else. He was on time and cleaned up afterwards, however.

Very efficient, clean, and service as promised.

Workers arrived on time and performed the work as described above. They made an extra effort not to track in dirt by placing canvas sheets on the floor where they would walk and on the fireplace hearth. They did a great job. We will definitely hire them again for maintaining & servicing our fireplace. I also feel their rates are reasonable.

The owner did the work himself. He discovered a problem with the spring on my flue damper, so he said he would get back to me with the part. After some time, I received a contract that it would cost $575.00 to do the work. This price was so completely different from what the owner told me when he was at my house that I phoned to inquire. The owner's wife answered and said I would have to talk to the owner about the issues. I retorted that he should phone me, but he never did call back. Furthermore, he didn't clean the chimney as well as other companies have since his work.

Great work. Called for an appointment, tech showed up on time. He worked quickly and neatly. When he was done, he showed me his inspection of the chimney and fire place and then sent a camera up the chimney to show me the substantial damage that he had found. He warned me not to allow tenants to use the fire place and may have saved me a chimney fire. Also the tech (Jay) gave my daughter the ice pack from his lunch box when my daughter injured her nose practicing baseball in the back yard. That is just above and beyond.

Showed up on schedule. Performed the work requested at a reasonable price. Provided guidance as to how to avoid potential future problems. Highly recommended.

Overall, I was very pleased. The team was professional, courteous, pleasant, efficient and did a great job.They left the the fireplace area spotless after the chimney sweep (other contractors have occasionally left sooty fingerprints).They did an excellent job replacing the broken bricks I had - I couldn't tell which bricks had been replaced because they matched so well with the others (my chimney is >50yrs old red brick), and I used binoculors to review the work.They also cleaned up nicely. My only complaint is that it is difficult getting a response from the office. There appears to be one person answering calls & scheduling appointments, and I believe office hours are 12-5pm. Plus I wasn't advised of the arrival time of the crew. My suggestion to the team is at minimum to change the voicemail message to inform callers of office hours, when to expect a call back, and to let potential customer know if they are on vacation. This won't prevent me from using them again, but it could be an impediment to people less patient. PS: I noticed a recent review posted that talked about no response to a voice message... I do know they were on vacation that time.

Don't know if there service is good, I left a message asking for an estimate more than a week ago, but no response yet. I certainly understand if they are busy and can't come out to my house right away, but I feel that should at least call. I have given them a "C" for now, since their work itself may be excellent, but I can't know that yet. I have contacted a different company.

They did an excellent and thorough job. It rained for a considerable length of time after the repairs, but not a drop of water came into the chimney.

Great and complete job - honest people - what a pleasure.

We were selling our house. The buyers had the chimneys inspected and their inspector claimed there were cracks and extensive damage. We called Ryan and Son Chimneys, explained the situation, and said we needed them to come out right away. Ryan and Son Chimneys' inspection report was instrumental in refuting the claims of the buyers inspection report. They were friendly, professional and worked us into their busy schedule. I wouldn't hesitate to call them again.

They are very good. They came out and let me know I did not need serious work done. They let me know it was something I could take care of. They were very honest.

Several days before my appointment I received a reminder email which included instructions on how to prepare for the cleaning (move furniture away from fireplace, no fire the day before, etc.) Mr. Ryan arrived on time. He was courteous and professional throughout the visit. He asked me several questions about the fireplace and how much I used it. After spreading out cloths to protect the floor, he inspected the fireplace and chimney before starting work. The vacuum unit he used for cleaning was less noisy than a household vacuum cleaner, and was audible but not disturbing when I went into another room. When the cleaning was done there was a mild chemical odor in the living room, but it went away in under an hour. The fireplace looked as if it had never been used. Tonight I enjoyed my first fire in several years, and everything went well. Before he left, I asked Mr. Ryan how often a chimney needed to be cleaned. I was pleasantly surprised that he did not push for an annual cleaning, but said that every 2-3 years would be sufficient if I lonly had a few fires each winter. I very much appreciate contractors who don't try to push unnecessary services. When it's time for my next cleaning, or if I need other chimney work, I know who I'm going to call.

I contacted this company for a routine chimney cleaning ($~179). The day of the scheduled date of service, I was dismayed to find my fireplace flu rusted shut and my fireplace full of 2 inches of water. I assume this flooding occurred during Hurricane Irene at the end of August. My fault for not checking the fireplace sooner ... Anyway the contractor had a look at the chimney and diagnosed the problem as an old fashioned style cap that was not keeping the water out. He ordered the inexpensive replacement part (~$50) and returned on another day for the repair and cleaning. He did not charge me any cost for the half hour he spent on this visit. Unfortunately during the cleaning we discovered the damage to the fireplace was more extensive than expected. He still managed to do as decent a cleaning as possible and we discussed several options for future replacement of the aged fireplace (it is probably close to 30 years old - so old the company that makes it is out of business for 10+ years already). The advice he gave me was logical and reasonable and he did not push any hard sales of products or services. He also only billed $105 total for the parts, the repair, and the partial cleaning which was very fair compared to the full $229 I was expecting. During all of our interactions I had the utmost confidence in his professionalism and knowledge of his field. I will definitely recommend this company to others and use them again in the future.

At this point am still waiting for chimney cap which had to be ordered and there is some minor work which needs to be done to the top of the chimney. I have no doubts about how that will go. Have full confidence in this company.