Fred's Chimney Magic

Excellent experience with Fred's chimney magic. My chimney was destroyed from hurricane Sandy and the weather was getting cold! During an extremely busy time they sent someone out for an estimate on the day I called and completed the repairs on a Sunday. I really appreciate them sending a crew out despite the fact that the person who was going to do the work was sick. The office staff was extremely helpful and understanding of my circumstances. I could not have had a better experience - Thank You Fred's Chimney Magic, thanks for the HEAT!

They sent a 2-man team to perform the service. They were both experienced and very helpful in explaining what they were doing.

A squirrel got into my house through my fireplace. I needed someone to come over right away and make sure it was gone & confirm as well as repair whatever it was that allowed the animal to get into my house. THey were over same day and took care of everything

The service experience was very good.

Both sessions went very smooth. The office was responsive to my calls and made sure to check with me every step of the way. Their crews were informed, efficient and professional throughout. They did a great job and cleaned the work areas very well. Will certainly use them again if the need ever arises.

Fred's people made sure to confirm the appointment. The team arrived on time, were neat and polite. They did the service that was arranged for. They went through other work that they recommended to be done and left written estimates. There was no pressure to do any other work at that time.

The service reaction is good, but outcome is not we expected.

They showed up just to replace the dryer vent, but noticed issues with the vent from the bathroom. They explained what was wrong with the current configuration and made the necessary changes.

Appointment were fixed and they were on time . They finish the job as stated and clean the area before leaving.

It was easy to make an appointment and the technician showed up relatively on time. He was a very friendly and polite young man and I found him to be professional and personable. He was the best part if my experience and I am sorry I don't remember his name. He gave me am estimate for suggested work which seemed high and asked me to commit to a service but I declined. He was polite and not at all pushy. The bad part of my experience came after his visit. The company literally called me 2 times a week to see if I needed a cleaning or other service. Because of my busy schedule I received a majority of the calls in the form of voicemails. After about a month if this I called and ask them to stop calling which they did for about a week and then started again. I called again and spoke to a person claiming to be a manager and asked them to stop calling. They still call but only every few months now. Very annoying.

The head office called three times to confirm the appointment and let me know when the sweeps would arrive. Chris and Tom (I think those were their names, showed up reasonably close to the appointment hour, given that there is always heavy morning traffic. They did a great job. Chris climbed up to the roof with me, looked over the chimneys, made sensible recommendations for which needed flues and caps, which needed a liner and which did not. Looked at my neighbors' chimney too just for comparison,and pointed out where it was crumbling, which I passed on. The two of them cleaned all three chimneys carefully without any soot getting on rugs or floors. They gave me some literature explaining why I might want one liner and three caps -- I'm a science writer, and the written explanation of the chemistry that goes on inside the chimney over time made sense. They gave me an estimate of what it would cost if they did the work, but put no pressure to say yes. They charged me just what I'd been told for the sweeping -- $89 per chimney. They took a check. I gave them a tip. Happy all around, I hope.

this job went very well Fred was on time, worked all day from 9 to 5:30 straight with 2 other technicians. The work was completed and they cleaned up both the yard and the driveway. There were two 100 year old chimneys to repair and bring into the 21st century. We are very happy with this company and recommend him to my family and friends.

Two men showed up on time at my door and entered the house. They were shown where the fireplace is and they began to clean-sweep the chimney by inserting a device up the flu that cleans the inside walls of the flu. One of the men went up onto the roof to inspect the top of the chimney. They then clean up, made certain recommendations, got paid by check and left.

I have recently purchased this house and both jobs were necessary.

Service arrived as scheduled and cleaned up Will recommend and use again.

Excellent experience with this company.

Appointment was easy and had ample available times. They arrived promptly and performed the services required. Also gave an assessment of two possible issues, but no real pressure to get those done. They left documentation of these two issues and a price estimate to rectify them at a later date if needed. I'm sure most of these Angie's List deals are for companies to find new leads, but didn't feel like it a pressure sale for the add-on fixes. Overall, happy with the service.

Everything went just as expected. Most importantly, I thought chimney cleaning would be a dirty messy job. Not so with this company. Top notch.

overall service was prompt, job performed on sunday,

Punctual, courteous, clean. They explained what needed to be done and did the work fast. Note: I ordered their chimney cleaning services through an Angies List deal which had a coupon price. I don't know how good (or not) their regular prices are.

Following the purchase of an historic home with five fireplaces; we wanted them inspected for safety and ensure that they would be okay to use. They inspection of five fireplaces and associated chimneys, both internally as well as the external on the roof. They provided a detailed list of recommended things to do and a suggested priority list. There was no pressure or push, the fireplaces and chimneys were safe to use, but they had a list of suggestions to consider when time and budget alllowed. Pleasant and obviously knew his trade - would definitely revert back to them when the work is scheduled.

Good appointment keeping and updates. Constantly trying to sell add'l services - this is somewhat unprofessional behavior. Be careful with these guys - don't agree to anything until you've had a chance to look into it and possibly get comparison pricing.

My husband and I were very satisfied with their performance and called them back one more time to install an outside dryer vent into the house. Again, the work was completed to our satisfaction.

They were very polite and went above and beyond.

Upon arrival, they set up a vacuum in the fireplace to suck up any loose materials that were set free during the cleaning and to make sure that a mess was not made in our living room. After an exterior inspection, they went into cleaning and the entirety of the cleaning was done within 30 minutes. At the end of the cleaning, one technician came to me and told me that our "smoke chamber" should be serviced and coated with a ceramic coating to protect it from buildup of creosote. He showed me a photocopied page from some sort of document claiming that New York Fire Code said that all chimneys should have such a coating for safety. Sounded reasonable, and like good information. He stated that the coating, which supposedly takes 30 minutes to complete, was to cost $449 but that we would be able to use our $100 credit towards this. Immediately I thought, "Wow. 30 minutes of work to coat a 4'x3'x3' area with a bit of ceramic coating sounds like a LOT." I told him that I would need to think about it, and that I'd get back to them on it. He went on to give me more materials about putting in fireplace inserts (both wood burning and gas burning) saying that we would be able to circumvent needing such a coating... though such options cost thousands of dollars. He was extremely polite throughout all of this, and I said that I would discuss with my wife and follow up with the company. After he left, and over the next few days, I did a lot of research on such a coating for the smoke chamber (the area right about the chimney flue). It's often called "parging" the smoke chamber. Most research that I found online gave mixed reviews about the necessity of such a treatment. After reading that if you burn high-quality, dry, seasoned hardwood and have your chimney cleaned often that it's not at all necessary, we decided not to move forward. I also thought that if the chimney has gone 70+ years without such a treatment that it probably didn't need it now, especially since we plan on burning top-quality firewood and having our chimney regularly serviced. Most disheartening was the amount I read online about chimney servicing companies trying to "upsell" such treatments or other options (such as the aforementioned $3000 fireplace inserts). It seems as though it's quite common for these companies to pay a commission to their technicians for anything they might sell to their customers.