Eanes Chimney Sweep

Horribly! We were selling our house that had a fireplace wood stove insert. The inspector claimed the liner was in code violation and made the buyers very nervous. We asked Rodney of Eanes Chimney, to give us an opinion and estimate. He first quoted me 235 plus materials, then after more consideration quoted me $1000 total but with a week's delay to wait for the liner. Because of the urgency, I investigated buying the liner locally for 550 and doing the job myself. I cleaned the flue, removed the insert and old liner. I used to be a home improvement contractor. I was about to buy the liner and begin installing it. Rodney said he would inspect it when I was done and give us a clean bill of health to present to the buyers. But then the buyers insisted the work be done by a professional. I explained this to Rodney and that I had already done part of the work. I asked him what he would charge to do the rest, hoping it would be a little less than $1000. He then quoted me $1950!, insisting he needed to buy a more expensive better quality solid liner, not the flexible inferior kind I was going to buy. I was enraged but had no choice but to hire him so my sale would go through. I gave him a deposit of $1000. He arrived the following Monday with a flexible liner! A mistake he admitted. Because we were closing in a week, I told him to install that one, but I expected to receive a substantial discount for the lesser quality liner. He got back to me and said the $1950 was the correct price for the flexible liner. He had mistakenly given me that price instead of for the more expensive solid liner. Enraged again! He agreed to give me 100 off and refused to give me the clean bill of health for my buyers, unless I paid him the balance of $850. I had no choice and agreed reluctantly. Rodney Eanes plays the part of the country boy, church going, good man fed up with red tape and overzealous home inspectors, but he is profiting well from it!

Awesome job, awesome folks! Rick Eanes is first class. He inspected the chimney, top and bottom. When we showed him evidence of water intrusion into the house in the area of the chimney, he offered to go into the attic (which is very difficult) and inspected the chimney and roofing from the inside. While he was on the roof inspecting the chimney he took photographs of probable water intrusion spots and will email the photos to me. He and his helper then removed the flue pipe from the oil burner and found the chimney packed with crud. They vacuumed the chimney clean and completely emptied it, which was an incredible effort. After the chimney was clear they reassembled the flue pipe while explaining to my wife and me about the combustion process and why combustion debris was on the furnace and the floor. Rick was very willing to answer all our questions and educate us about fuel oil combustion, its effect on mortar and proper flue sizing. He also was very helpful by suggesting that if we decided to have the chimney lined with a smaller flue (the house is 60+ years old), he suggested timing that with replacing the oil burner, as the flue should be sized to the burner, and new burners are more efficient. After the flue was reassembled they vacuumed the floor and oil burner where combustion products had blown when the oil burner was used last. All in all, an exemplary service call. Most importantly, Rick took the time to answer our questions, didn't rush and took time educate us. We were very impressed that he was willing to climb into the attic (a difficult place to access) to look for possible water leaks around the chimney. He was very willing to go beyond a simple service call. We will certainly use his service again. We highly recommend him.