Potomac Services

Quick and professional. All my questions answered prior to performing the work.

The owner at Potomac Services, Jeff, was extremely helpful with resolving a dispute over the condition of our chimney when we sold our home in December 2020. He took good care of us and I highly recommend this company to others.

We had 2 technicians come named Brian and Fernando. They clearly have great expertise and were patient showing my partner and I the images of the chimneys as we had a Level 2 inspection done on a house we bought. We had a 3:15pm appointment. Because they had a project come up, they called ahead of time to let us know they would be late and arrived closer to 4pm. We had an inspection done of 2 chimneys and we appreciated that this company fit in an inspection in December before Christmas. The reason we gave them a B is because Brian said we would get an inspection report with photos by the end of business day the day after the inspection. Because the file was too large, we never received the report, which was important for homebuying negotiations. Jeff, who owns the company, called us the morning after and was very responsive and got us the report. Pros: Pricing was reasonable, good expertise Cons: The company is small and lacks an office manager who probably could have helped make sure emails were received by clients. For important documents that buyers need to negotiate on a house, it would be courteous and professional to make sure they received key documents. Would I hire them for work: Yes, because the company still knows chimneys well.

I called them to look at a leaking chimney, the person who came out seemed more interested in replacing the gas fireplaces I just hired someone else to install 2 months ago. He didn’t seem that knowledgeable and kept calling his boss for assistance/guidance. By the end I just wanted him out of the house.

My request for a chimney inspection as contingency for buying a house was accepted and delivered the very same day. Luckily, a crew was already to be in my town! Jeff Peterson was most obliging and kind in his response to my immediate need. An expensive problem found during the house inspection turned out to be non-existent! What a happy surprise! I will keep them in mind when I need my next sweep.

They inspected chimney liner with a camera and took pictures. It was cracked and needed to be replaced as part of home inspection to sell my house. They wrote up detailed report for my insurance company and came on site when adjuster came. Work was done as needed in timely manner for sale of my house. Excellent customer service! Highly recommend as they are very knowledgeable & fully explain entire process.

Absolutely AWESOME Service! The SUPERHEROES of all things Chimney! ALWAYS and ONLY call Potomac Services for your chimney concerns! They are PROFESSIONAL, POLITE, KNOWLEDGEABLE, and CERTIFIED EXPERTS! The entire staff is absolutely WONDERFUL! Background on my situation: We are selling our house. During the home inspection, rust and small holes were found inside the chimney, which deemed it unsafe for use. In a panic, we contacted a chimney vendor (a quick recommendation by a realtor), who said that it would be a total demo and rebuild for approx. $10,500. Well, in the middle of trying to sell our house, that’s not very good news. Not a lot of time and not enough money to fix this unforeseen issue. So, we desperately needed a second opinion. I called Potomac Services (which my Husband found based on their AWESOME online reviews), who sent out a crew on the SAME DAY to actually put a video camera down the chimney to properly diagnose the problem and identify repair options. Long story-short, Potomac Services was able to thoroughly clean the inside of our chimney, then apply the HeatShield lining (which comes with a 20yr transferable warranty), making our chimney/fireplace SAFE for use and BETTER than ever! Total cost was approx. $6,440 and WITHOUT having to go through any crazy renovations! They were in and out efficiently (mostly outside and on top of our roof) like ninjas! They didn’t make a mess or track in dirt/debris into our living room (thankfully), as we continued to have open house and private showings. Their crew was always RESPECTFUL and HARD WORKING! Potomac Services is OUTSTANDING! THANK YOU!

Jeff and Potomac Services went the extra mile to deal with a difficult chimney cleaning job and to make sure the problem didn't happen again. I had animal nesting material in hard to reach parts of the chimney. Multiple other companies told me it was impossible to fix, and the whole fireplace would need to be replaced. Jeff and his crew put in the extra effort to save me the $5k+ it would have cost to do the replacement, and put in place upgrades to make sure that animals couldn't create this problem again. They were prompt, honest, and communicative. And the price was fair. Outstanding.

The man arrived early, was neat, clean, friendly, professional.

I can’t say enough positive things about my Potomac Services experience. My larger job was complex and went extremely slow due to my insurance claim and my General Contractor (who was way over his head). From our initial conversation to the final insert installation (over a year’s time as I waited for the house to be at a state where they could start), Jeff Peterson (the owner) was empathetic, professional, and flexible. To be honest, I lost count of the number of evening and weekend conversations he was always available for, and I know my house is better and safer because of his diligence. Value, quality, dependability, expertise, professionalism, and honesty are the words that come to mind when I think of my experiences with Jeff and his team. I rarely provide online reviews, but I couldn’t imagine not providing one in this case. I will gladly answer any questions if you are reading this and considering his services...just ask Jeff to put us in touch.

County inspector Failed the whole thing. He could find nothing right about it. The list would be for too long. He told me basically to start over.

In my opinion, today's experience with Potomac Services was incredibly disappointing. We brought them in to our home because we needed to have two chimneys cleaned. After the crew inspected our wood stoves, they informed us that they could not sweep the chimneys because "they are not code compliant" and told us we would have to purchase numerous upgrades (for many thousands of dollars) before they would sweep the chimneys. Now, I have read numerous code documents and regulations, and nowhere do they say chimney sweeping is prohibited under any circumstance. If anything, the law/code/regulation would probably prohibit USE of the wood stove if not in compliance, but usually the government leaves it up to the owner to decide whether or not they will accept that risk. But instead, Potomac Services wouldn't even clean our chimneys, so if we were to now light fires in our stoves, there is a heightened risk of a chimney fire. Many of the issues pointed out by the crew are valid issues, but the biggest complaint the crew leader seemed to have is that the stoves are "really old." That complaint, of course, was immediately followed by an offer to sell us new stoves. In the end, I did NOT buy any of the many additional services they offered. I really just wanted to get them out of our home. So, we ended up paying $250 for two chimney inspections, which took no more than like 20 minutes total (I wish I was paid at a rate of $750/hour), and we never even got the chimney cleaning we needed. This was incredibly disappointing.

Fantastic. Keith arrived early. Worked alone. Setup was fast. The equipment is impressive. Not just an oversized shop vac but a truck size vacuum. At one point I could hear construction debris that had been in the wall duct for 15 years make its way from a main level bath to the basement vacuum connection and back up and out of the house. If you are going to do it - DO IT RIGHT. End result - I feel that my HVAC system is moving the air more efficiently. I should have done this sooner. Thank you Jeff and much thanks to Keith.

Eric was incredibly professional, knowledgeable and great to speak with. Since we only have the one quote I will get a few other estimates and then determine if we'll have Potomac Services complete the repairs.

Kudos to Casey who performed the service and owner who answered the phone and explained how they work

Very pleased. The owner came himself to do the inspection. He proposed a very cost effective repair to the flue rather than a replacement which would have doubled the cost. His team did an excellent job.

job done; need for many repairs claimed; second opinion disputed this need and found cleaning was not completed fully

Never received the courtesy of a reply from this company. Sent an email asking for an estimate and they never responded.

John and team did an amazing job and went above and beyond to make sure we were happy with our new stainless steel liner for the chimney and hot water heater. John and team were thoughtful not to make too much of a mess, came back on the weekend to finish the job, and made sure we were 100% satisfied before asking for payment. And, they even took the old antenna off the roof that the previous owner installed! I would absolutely use them again for other masonry work and would absolutely recommend them to everyone as a great company with fair estimates for high quality work.

We first hired Potomac Services about a year ago for two jobs: to clean and place a protective cover on our kitchen exhaust vent after birds infiltrated and tried nesting in the vent, and to perform a dryer vent cleaning. We were very satisfied with their work and contacted them again recently to clean and place protective covers on two bathroom vents after hearing birds in one of them. The service was performed by Casey both times and once again we are very satisfied with his professionalism, friendly attitude and the work performed. I witnessed him cleaning the vents and was surprised to see how much debris was left behind by the birds. Overall we have been very satisfied with their customer service and reasonable prices.

John and Damien, the technicians, arrived promptly at one o'clock, as scheduled. They were very courteous and polite, ready to do their job after seeing the locations of the outside vent and dryer. They performed their work efficiently and quickly, and cleaned up the lint as well as possible, given the slotted boards on the deck. They also brought their own shoe covers and removed them before going back outside and entering the house again, something that many service people forget to do and which was much appreciated. After they completed cleaning the vent, John advised me that the flow to the outside was excellent with no obstruction. Given that, he preferred not to pull out of gas dryer to inspect the duct hose in order to avoid possibly dislodging the gas connection. He inspected the lint screen and suggested that I might want to purchase a new one, which I will do. At this time, he recommended continued yearly cleaning of the dryer vent for safety purposes. Very professional, courteous, and prompt service, including scheduling the appointment two days ago.

They did a great job, arrived the same day we called and completed the service and left the kitchen clean. Very happy with service, would hire again.

John did an awesome job. He showed up on time and was very friendly and professional. I would happily recommend them.

Casey and his team called to let me know when they were on the way to my house. He walked through the house and thoroughly explained what the procedure would be. The entire job took approximately 3 hours. They were very courteous and left the house very clean.

Fast, professional. No pushy up-selling. Clean tidy and very polite.