We purchased our dream home in August. It had a woodburning fireplace that had never been used. We contacted Soot Sayer to come and inspect and/or make any repairs to make it safe to use.
The owner of the company arrived, late on October 13, and proceeded to tell us the chimney had been sealed with brick, and needed over $1000.00 worth of work. We felt he was being honest with us, and gave him the okay to do the work.
He told us that it needed to be sealed against moisture, a heat reflector, a cap, the crown repaired and sealed, the smoke chamber needed repaired, and the firebox needed 'tuckpointing'.
In additon, he sold us a grate, and ash bucket, firestarter, and fenders. He also ended up doing work for my neighbor that same night. She has since had to have someone else come out and re-clean her chimney!
After he left, I went on-line to see how his prices compared. While doing my search I saw the exact fenders we ordered.in the description they were to be used as decorative purposes. So I called the company and asked the receptionist (his wife) about the fenders, she said "well it says right here they are for gas fireplaces". I explained that he sold us this stuff and assumed he knew what he was doing! I asked her to cancel the order for the fenders and to please have Harvey call me to discuss the credit due, maybe we could get some billows instead. She said she would. He never called.
I waited a couple of days and called back, she said they went ahead and ordered the billows. We had a $90 credit due, and the billows cost almost that same amount. I was shocked they were so expensive, but didn't complain.
We received everything we ordered by November. The fire gel was a waste of money, it doesn't work, the grate we could have gotten for $20 cheaper elsewear, and the heat reflector could have been gotten for about $15 cheaper. The billows could have been bought for less than half of what they charged us. So pretty much everything he sold us was overpriced. That same month the cap BLEW OFF! My husband called them the next day. They said it would be three weeks or more before they could come out to repair it! I called them and said I felt that was totally unacceptable and I wanted the owner to call me asap. I felt this was a safety issue and therefore required immediate attention. She said it was still safe to use and that the only the reason a cap is installed is to keep debris out. I asked her about the hot ash that flys up a chimney, she said if hot ash was going up the chimney we had too big of a fire. My husband is a fireman, and that statement is simply not true. The cap is to protect the roof from hot ash as well as keep out debris!
The owner never called. The next day my husband climbed up on the roof and discovered, it wasn't installed properly. It was just sitting on the chimney with two screws screwed into the side of the chimney and bricks setting on top of it to hold it down!!!
I called agian, no return call.in fact I have NEVER received a call back. Unfortunately we spent our savings on having the recommended repairs done and will have to wait to have it reinspected.
This guy came across as an honest family man, running an honest business. This is just an act! I would never recommend him and feel he is not qualified to do the job properly, nor should he be trusted to do a job as important as cleaning a chimney!
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