"AAA Gold Star Chimney Sweep almost destroyed my livingroom. Rick High, owner of AAA Gold Star Chimney Sweep is unprofessional. Don't believe yelp's 4 star rating.
At the moment, my ceiling and wall around my chimney have water coming into them. I have to rip the wall out and ceiling out and it's going to cost about $1000. The contractor and roofer I have had inspect my house both blame the chimney work done by AAA Gold Star Chimney Sweep.
After speaking to them and writing a letter asking for compensation for damages, I got no reply. So I sent a courier to their address and did some poking around. I could find no record of them being licensed or insured. Also, their address listed here is some church or welfare housing—google it. I sent a letter to a PO box they gave me but nothing came of it.
So I had to fix the problems myself.
I had a roofer come and inspect the roof and he confirmed the roof is working fine and that the chimney work is why water is coming into my wall and ceiling. Gold Star placed the cap into the crown instead of over it and failed to seal the gaps with any tape or other material. The second opinion comes from my general contractor, who confirmed the chimney as the problem and gave me the estimate for the repairs to be done on the inside of the house, as well as confirming the extreme wetness in the ceiling by manual inspection. Thirdly, I've had my realtor inspect the photos and she also confirms the chimney work is at fault. Fourth, I had several other home owners confirm that the chimney work was sub par. Again, there's nothing wrong with the roof itself, and in fact, I had some maintenance work done on the roof last year by another contractor, which a second roofer confirmed was fine. Also, the roof was solid through last year's much more difficult rains, and the only change since last year has been the chimney cap. The cap they installed has a large gap around the edge. Everyone I've shown has had the same reaction, which is to be completely shocked by the lack of judgement in leaving the gap there.
Basically, they left huge one inch gaps in the cap, without sealing it with tape, which we had to add in a rain storm.
I've been in touch with Gold Star to come look at the work and to have a talk with them about the damages. Gold Star did come to look at the work as I asked. But they didn't' ring the doorbell so I didn't see the guy—he went straight to my roof. There's no way a pro chimney person should have caused a problem like this in the first place, according to the roofer and contractor who saw it. It's completely negligent, according to other professional home contractors, and so I want the wall and ceiling work paid for.
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