American Chimney Pros

It was an awful lot of work for what he got paid. It wasn't in that bad of shape, but I'm picky. The chimney is only 30 years old. I've had it re-pointed a couple of times because the wood stove really eats up the chimney. I had brick left over and I went down to the masonry supply place with him. Everyone there knew him well. I got a couple of bids. It was a good price.

I have never used my fireplace outside one instance following a chimney sweep when I bought the home in 2009. I tried using it last week and my house smelled of smoke and I could see a little bit of smoke escaping the fireplace while I had a fire going. I was concerned there was a nest or something in it. I called Gary at 8:30AM on a Sunday morning. He works on Sundays and was available to come over within the hour. He inspected my fireplace and it doesn't require a cleaning. Rather, the issue is that the damper doesn't open enough due to inefficient design.He recommended replacing the damper, which would run $400.00 minus the $45.
He then looked at my wood stove. He said the liner looks great. He managed to get the side door to the stove closed for me.He pointed out some openings that would not allow the stove to run efficiently and told me what to buy and how to do the simple repairs myself. I really appreciated this since I want to use the wood stove as an alternative heat source to save money. He checked out a third chimney and then the outside chimney and again said things look mostly good. I felt like he WASN'T trying to rip me off. Very rare!! When I can afford it I will have the new damper put on my fireplace by Gary.

Gary was responsive, on time, professional and very pleasant.  Highly recommend him.

Did great Jon and a pleasant team. Gary turned up with a young lady and walked me through the quote. No pressure.
Within days Gary and a helper came to repoint the foundation and prep the chimney. On final day I had 4 people working here, installing the liner and finishing inside.
The house was spotless, the placed protective rugs and ran a vacuum to eliminate any possibility of soot.
Job was fast as they worked flat out for 3 days.

I called Gary for an estimate.  He came over within the hour.  He had two other people with him.  Both Gary and the guy who was going to do the actual repointing work went up onto my roof to check out the chimney.  I had two other masons prior come to look at it and neither of them went up on the roof.  They just eyeballed it from the ground.
By looking in my chimney, he was able to see that we did not have a chimney liner.  This is a fire hazard and my husband and I both know that.  My husband had thought he had one installed when we had a wood insert installed in the fireplace a few years prior.  So, while it made the project much more expensive, we knew it was something we needed and were happy that Gary spotted the problem.
They came when they said they would.  They did the work quickly and cleaned up afterwards.
My husband had met Gary previously and when I told him that he had come by to give an estimate, he said, "Gary is THE MAN!  We are definitely going with that guy."  I had to agree.  Gary seemed to not only REALLY know what he was talking about, he seemed to relish talking about chimney work and coming up with solutions to the problem.
The cost of the chimney liner seemed to be in line with what we expected it would be.  I think it would be cheaper if it was done WHEN the wood stove insert was put in.
The price on the grind and repoint was less expensive than the other two people we met with quoted.

The first time we hired American Chimney Pros was a number of years ago, and we had them rebuild, line, and cap our chimney (at a former house).  Their bid was the least expensive of those we received and the chimney looked great afterwards-- never had any problems.  Last year (2010), we hired them to reflash and waterproof the chimney at our current house, work which solved the leaking problems we had been having.  Their service was prompt and professional, and the price again was very competitive.  Today, they blew me away.  We had an emergency situation-- we had hired another firm to just sweep the chimney (through an Angie's List deal), and they discovered that the ductwork connecting our (<5 yo) oil boiler to the chimney had completely fallen off and we had been venting furnace gas into our house for who knows how long.  We called American Chimney Pros on a Saturday, and they had a guy at our place about an hour later.  I was expecting an estimate and so was a little concerned to go down to the basement and find him actually at work trying to put the pieces back together (how much is this gonna cost me?).  He didn't think it'd be that hard, and unfortunately, was wrong about that-- but by God, he re-affixed the ductwork as best as could be done given that it had apparently been originally constructed with some missing pieces(!!).  So now we can at least use the boiler until the longer-term fix is in place.   Want to know what he charged for all his hours today?  Not a freakin' penny.  And then he left us a quote with zero pressure to sign, for the future work-- and which was half what this morning's firm had estimated.  Let me tell you, the chances of us hiring them again are about 99.999%.

Horribly, worst experience I ever had! Repointed chimney but left mortar film all over chimney, it was so bad couldn't see red brick through white film. Promised to return to remove film and never showed up. Also hired to remove soot from roof (which was caused by missing liner part) but didn't remove any soot and damaged shingles. Tried to contact owner Gary Ridge and would never return my calls. Contacted attorney generals office and filed a complaint.

Initially they seemed good but the re-flash did not fix the leak problem. I called once after a heavy rain showed more leakage and they came pretty quickly saying it was just that they needed to use a stronger glue. After seeing more leakage they came again to "nail down some loose nails and add more tar". After a third rain and more leakage, I called multiple times over the next 3 weeks. They never answered or returned any of my calls. It looks like I'm going to have to find someone else to come fix the problem.

He was great. He was careful to rescue the animals from our chimney rather than just get them out. He took ownership of the situation.

THEY WERE VERY PROFESSIONAL AND I HAVE REFERRED THEM TO MANY OTHER SATISFIED PEOPLE.

OWNER SAID LINER WAS IN REALLY BAD SHAPE AND WOULD BE ABOUT A DAYS WORK TO REPAIR. WHOLE JOB TOOK THREE GUYS TWO HOURS AND THE BOSS KEPT ASKING HIS WORKERS WHAT THE HOLD UP WAS ON GETTING THE LINER DOWN THE CHIMNEY. (SHOULD'VE BEEN A ONE HOUR JOB?) FORCED LINER DOWN EVEN THOUGH THERE SEEMED TO BE AN OBSTRUCTION (NO WAY TO INSPECT THE LINER FOR IMPROPER INSTALLATION), TRACKED SOOT ON FLOORS AND STEPS (DESPITE DROP CLOTH REQUESTS), DAMAGED ROOFING (DESPITE REPEATED REQUESTS TO BE CAREFUL), LEFT MORTAR DEBRIS ALL OVER ROOF, INSTALLED CHIMNEY CAP AND MORTAR CROWN VERY POORLY. SHODDY, RUSHED, AND IN MY OPINION (FOR TWO HOURS WORK) WAY OVER-PRICED. AFTER HEATED DISCUSSION WITH OWNER AND REVIEW OF JOB, CHIMNEY CAP WAS REINSTALLED AND DEBRIS REMOVED FROM ROOF, BUT NO REDUCTION IN PRICE AND TRACKED SOOT AGAIN. FEW WEEKS AFTER JOB WHEN THE HEAT FIRST CAME ON DISCOVERED THEY ONLY PARTIALLY REATTACHED DUCTING TO FURNACE WHICH CAUSED THE BASEMENT TO FILL UP WITH COMBUSTION GASES AND FUMES. LIVID.