D & D Masonry & Chimney

Fantastic isn't a sufficient assessment of the job their serviceman, Rich, did. Not only did he do an excellent job cleaning the chimney and pipes (and replacing/fixing pieces I wrecked) and keeping the room clean, the insert is burning the wood better, cleaner and more completely than when it was installed brand new (it's at least 10 years old). The glass on the door is staying clean and I'm not getting smoke in the house like I use to even when I damp it down. I was late having them come because I had planned this year to replace it (I always had so much frustration with it) . Now I may not. I couldn't be happier.

RIP-OFF  BAIT AND SWITCH: On 2/12/15 I called D& D about removal of snow and ice dams on my roof. I spoke to Nick and confirmed it was $199 for 2 hrs of removal, $50 p/h after that. A neighbor had toldme this already. I booked an appt for 2/16/15. at 1:00 approx. On 2/16 Jay called to say they could not do the job for many days; they would not honor the booked price of $199; and the price was now changed as they were busy. I asked about the new price and how long. Jay said for $350 they would come right away. I let them come as I had alot of water leaking. They were here 2 hrs & didnt do the ice dams. I was gouged since I had an appt for $200 and charged me $350.  They did the same to my other neighbors. When I googled them later, I saw 19 complaints at the BBB. I have been calling them all day to come back and fix the ice dams as paid for, or  get a refund. They do not answer phones. Also, the owner can't be found through the Sec of States office as its a defunct business, so be sure you see insurance policy if you let them do any work at all.  DO NOT TRUST THEM

They have a calling list and call my elderly mother every month and have told me they cannot take her name off their list, which is untrue. They call her, tell her it's time to get her chimney cleaned for $139, and then they show up and she writes them a check because she forgets that they already have done it. The owner, Nick Doup, will not return my calls anymore. They are thieves.

They did the job. Left things clean and were professional. Gave me an estimate on chimney caps which I did have them come back and do.

great.. now stop bigging me for a review

The representative was courteous and professional in all ways.  He arrived on time, handled our furniture and belongings with care, and, cleaned up after himself.

unknown

2 workers showed up , started to demolish, were not very careful where all the bricks and old insulation fell.

the worker, were very personable, nice, but slobs. The chimney was rebuild and I assume was done right,

it took two days. The clean up wasn't so good, I offered the use

of our leaf blower to get rid of the old insulation which was spread on the roof, I finally told them to go because

the mess they created was damaging some of the ground cover and planting.

Nice guys, but clean up is not high on the list.  I had to hire some one to clean the roof and also clean out the gutters

there was 2 inches of sand in the gutter. They also would honor the Coupon I had from Angie's list booklet,

reason: there was more work than they thought.( I have to believe them I don't know.)

The chimney looks good

, but this company should invest in some tarps, which makes to clean up easier.

Went well,very nice to deal with and informative.Came back when I called back because the smell of smoke was coming into the house.They checked it out and said everything was fine.Claimed it had something to do with the chimney being on the outside wall and the cold weather.The weather hadn't been that cold when it was happening and the chimney was not on the outside wall,maybe 7 feet away from the outside wall,so I don't quite understand the explanation.Again,very nice to deal with.

unknown

It took a few attempts to actually make an appointment the service person showed up for, but once he was on the job everythging went fine.

They are very expensive for what they do.  Given the amount of work that they did and how they did it,it was a lot of money for what they did.  I was not impressed.  The amount of work that was done for $150.

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They arrived on time despite a winter storm  the day before. Work was done in a timely and professional manner.  Very satisfactory.

I called D&D after getting a coupon in the mail.  The owner showed up as agreed on 10/18/13, seemed very knowledgable, commented that previous work (6 top courses done 25 years ago by a window contractor who extended chimney for me) was not true or straight (I had never noticed), my AC compressor located at the base of the chimney would need to be protected with plywood, and gave me a written estimate on the spot for removing brick to "below second corbel", which equated to 9 courses of brick.  Of the several contractors I got estimates from, D&D was the most punctual, the only one to give a written estimate on the spot, and offered to do more (9 courses vs. 6), although for a higher price.  I checked a couple of references & decided to pay a bit more to get rid of the second corbel, and get the job done ASAP (considering the importance of punctuality) due to the impending winter, especially since I heat mostly with wood.  (Another mason I had lined up had gotten hurt, which was what got me to this point.)
D&D called me the end of the week before starting to say they would be there on 11/25.  I told them I was taking off work to be there. They said they had an "A" rating on Angie's list (I was not a member yet so did not check), and considered it important to do good work. It all seemed good.
On 11/25, they did not show up in the morning.  I called multiple times without being able to reach anyone, but was eventually told they'd come maybe later that afternoon.  I doubted that & went to work (to Boston by train) so as not to waste the entire day. Someone did in fact showed up at 3 and started. Their office called me on my way home to say they'd be back next day, probably around 3, to finish up.  Based on that, I figured they had somehow gotten most of it done, but asked if it was safe to use furnace overnight.  The office guy needed to talk to laborer who did the work to find out - could not do so until 7:30.  I asked him to call me to confirm my family was safe with the chimney apart.  Never got a call back.
I got home, found the top 3 courses removed, 12-15 loose new bricks stacked on the chimney, 4 new bricks already mortared in place (making it obvious that the worker thought this was a 3 course job), my AC compressor dented in several places and covered with sand/debris, and the hard plastic cover I had over it destroyed.  I frantically called BEFORE 7:30 all nos. I had for D&D - the only call back was at 9 pm from worker who had done the work.  He told me the office opened at noon! I said do not do anything more until I talked to the owner. I asked him what if a storm came in before they could finish, and he said the opening would have to be tarped.
Next day, I went to work, thinking nothing was going to be resolved before noon.  I got a call from the owner at 9 and started to explain what happened.  He cut me off, angrily denied my AC compressor had been dented, insisted the plywood had been put on the compressor because he saw it loaded on truck (where it had obviosly stayed), denied anything was wrong with the job, and said because I tampered with his staff (by telling the worker not to do anything more until I spoke to the owner), he had irrevocably rescheduled the "crew" to another job and could not get back to mine until Mon 12/2, i.e., after Thanksgiving WEEK, with no finished top on my chimney and storms coming in. They had had to deal with an emergency which was why they did not show up as promised the day before.  (Fine, then call me so I'm not wasting vacation time.) He said he had known I would be a difficult customer (!?) because I had called a few weeks before the start date and asked about providing the specified chimney cap myself (I saw it online for $100 vs his charge of $300), which I decided after asking D&D about it not to bother doing, since it only would have saved me $50 and, after all, these guys were pros. He said he had no one available to tarp my open chimney but said I should get the bricks off top due to expected heavy winds & incoming storm that night.  He said I did not need to be there to "babysit" his crew when they did show up.  He ended the 20 min call saying D&D would make everything right and I would be 150% satisfied in the end.  I had actually called one of the other bidders to step in but they could not get there any quicker and I wanted D&D to address the damages so decided to stick it out with them.  I tarped the open chimney before the storm.  We did not have the use of the fireplace for Thanksgiving week with my daughter & fiance visiting, complements of D&D.
 
Mon. 12/2 after calling repeatedly when they did not show by late morning, I got a call back that the owner would be there late Mon or first thing Tues with the "crew right behind him". They never showed Mon (another day off from work).  By noon Tues (another day), no word.  I started calling other contractors. Then got a call fm D&D after noon that crew would be there in 20 min.  What about owner?  I needed to resolve how the damages were going to be addressed before more work was done.  I was told he would be there at end of job. I said I wanted him there before any more work was done to discuss handling the damage, and had been checking with other contractors to finish it. I was then told he was available and would be there soon.
My HVAC co. had told me parts for the top of my compressor were $600, labor for them to install them was $400.  After seeing the damage, the owner agreed to cut $300 max fm cost.  (That did cover dented top lid, with me using other parts and doing the replacement labor.) He then said only 6 courses needed to be removed, because nothing was wrong with the second corbel - he had "made a mistake" on the estimate.  I was fine with this because at that point I did not want D&D to touch the original chimney, and just wanted it rebuilt and functional.  The price was adjusted.  (As it turned out, when I went up the ladder and took a closer look next day, there were about 6 bricks on second corbel that I think should have been replaced.)  That day, 1 worker prepped the chimney.  Heavy planks were placed over compressor this time.  
Next day, 12/4, the worker showed at a reasonable hour to start rebuilding.  He said a helper was expected at 10:00 with the cap. He was a hard worker but only had 2 yrs experience.  The helper with the cap never showed.  I noticed from the ground that the first courses were noticeably skewed from the original chimney lines and pointed it out before they set.  He was able to adjust them some, but they are still a bit off.   Since he had no help and only 1 ladder, requiring him to work from the roof, he could not see the chimney from the other side.  When he mentioned this later in the day, I got my ladder out to provide access to the other side.  He finished rebuilding after dark, and told me someone would come next day to install the cap.  
Next day, I decided to go to work because I had already lost several work days, the masonry was done, and only the cap had to be installed.  On my way home, I got a call that the job was done and they wanted their payment.  When I got home, I saw the cap had been attached to the top with construction adhesive and was crooked by about 1 inch off side-to-side, quite noticeable from the ground.  Also, there were about 20 lbs of masonry debris all over that side of the yard, which I cleaned up.  
This was a small job that should have taken a day, but ended up being the worse contractor experience I have ever had.

Their representative arrived on time and took a look at the chimney.  He said he did not have the equipment that was required to do the inspection and cleaning,  I had explained to the telephone representative when booking this service that our fireplaces and the chimney required special attachments to clean because of the very narrow openings and would require servicing in very different way.  I was assured on the phone that their techs and company were very familiar with these situations and had all that was necessary to get the job done.  They certainly did not.  Their tech on site was very courteous and tried to get the job done but in the end  determined he could not.  We did  not pay for the work.  It seems that this company was very focussed on their telephone sales and not on their customer. They didn't listen or could not hear.

Everything turned out great and they were very helpful. I really liked the technician that came out to do the work.  I was not anticipating paying that much for the service and it bugged me.  They were efficient with scheduling an appointment and the quality of the work was okay. They said they would come out for a follow up appointment with me and they never did.

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Excellent, thorough, trustworthy.

It turned out good. They were good. They were prompt. The tech that came out was very courteous. They were very neat. In order to take a look at the chimney and do some of the work, he put blankets all around and made sure he blocked everything off. I had my daughter home, at the time, so he definitely made sure that nothing got in the air that would've caused to her to breathe in any of the soot or anything that was coming down the chimney flew. We haven't done the extra work yet because we're checking a couple of other places. Based on the research I did on the internet, I would say the price was good.

They cleaned the furnace flue and the fireplace flue.  Told me I needed to hire a different company to get all the creosote out with a chemical spray, which they don't do.  I've never heard of this before and have had the chimney swept several times.  Maybe there is a build up that just doesn't come off with regular sweeping.