Grey Oaks Chimney Service

Glenn was great. Performed the inspection and informed us of future needs. Was a delight to deal with.

We bought a "fixer upper" in Troy in the summer of 2018 and the chimney needed a lot of work. The bricks at the bottom needed repair and the chase cover and chimney cap were rusted out. I took bids from 5 different contractors for the brick work and 4 different contractors for the new chase cover and cap. We went with Jeff for the brick work because he was very personable, he had excellent reviews on Angies, and he was the 2nd lowest bid. The only person who gave a lower bid was only slightly lower and he had virtually zero online reviews. Jeff did the brickwork for about $1,650. Other contractors with comparable online reputations wanted as much as $3,500. We went with Jeff for the chase cover and cap because, in addition to the reviews mentioned above, he was one of the few who offered to do it in stainless steel. If you look around my neighborhood you will see that as many as half of the houses have rusted chase covers and chimney caps (1990's McMansions in Troy). Ours was no different and the corrosion was so bad water was leaking into the chimney. Everything I read online and personal friends who knew construction / Home Improvement all said the same thing; if you want your chase cover to last forever get stainless steel or copper. Other contractors had cheaper bids but they wanted to do the chase cover in aluminum of galvanized steel. In some cases these bids were half the price but we prefer construction materials that last. As mentioned above we bought a home that was a "fixer upper" and needed a lot of work. We were also residing the home. Jeff was very flexible in working around the siding crew during a VERY busy season. We worked with over a dozen contractors in fixing up the home we bought. Grey Oaks was the one contractor we were 100% satisfied with and had zero regrets in hiring. I will be recommending them to friends and family.

They arrived promptly and did an excellent job.

Very good! Fast, courteous and very knowledgeable, made the repair in just over hour.

The work was done quickly and they even helped me coordinate with a roofer to finish off the job all at one time. It took about 3 days. In the end it was as if they'd never been there, save some high quality masonry work on my new chimney. The price was a little higher then expected but that was mostly due to the chosen brick. Also, the quality of the work is great and I believe you get what you pay for.

We have an older home (1936) that needs a lot of work. A few years ago, Jeff rebuilt the top portion of our chimney (we weren't members of Angie's list at the time so there's no review, but that job went really well and was affordable and we've had no problems since). So when we wanted glass block windows and some tuck pointing, my husband suggested we call Jeff. My husband placed the call describing the work we wanted done and Jeff asked my husband to send some pictures via text. After seeing the pictures, Jeff estimated the work to be between $700-$750 and we set up a date for the work to be done. (This was mainly just a labor cost as we bought the glass block windows ourselves.) On the day of the job one of Jeff's employees, Jeremy, showed up early (Jeff wasn't going to be on this job). He apologized for being early, but said he had kind of a long drive and wasn't sure how traffic would be. I really appreciated him caring enough to leave himself enough time so that he wasn't late. I showed him around and let him know what we were looking for and showed him where some of the foundation blocks were in the worst shape. Then another guy showed up (Jim) and they left to pick up some materials and I left for work. Jim wasn't working this job, he was just there to help with set up, but he did walk around the house and explain a few things to me. He also gave me some advice for our front porch which is falling apart (that's not in the budget now, but it's on the list). My husband came home for lunch to check on the job and called me at work to warn me that Jeremy was having to grind down the sill of our basement window openings which was creating a lot of dust. Unfortunately, because Jeff quoted over the phone instead of coming out, he didn't realize that our windows were going to involve a lot of grinding and cutting (remember, old house), so no one warned us in advance about the mess it was going to create. Jeremy used tarps and did his very best to minimize the dust, but that concrete dust is so fine it just gets in every nook and cranny including throughout the vents and upstairs. If we had known in advance, there are some precautions we could have taken. That was the first surprise. Because the job involved so much extra grinding and cutting, it took 2 full days. So on the first day, Jeremy cut out the windows. The installation (and tuck pointing) all took place on the second day. I didn't mind it taking 2 days, but I never imagined we would have to sleep in a house with no basement windows! He just had to grab miscellaneous items and shove them into the opening until the next day. It makes sense to me now that you would need to do all the removal at the same time and all of the installation at the same time (you can't have wet mortar in one area and be grinding and sending dust all over in a nearby area), but it had just never occurred to me so I was in shock. Thankfully we didn't end up with anyone or anything in our basement over night. On the second day my husband and I were already at work when Jeremy showed up. We just left the door unlocked for him. By the time my husband came home for lunch, 2 of the windows were installed and by the time I got home from work that evening, all of the windows were installed and the tuck pointing was done and Jeremy was just cleaning up. The house was even dustier than the day before. We hadn't even bothered to try to remedy the situation because we felt it was already too late. However, Jeremy did sweep and made an effort to clean as much as he could given the circumstances. He hosed and swept the driveway off and put everything back when he was done. He took as much trash with him as he could. His vehicle was full so he asked if he could leave a couple buckets behind which Jim would pick up in the morning and we said that was fine. The workmanship is great. We are very pleased with the way the windows and tuck pointing turned out. We have some serious foundation issues being addressed later this month that had created bad stair-step cracking on the outside of the house and we wanted to keep any additional water from getting in as well as just to make it look nicer. Working with Jeremy was a pleasure and we definitely want Jeff to know that he is an asset to Grey Oaks. The next morning, Jim showed up to pick up the remaining trash and collect payment. Because the job turned into a bigger job than originally estimated, they recalculated the figure to $900 from the original $700-$750. We could have been sticklers and said we wanted the original figure, but it is standard for contractors to say that there can be unknowns in every job and to adjust 10-15%. I will also say that we asked Jeremy to do some extra patching on the inside of one of the windows because the block was crumbling and a hole had formed to the outside that was letting bees in. Jeremy did a nice job on that so we won't have the bee problem anymore. I described the dust problem to Jim and he was very apologetic and asked what I thought was fair. I asked for $850 to give us a little bit of compensation for the extra cleaning we'll have to do and Jim agreed and said that was fair. I would also like to say that Jim had great customer service skills and was a very genuine person. There were a couple surprises on this one overall. Jim said they are very busy right now and I'm guessing that's why Jeff didn't quote in person. He may have also squeezed us in as a courtesy because we are returning customers. I feel like the deal in the end was a good one for the amount of work done and Grey Oaks did a nice job and we would hire them again for future projects.

Installation was okay, but i needed to insist he complete the job as quoted and not his suggested shortcut. The reason for the poor rating, however, is that when the chimney started leaking into the basement one year after he replaced the cap Jeff would not warrant his work. He explained he used top quality materials and that the leak was not his problem. When i inquired about his warranty on workmanship he told me 30 days. I hired and paid another company to replace the caulking that failed and the leak was eliminated. If you are considering Grey Oaks please be aware of his horribly short workmanship warranty.

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It went very well. The quality was excellent and the price was was good although it was increased for some extra, work and material that was required once the work was started. I felt very comfortable with Jeff, the owner, who completed the work while we were out of town.

Arrived spot on time. Really nice helpful guy. Great price. Thanks

Everything was great. I used this company many times before. The work they do is top drawer! They came when they said they would. Jeff also helped make the selection for the brick that was used. He went out of his way to give me many choices. Can't say enough good things about them.

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Jeff was able to provide references of brick supply stores I could go to and select my brick.  After I selected them, he picked them up along with all other materials needed for the job.  The thing I appreciated most about the job with Grey Oaks is Jeff communicated very well.  He also was focused on doing the job to my satisfaction as opposed to just getting the job done to get paid.  This made for a much more enjoyable experience.   

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They were very professional. Their craftsmanship is very good. Their work is excellent. They are actually ahead of schedule because he couldn't work with the rain so he had done it ahead. He books you later intentionally to work with the weather. If he gets done sooner he will come out there. We recommended them to our neighbors. My parents have used them and everybody who have used them had been happy.

Jeff's guy did a good job.

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Very professional and did a great job

Two chimneys had to be rebuilt due to years of weather damage. The two gentleman worked fro 8:30 a.m. daily until 5:30 p.m. They were clean, efficient, honest, and really did an excellent job on both chimneys. They guarantee their work and will return if there is a problem. We were very happy with their service. They told us exactly what was wrong and took pictures so we could see the damaged bricks (which were actually falling out on one chimney) as well as the mortar that was missing. We are very grateful that we now have leak free chimneys that look like brand new. The two fellows were really great. We would not hesitate to call them again.

We have a 170 year old brick home. Jeff replaced many bricks in the chimney and replaced a few on the side of the house. He did a awesome job matching the brick and grout. You can't tell the difference between the old and the new.  Everything was cleaned up. Very professional. We will use them again in the future.