Bob's Fireside Shop

Bob himself supervised the work.  We did NOT get a permit which I would never advise.  The install went pretty well.  The sensor that kicks on to blow the heat didn't ever work so he rigged another sensor as he said he was having trouble getting one from Osburn, the manufacturer of our insert.  I though all was well...................
Fast forward to today- 1/12/16:
We had our fireplace cleaned- and I know we should have done that the next year as suggested. .  Here?s what the
inspector (the owner of the company) found: 
1) Chimney less than 1 inch from combustibles.  Quote from report:  Building code states that the chimney needs
to be 1" from combustibles when the chimney is on the exterior of the
house.  Manufacturer?s requirements agreewith state code.  The flue pipe is almost touching the inside wall and chimney pipe
2) Insert not insulated.  Per manufacturer of flue- I?ll give you the condensed version:  There must be NO gaps and an insulation blanket has to be installed to fill the cavity to prevent heat transfer.  There is frost inside the chimney.  I saw photos. 
Having trouble uploading since it was a PDF format- sorry.
3) We had a chimney cap placed when we first moved here, and were unaware that there was an inch difference between the cap pipe diameter and the pipe used by Bob?s.  Smoke escapes from the gap causing some smoke marks on a piece of masonry that?s
thin. There was a lot of creosote build up, also not good 
4) There is a visual and video inspection that must be done and paperwork sent in to the state- (I'm in NJ) not done either. 
My paperwork consisted of an invoice with no details, materials used on it.
I called Bob when the owner of this company  was still with me.  I told him what was found re the insulation which was as far as I got. He pretty much screamed to me that no insulation was needed because it doesn?t get very cold here.(as opposed to say Canada I guess)  I tried to say it was code and manufacturer specs but he fervently disagreed mentioning a few times ?I?ve been in this
business for 40 years!!!?  I said for the sake of safety that I would get a permit after the fact and wanted him to do the work to fix what isn?t to code. My wording was:  "I would like you to do this work with a permit, to bring it up to specs per manufacturer and to current code.  Is that fair?"  He screamed "NO!"  He said he would call the manufacturer and call me back.  (Never. Happened.).  My new guy Ed heard all this too as we were on speaker-    I went to our borough and am in process of getting this work done per permit.  I don?t
want to give away any more fun facts than to say there is a very nice inspector who worked with us on another project recently- 
he will be popping over to see what shoddy work has been done before the job is done right. The moral of this story- get a permit.  We were stupid not to-  Get someone you trust to do the work.  My new guy is very highly rated on Angie?s List which we failed to use.   Be safe-