Barry's Chimney Service

My husband was there for the cleaning, he said the gentlemen went up on the roof to clean the chimney, but he saw no particles fall down the chimney, which left him wondering if there were anything to clean. The gentlemen was packing up when I came in and I asked him how did things go and he said the chimney was very dirty. My husband felt the price was to high for the service, as he himself could hoover the chimney out. We expected more I think.

I had been trying to get a hold of a particular chimney sweep company in the weeks before, but they did not return my email or my phone message, and by the time I got around to looking for someone else to do it, I knew it would be hard to get done by Thanksgiving. It was the Saturday prior to the holiday when I finally sat down in front of my Angie's List search to start calling companies. The ones who answered wouldn't be able to come until December, and Barry's was the first available and among the least expensive. I was very excited when he offered to come the following Monday! We set a time and he asked if it was okay if he ended up running a little early. I told him that would be fine. I'm fairly certain it was Barry who came to do the work; he never introduced himself and I can't imagine him having any employees. He didn't present as the type of person a woman home alone should let into the house. In fact, my mom had just left my house but when she saw him pull up she doubled back to make sure I would be safe. He was a little early, which we had agreed would be okay and he got to work right away after asking a couple questions about our usage of the fireplace. He brought in brushes and a vacuum and laid down a carpet and some other coverings before hanging a light inside the fireplace and starting to brush off the bricks inside. My child woke up from his nap a few minutes into the vacuuming, and I spent several minutes in his room with him. By the time we came out he was nearly finished with his job. He had filled in some cracks with mortar, which he told me about, and then asked about the key to it and a lighter. We just moved in a few months ago and I never thought to look for the key to the gas, and since we couldn't find it he gave me his shiny new one! Looking past his appearance, I could tell that he was probably a really nice guy and I trusted him. We turned on the fire to make sure it worked and he seemed pleased with his work. I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of service to compare it to, but when my mom had hers cleaned, the bricks inside the fireplace looked brand new afterward. Mine don't, which isn't necessarily a problem, but it makes me question how clean the rest is. He was here for less than half an hour, start to finish, so maybe the thing wasn't that dirty in the first place.

I have used Barry's Chimney service for at least twenty-five years, if not longer. Barry always does a thorough job at a reasonable price. This last time was no exception.

Excellent service and very friendly.

I called Barry for an estimate on having a cap put on my chimney and to investigate whether or not I had birds down in my chimney. I called him on a Wednesday and he came out the next morning. He was on time and was polite. His estimate was comparable to the other one I received plus he had a coupon in value pack that would have brought his price down below the other estimate. Unfortunately he had broken his foot and said he would not be able to install a cap for about six weeks. We were unwilling to wait that long so we went with the other company.