This company was brought on by my then-property manager, Anchor Real Estate, to secure my decks in compliance with VA Beach city regulations. I paid them $3500 in 2022. I now learn in 2025 that they did none of the requisite work and clearly lied to city officials that it was done to code. I have now hired a different company to do the work. Do not do business with this company! read more

Things started well, but after the initial visit, service spiraled down hill. A part was ordered, tech scheduled repair time with me, but never actually put on schedule. Could not seem to get a call back from the office. 3 weeks and 3 calls was the magic number. Tech was nice enough, called to let me k now he over charged me by $185.00 and said he notified the office. Seven days out I called and was told nothing had been reported. They verified I was over charged, called to say they were issuing a refund, then canceled the refund. Put in a call today. I figure about 4 more calls and another month and maybe they will issue the refund. I have my receipts so I am hoping someone knows what they are doing. Do not recommend. read more

I contacted Step In Time and Nicole was fantastic making an appointment in 2 days. Jeffery was prompt and professional with a level 2 video inspection. He found some damage to the chimney and repaired it within the week. Nicole was great scheduling us so we could be on time to close on the sale. These guys really know their business, I received a reasonable estimate and no surprises. Great professionalism, promptness, quality of workmanship and value! Highly recommend! 10 Stars!! read more

We needed a move out chimney inspection for a place we were renting. The lady on the phone was very nice and was able to squeeze us in after another company called on us the day of our appointment. They did recommend the chase cover and cap be replaced which they quoted $2290 but we were only required to get the inspection by our property management. read more

My wife called Step in Time Chimney Sweeps to get an estimate for a permanent chimney cap. At no time during the phone call was a charge for the technician to generate a bid for a chimney cap mentioned nor agreed to. The technician charged $29 for a chimney "inspection" which we never asked for. The chimney had been inspected and cleaned a week prior. We paid the "fee." As an aside the bids written up were exorbitantly high compared to prior bids. There are other more reputable chimney firms in Virginia Beach and I would recommend you choose one of them and NOT Step in Time... read more

Basically the Jiffy Lube of chimney companies. Their assessment of my chimney came out to over double the cost of other competitors. Speaking with others who have work done by them, they do good work but most everyone agreed that they overcharge and push for unnecessary work. The quote I got from them was $1970 versus a licensed and certified competitor that quoted me $825 stating that panels could be repaired rather than replaced which was not an option with A Step In Time. read more

A Step In Time Chimney Sweeps - Quote from A Step In Time. - Chimney Sweeps Near Me - Virginia Beach, Virginia

We need a chimney cap and this company said we had to have an inspection beforehand. It was a $29 cost and although we thought the need was BS, we went ahead. Guy comes out and shines a light up the chimney and never put up a ladder on the outside, saying he would need a 40 foot ladder and that would require another visit. He quotes a standard cap and a top damper option at 3x the price of the standard cap. I say I'll think on it. Call him the next day and say we'll go with standard cap. He continues with the drama about having to bring a 40 foot ladder like it's some big deal...we had told them at initial scheduling the # floors we have and can't understand why people in this chimney business seem surprised that some chimneys are tall. Anyway, the guy then says I need to pay a deposit. I'm like wtf for, because it's only a few hundred bucks and I'm paying you in full while you're here. He says policy...ok fine...how do I pay the deposit...online? He says no, I can give him my card # over the phone...f - that, I say...I'm not reading you my debit card that'll be jotted down on paper that'll end up who knows where. He says I can call the office but it will be the same thing. I say I'll reconsider. I visit Yelp and see all the 1-star reviews and will just get what I need elsewhere. Too many warning signs of cr@ppy experience for me to proceed. I'm out $29 for having a flashlight shone up the chimney. Hope they apply it towards a taller ladder and some payments technology...and maybe some improvements to their creepy commercials. read more

Mike, the owner inspected the property but refused to provide a proper drawn out estimate detailing the scope of work and costs, insisting that a deposit is paid before the "estimate" can be given so I cannot shop around elsewhere. This is truly bizarre and then Mike went on to mention how much he does in revenue each year (Honestly, I care much more about how much you are charging me versus what you make each year). In the end, Mike was needlessly belligerent and there is simply no reason for this sort of unprofessionalism. The verbal estimate was in thousands and reading other views its seems that the man never ever gives an estimate that is less than a few thousands. I just find the whole episode real bizarre where there is so much hostility, distrust and lack of transparency in providing an estimate so one can see whether what is being charged is fair and reasonable. Given Mike's unnecessary aggressive way of handing a simple conversation, I rather pay a bit extra than to deal with the god awful attitude. read more

I have our chimney swept every year for around $150-200 and every chimney sweep has always used a rotary brush, that is until A Step in Time showed up today. He simply pushed a brush up the chimney with minimal "brushing" involved. After he finished, I shined a flashlight up the chimney to find a lot of creosote still there and asked why he didn't use a rotary brush to actually get it clean and was told they don't have that equipment with them. Really. you're a professional chimney sweep and you don't have a power drill and extension brush with you? I then called the office and was told yes, they do have that equipment with them but the rotary brushing would cost $690.00!! Wow. Absolutely Ridiculous waste of time and money. I for one will NEVER use this company again. read more

They performed service cleaning my dryer vent a few weeks back. They came out the next day and were very professional and easy to talk to. They explained their entire cleaning process and made sure we understood. Would highly recommend them to anyone needing this service. read more

We purchased our home a year ago and were told by the previous owner that the fireplace was only decorative purposes and unuseable. As we really wanted to be able to have a working fireplace in the winter, we had our chimney and fireplace inspected by A Step in Time. The inspector was thorough, professional and provided photos and a repair/restore to working condition scope of work and quote. At the time, we were not quite ready to move into our new home, so we postponed our decision on the chimney repair. Fast forward a year later and this past month when I reached back to the owner, Ray Gessner, he said that he would honor the original scope and quote from a year ago. In addition, he sent out another member of his team to recheck my chimney and fireplace so that there would be no surprises in advance of the work that needed to be done. That brings me today and the outstanding work and service completed to restore our chimney and fireplace to safe, working condition. Harry arrived on time as promised in the morning and immediately removed the old defective damper and opened up the chimney that had been capped off. Harry continued throughout the day to complete work at the top, on the inside and outside of the chimney, including mounting a new top flue tile, damper, chimney cap and screen. The manager, Jeffrey, also came by early to check on the work being done and to reassure me of what to expect and to explain in detail what was going to be done. Finally, Harry was joined by Kyle, who carefully, methodically, and thoroughly parched the smoke chamber just above the fireplace. Finally, when Harry identified some additional damage inside the area near the top of the chimney, I received a call from the owner who said that his team would take care of this damage at no additional cost. Yes, there are still business teams and business owners out there that are committed to doing what's promised and doing it well. Fortunately, A Step in Time is such a business and Ray is such an owner. read more

This is by far the worst chimney company I have ever worked with. Do NOT use this company. I had them inspect two chimneys. They claim to have found only problems, many of which a home inspector said were completely fine and up to code. They did not label any of the photos for their "report" so I had no idea which chimney was which. I had to call their office multiple times to get this resolved and it was not done satisfactorily. This operation is a scam. They said my chimney needed $9000 in repairs when it actually only needed a minor joint repair. read more

Scheduled a clean and an inspection. The provider was very polite but told me that I needed a new chase cover at $1900. Nope, not made of gold, just plain ole galvanize steel. Two other quotes came in at under $800 for stainless steel with a lifetime warranty. Not sure if they tried to rip me off because I am a woman or because they need to pay their ValPak bill. Buyer beware! read more

Well here's the hell that we've been dealing with. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. A STEP IN TIME CHIMNEY SWEEPS We called to have our chimney box replaced so they came out to measure it and give us a quote. All went well. And then it all began The first time they showed up no appointment was scheduled and we had prior plans. That's fine we're not unreasonable people by any means. We will happily reschedule. The day of the demo/tear out the said they would be here between 8-9 am. Knock on the door at 10 am. Be on time or be courteous enough to call. They finish demoing the old unit around noon. Return around 2pm with the new unit. While on the job site ask me to give them a hand handling the whole new unit (talk about liability lawsuit). Could NOT get the new unit in. Say they are going to return the next day and will communicate with us. Do not show the next day. We call back and they have to reschedule a entire week later because that's the earliest they can get us in. (Job half way done and a hole in our house covered by a tarp for a week in November, are you paying the heat bill?). The next week comes and we call the day before to make sure they will be here. They confirm. We even mentioned weather they said yes "between 7/8". Right. So we wake up. I've taken off work yet again, 7:45 comes around and WE call them only to be greeted with "I was about to call you! They won't be coming out today because of weather... and we'll have to reschedule to next Friday that's the earliest we can get you in." I know it's a week out but it's calling for rain next friday. Awesome. Let me make something crystal clear. There is a hole in the side of our house for two weeks and it's about to be 40* degrees outside. You half way finished a job and don't have the common courtesy to move a new job or put something a day back to finish a job you haven't completed? I will be sharing this with the friends I have to make sure no one I know gets mistreated like this. Absurd. read more

They made the appt for Richmond not N VA. No idea why? They came and told us we needed 1,000x of dollars of repairs they had done the work about a year ago so I was confused as to why We needed so much work done. We called someone else and got a second opinion and they told us none of the work was not needed. read more

About two years ago my husband and I had A Step In Time come out to our home for a residential chimney cleaning to prepare for the colder seasons. We were told there was a large crack along the top of our chimney that would result in it collapsing in on itself , "lighting our whole house on fire" and that it would take extensive work to correct the issue. We were quoted almost $6000. Flash forward to two weeks ago when we decided to get a second opinion after saving up enough money for the fix, well it turns out there is absolutely nothing wrong with our fireplace at all and we've been using for almost two weeks. I cannot believe we went two years without the use of our fireplace when it was all a lie. read more

Get your facts straight, Ray. We never refused to pay our bill, jerk. We were unhappy with the bait and switch from your company and were contemplating our legal options. Be grateful it didn't go that way. BY THE WAY.....I have found DOZENS of reviews on you and your company and many used the same term of bait and switch! So it's not just us. First of your lies in your response. How can you leave a brochure when we live out of state???? Huh??? Answer me that one. Second lie in your response. I was standing right next to my husband when he spoke to you on the phone. NEVER once did he say another company told us we needed an overhaul. You can spin this however the hell you want to. The nuts and bolts of this fight isn't the fact the fact that the repair you did wasn't needed. It was needed and it was paid for in a very timely manner. Any delay was because we were looking into taking legal action with your company. If an overhaul was required, its ultimately your loss. Had you been up front about the full scope of what was needed and not lied to us that the repair you did do would make them operational for my tenant, you would likely gotten a much fatter check than you got. Your loss, loser. Third lie - as for "discounts", they were not and we both know it. Spin that all you want cuz it's crap. You and your company were not up front about things from the beginning and never, ever mentioned it until 2 days after your repair was done and I called to inquire if my fireplaces were "OPERATIONAL" for my tenant to us......not "safe"(your made up lie)....OPERATIONAL. You set the expectation at the beginning of the repair that they would be. And by the end of the repair, you still never said a word about us needing an overhaul. NEVER. Lie #4 - I'm in real estate....I did not ask for a certification and I did not ask for them to be "safe". I asked if they were operational for my tenant to have fires which is what you said your repair would accomplish. It was not. So do not paint us as people who did not pay our bill or only wrote our review when your attorney contacted me. That is slander and a another one of your obvious continued lies. Guess what the absolutely BEAUTIFUL news in all of this is though???? Now that we know that we do need an overhaul, I cannot tell you how incredibly excited as hell I will be to write that large check to any other company but yours. Looking forward to it!!! YOUR LOSS! read more

They are amazing. Came out and gave an estimate and came out under budget. I was very pleased. Their work is impeccable.

I called SIT a couple of years ago to have my standard every couple of years cleaning. The guy that came out said we had creosote build up and it was going to be very expensive. I didn't buy it and had my regular guy come out. He showed me that there was absolutely no creosote. I was so angry and glad I went with my gut. Be careful!!! read more

Poor communication with the office staff. We made an appointment over the phone for 9:00 am and when no one had showed up by 10:15 am, we called to ask what was happening. We were told that we were 2nd in the queue for the day- first we'd been told there was a queue. If we had been told that there was a queue or that the appointment was for a window of time, such as 9-11 am, we would have been fine with that. There was no apology for the inconvenience. Instead, when we told the lady that this was not acceptable and we wanted to cancel the appointment, she said, "That's fine, we have plenty of other customers". read more

Well, live and learn I guess. The sweeps that came out seemed nice and they seemed honest. They quoted me $6500 to fix the top of the chimney mortar and to install a new cap. I thought it sounded high and asked if they could bring it down a little. The brought it down to $6000. I should have called another company for an estimate but I didnt and that's on me. The 2 guys came back the following week. It took them only 4 hours to do the repairs. They seem to have done a good job. However there is no way that this repair should have been this expensive. I would not recommend this company and feel that they take advantage of people. read more

Ray is such an awesome guy and it was a pleasure to meet him. Very nice person and would love to use his sacco e

Jeffery and Savis came by a couple of days ago and replaced my chase cover. It was rusted out and was starting to allow water to drip into my fire place. They were nice enough to put a tarp over the chase to prevent any further water intrusion until the new chase came in. They were very nice and everything looks great. Will use them again. read more

SUPER nice guys. Came out and inspected a leak for us. They were honest and straightforward. They told us that this particular leak is the responsibility of our roofer, with whom we have a warranty, and they didn't feel right charging us for something that we could get for free under that warranty. They even suggested that we ask the roofer for pictures of his work, which we never thought to do. They also offered to inspect our chimney for safety while they were here, at no extra cost. I would definitely use this business again, and highly recommend them! read more

I do not live in CA. I requested and scheduled a cleaning and inspection for a home I was purchasing in VA. Technician did not clean the unit prior to inspecting. I was told that the entire unit needed to be replaced with a pre-fab unit for $8,300.00. I asked how he could adequately inspect the unit to make that determination prior to cleaning the unit. He told me that there was no point in cleaning the unit because I could not use my fireplace safely after cleaning. Exterior minor repairs had just recently been completed by the HOA. I was charged a $40.00 fee for his "inspection." It was obvious that the Technician did not want to clean the unit. He arrived early as had reportedly finished his previous appointments early. I got another local reputable company to also come out to clean and inspect after A Step in Time had come out. I was told by the second company that the internal damage was minimal, did not have to be repaired, but that they would repair small rusted area and two small cracks in the pit for approximately $400.00 if I "wanted them repaired." They cleaned the unit prior to inspection. I would NOT recommend A Step in Time Chimney Sweeps. read more

Frank was professional, knowledgeable and courteous! Thank you! Jill

Do yourself a big favor and do not waste your time with these folks. The poor appointment set up should have been a clue but the no show and even worse explanation for why there was no appointment on the books took the cake. Find a local professional company for which you can get a first hand reference. We wasted two weeks waiting for the appointment and half a day waiting for them to show up. No thanks on the offer to reschedule. read more

Worst experience and most unprofessional business I've ever worked with. Mid April I had them come out here to give me a quote for a new roof. Here it is almost June and still no quote. I've called almost a dozen times and keep getting the same run around by the same people with no success!! 5-23-2017 Update: After leaving a bad review, I was contacted almost within the hour by Rufus Jones to "make things right"...If only I had done that in April I wouldn't have spent months getting the run around from the same people just to receive the quote. Needless to say, they did make things right though. They gave us a great deal for the inconvenience and the trouble. The roof was installed in a timely manner and was overseen by Rufus himself and it looks great! 7-7-2017 read more

Beware of Step In Time. They tried to take advantage of two elderly homeowners (us) by attempting to convince us we need a $5,000 chimney cap (we already have a very expensive chimney cap that came with the house). Charged for the consult and told us not to use our fireplace. We hired SWEPT FROM ABOVE, a reputable local business - they not only came on time and inspected the fireplace, they vacuum cleaned the chimney, repaired a few loose bricks, confirmed we do NOT need a new chimney cap, then left the fireplace area spotless and guaranteed our fireplace is SAFE to use. Charged us a fair price for work done. Step in Time is a bit shady. Don't be fooled by the ichthus in their ads. read more

Back in 2014 I hired this company to clean our chimney in Virginia Beach . They gave us the bad news that we would need to change the liner in our chimney and a new cap because it was rusted through and could cause a fire. They offered to do the work for around $6k. We didn't use the fireplace often and asked them to just cap it top and bottom. We paid and they capped it. We recently decided to convert to a gas fireplace and today I ripped out the fireplace and liner. I found no holes, no broken sections. I was impressed with how good the condition of the liner was. I wish I had hired them to replace the liner back then so I could sue! I hired them once and they scammed me right away. Avoid this company. Please don't let them take advantage of you. I am reporting this to the BBB and will be sharing my story on every site I can find. read more

Step in Time is a wonderful company. I just moved into my first home with a chimney and needed it inspected/repaired in time for the holidays so i searched for a business that had the best reviews. Let me tell you, i was not disappointed. They were very professional and courteous over the phone and in person. I felt comfortable doing business with them and appreciated how quickly they had someone out to do the inspection and give me a date as to when they could do the repairs. Thank you Step in Time! read more

Terrible !! These techs are not qualified and will rip you off by adding things you don't need. I would love for the Rey gressner to personally give me a call at 8044053168!! Please don't use Robert banfield with Chim chimney in virginia beach!!!!! Goofy!!! He now owns his own business. Left the chimney brush in my chimney *****Edited***** I met with Mr Gressner and he personally apologized for the incident we had with one of their techs. He offered me a full refund and inspected my chimney. I know that you can't control all your employees, some are honest and some aren't but Mr Gressner felt bad tried to make our situation right. Thank you, read more

Called to get my Chimney cleaned, and got an appt. After arguing for 30 mins with a very rude guy on the phone about my correct address, the technician got there. Less than a minute he stuck his head in the chimney and said "that's going to be $1800". He didn't even have time to check anything out. "If you hurry and call me in two days will drop a few bucks." I just bought my house and had the Chimney inspected and knew this was not true. He told me my flue was broken, it was not, and a tile that I could not see was loose, it was not. He did not clean my Chimney and left. I got a second option from a highly rated Cleaner on Checkbook and everything A Step in Time told me was not true. My fireplace was in great condition just like my house inspector told me. Watch your back with this company. *Techs name is "Mike", Service Date was 6/29/15 read more

I met with Ray today and he is a very good honest hard working man. I would absolutely trust him in my home and to work on anything I needed assistance with. I am glad to have met him. read more

I previously posted and Yelp listed my post as not recommended (their algorithm apparently thinks I'm Fake. So please see that review for background Anyway, I'm not fake, so I need to post a new review in stead of updating my old one. Ray, from A Step in Time responded to my review by indicating his almost double the price of what Magic Sweeps charged me was due to the fact that an OEM cap was needed to be installed for warranty etc. reasons. Well, I bet Ray didn't know the manufacturer of my chimney when he quoted. You see, the manufacturer went out of business over 15 years ago. So, there is no warranty, there are no OEM parts. The chimney cap that was installed for almost half the price is stainless steel and UL listed. Regarding the need to replace the chase for $1,200 because there was some water collected on it from the rain the night before, the Magic Sweep installer said it was fine, there was not rust or any other deterioration of it. read more

Mike came out to give me an estimate for repairs to a chimney for a wood burning stove and the furnace. His estimate was based on what he saw from the ground. He said I needed new liners. How can you make an assessment for a chimney without going on the roof to actually look at it? His arrogance and obnoxiousness was a turn off. He said I couldn't get a better price and that no one was better than they were. After I sent an email cancelling the appointment I received an email stating "wow where do you get a price from other people LOL". I then sent him an email telling why I was cancelling and have now received 3 emails from him. One of them being, "To be honest with you I gave you a super great price and I actually know what I'm doing you should check me out on DLLR or the Better Business Bureau or Google me and find out what type of reputation I really have I have a super great day sorry for your loss". read more

The workmen were on time, polite, clean and very friendly. They did a great job and explained everything in detail to us. We recommend this company. We had them for the second time. Helga Broer read more

the lady that answers the phone just called me! Let me tell you I have never been spoken to so rudely by a business. They came out for a inspection. Gave us a ridiculous price. Never sent a bill for the inspection. She said my husband had on the day they came ( well he forgot I guess) just send me a bill and I will pay it. Does she ever send a bill? N0! She wants to call and be so extremely rude that I owe 32 dollars. Guess what I paid and WILL never use them again and will scream from the rooftops not to use. Hey owner, you need to fire that rude women read more

I didn't really know what to feel about this company so I didn't post a review and just kept my mouth shut. However, not too long ago I noticed something else where they made the repair and I decided that a review was necessary. I got referred to this company by my home warranty for a roof repair leak. They came out and gave me an estimate over what the warranty covered and after we decided on a date to do the repair, they did a temporary fix so that I won't have any leaks until then. I give them credit for that because that temporary fix held up through a few rainstorms. At that point, I felt confident about this company despite the high price but that's when things started going downhill. After they did the repair, I looked at the windowsill and there was a large hole in the corner about 3 inches long and an inch wide. I mentioned this to the manager when he called me to follow up and asked that they repair it. He said he'd look into it because customer satisfaction was his priority. He also commented that his guy did a very robust job and that area will never be problematic for me ever again. I felt confident about the work and that he'd take care of this minor issue, but he called back later saying that he talked to the guy that did the repair and it was due to rotted wood. He said that I can fix it using a simple wall repair kit from Home Depot. It definitely wasn't wood rot because you can clearly see the condition of it where it was broken, but no problem...I can do minor repairs, so I let it go. Then roughly a year+ later I get a leak in the same location, magnitudes worse than before. I called them and asked for someone to come out and take a look at it. The person on the phone was very resistant to that request and kept saying that it's been too long for them to be held responsible and it's probably due to a leak in some other location on the roof that found its way down there. At that point I was running out of patience. I made it clear that I'm not directly pointing at the job they did. The fact is that I had a leak in the same location, and since they were the company that did the repair in the first place, I wanted them to come out, take a look at it, tell me what's wrong with it, and what it would cost me to have it fixed. They agreed and sent someone out who introduced himself as one of the managers. I assumed he knew the situation and understood why he was out here, but when he went up to my attic and saw the area that was repaired, he immediately told me it was a very shoddy and unacceptable job and I needed to call the company to have them come out and redo the repair. I got him caught up and told him it was his company and he said he'd get with the owner to take care it for me. Not too long after, I talked to them on the phone again and they told me that the person that came to my house to do the assessment isn't very experienced with roofs because his specialty was chimney work. They also told me that they're getting out of the roof repair business and won't be able to help me with subsequent repairs. They said that they'd refund me 50% of the cost that I paid directly to them (not including the deductible). I accepted, but I was very unhappy because at the end of the day, I had a worse leak, I was out hundred of dollars, and I had spent all that time and headache with the back and forth. However the final straw that caused me to write this review was that during the repair, they had to remove the window trim and some of my sidings to replace some plywood underneath. Well, I noticed that they had reinstalled the window trim crookedly. It was a sloppy job. I'll need to figure out a permanent solution sometime in the future but for now, I've caulked the edges of the area that the repair was done in and that seemed to have stopped the leak for now. read more

If I could give this company no stars, I would. Their motto should be "Reliable, High Quality, Bate and Switch Service." To begin with there was an inspection fee of $45 which I was never told about. The supposed "special" of $99 that they were running was invalid when the chimney seemed to have such a large buildup that they recommended a service costing over $800. So what was supposed to be reasonably well priced service would've cost us nearly a grand. Obviously we told them no deal. The company we called the moment Step In Time stepped off our porch told us the cost would be $300, for the same deep clean service that Step In Time claimed we required. read more