I hired Dave Bowlby, owner of Climbing High Chimney Service in Phillipsburg, NJ, to clean the chimney of a free-standing wood-burning stove that we had not cleaned in the 13 years we've lived in the house. Dave and his assistant Nick showed up as scheduled. Dave cleaned from the top of the chimney while the assistant cleaned inside the stove, the later of which became an issue because a cast-iron plate on the ceiling of the stove that was supposed to be easy to slide out for cleaning wouldn't come out. The two of them worked a long time to finally free the plate so Nick could finish his job, about which he was meticulous, and no ashes escaped the stove. I had Dave scope out (for dead animals) another chimney from a fire place that we don't use but I wanted capped. In spite of the extra time they put in cleaning the wood stove, Dave honored his original estimate.
Before they left, we scheduled a return visit to install the two chimney caps that would be ordered for the fire place chimney. Dave did not show up for that appointment and it took a phone call and email message to get his crew back here (hence the 4-star review instead of 5-star). This time assistants Nick and Julian showed up to install the caps and everything went smoothly. The caps themselves were decent quality, being stainless steel to avoid the rusting I didn't want. The bill was $20 higher than Dave's estimate, but Julian honored the estimate.
Would I recommend Climbing High Chimney? Yes. I will use them again in the future. Be sure to get an estimate (always a good idea), so there is no issue about the final bill. read more
