I asked three companies to look at my chimney,. I ended up selecting Superior because they seemed the most experienced and best informed of the lot and were the cheapest by about 33%.
Mike, the long-time owner of Superior, came to the house for the free assessment. Superior was the first of the three that I met, and I'm glad it worked out that way because I learned a lot from Mike and was better able to assess the other two because of that knowledge.
Up on the roof Mike could see that my chimney was in bad shape and needed to be rebuilt. And he quickly diagnosed that the problem I was having inside the house, near the base of the chimney (moisture in the brick was causing serious efflourescence) was in part due to a build up at the bottom of the flue of decades of coal dust (the house was built in 1923) and subsequent residue from later oil and gas furnaces. Mike suggested opening up the bottom (there was no access door) and cleaning the flue out--otherwise it would take much longer for the bricks in the chimney to dry. He guessed that all that built-up stuff was wet and he was right--he dug out several buckets of muck.
Mike gave me a verbal estimate on the spot (rebuild, recover the two flues on the roof, open up and clean out the base) of $1900. When the bid came by email a couple of days later it was for exactly that amount (plus tax).
The second company also wanted to rebuild the chimney on top, but didn't diagnose the cause of the moisture and didn't suggest cleaning out the flue. When I asked about cleaning, the guy said it was not necessary. His bid came at $2700, sans cleanout.
The third guy was quite young and seemed clueless. He didn't even go up on the roof to assess the status of the chimney. I had no faith in him and didn't ask for a bid--I just got rid of him as quickly as politely possible.
I gave the job to Superior and they scheduled me for the following week. They were efficient, worked around my schedule, and cleaned up well afterwards. Overall, they were very professional and did what they said they were going to do for the price quoted.
While doing the work Mike discovered problems with the way my high efficiency furnace exhaust had been constructed and he fixed that too. It cost a bit extra ($100) for that because Mike had to buy supplies but I thought it was reasonable.
Looking at the rant review below, it's true that Mike was not super-fast responding to email (it sometimes took a day or three). But if one can be patient with him for that, Superior gives good results at a great price. I highly recommend this family run, father and son business! read more