A1 Quality Chimney Cleaning & Repair

It’s been a long journey looking for an honest chimney cleaning company. A-1 Quality Chimney is the *fourth* chimney cleaning service that I’ve used over the years. The first three, without exception, tried to scam me by telling me that my chimney was falling apart and needed thousands of dollars of repairs. The last chimney company, which will remain nameless, really took the cake. They told me that I needed to pay them thousands of dollars to repair the chimney, that if I didn’t do these repairs immediately my house would burn down and, to top it off, if I didn’t hire them to do the work, they would report me to my insurance company when my house burned down for negligence. Three different reliable chimney repair companies later confirmed that my chimney was as sound as the day is was built.

So! I hoped that A-1 Quality would be different. And they were! Sean was courteous, professional and did a great job. And told me that my chimney is fine. No scam! A welcome relief. So at long last I’ve found a reliable chimney cleaning company that’s on the up and up. It only took me eight years.

A-1 Quality Chimney clean was great to deal with. They were on time, well equipped, they answered all our questions. They cleaned our chimney really well and now it's not so stinky! I would definitely use them again.

One of the first things I did in my new home was have the chimney cleaned before using it. I believe it was Shawn that did the great job, no problems afterward. Didn't want to take any chances after hearing horror stories from other people who did not clean their chimney, and A-1 did an A+ job.

Excellent service, clean, friendly. I was able to book an appointment to clean our chimney on short notice. This was the first time that my husband and I had booked a chimney cleaning service since we moved into our house, so we weren't sure what to expect.

The cleaner had brought a tarp to keep the rug clean, and was both friendly and efficient. I like the fact that they'll be giving us a reminder phone call every year; I'll forget otherwise!

I discovered this company through Homestars.com; I recommend calling the company instead of sending e-mail/messaging since they don't check the latter every day.

I called A1 Quality Chimney Cleaning to help me identify what needed to be done to my non-working wood burning fireplaces at the recommendation of a contractor (a masonry company) and after reading the reviews on HomeStars. I had already paid another chimney sweep company to inspect it and they were not able to tell me much.

To be fair, I don't think my fireplace situation was an easy fix by any means (although I was still hoping). The 1st floor fireplace had a blockage in the flue about 8 feet up and my 2nd floor fireplace was completely sealed off around the perimeter of the firebox.

When I called to make the appointment, I spoke with Peter and explained what I wanted and the condition my fireplaces were in. He was extremely confident that they could figure it out emphasizing their experience. When their technician, Rick, came, he attempted to loosen the blockage from below (which he couldn't) then went to the roof to look down the flue but couldn't determine anything. At the end of about 30-45 minutes all he could figure out was that one of the flues led to my neighbour's 2nd floor fireplace. He couldn't even suggest what my next step could be to solve my problem. Needless to say I was very disappointed.

I called them again the next day to explain my disappointment between Peter's call and Rick's visit. The owner, Bob, was suppose to call me back later that day but didn't. After a couple days, I called again and finally spoke to the owner. He was nice enough and listen to my concern but basically shrugged off the fact that the initial discussion with Peter was misleading saying of course it was easy for Peter to say the job would be easy over the phone. He agreed to come by himself to see if he could figure out the problem which I appreciated. He was suppose to call back the next week but I didn't hear from him for almost 2 weeks until I called him back.

He did come out the following weekend and inspected the fireplaces and gave me some additional bits of information which was helpful.

The bottom line is I felt that, like many companies, A1 Quality Chimney was great until they got paid. The followup service was disappointing and I had to be persistent for anything to get done.

Since they did not actually repair/clean anything for me I cannot speak to the quality of their work, only to their customer service which was disappointing.

We had such a great experience with A-1 Chimney Cleaning. We had always used Macklams but were not happy with their last cleaning.
The technician came in found the problem right away and removed the squirrel nest. He impressed us so much that we are getting quote for our chimney to be brought down and capped properly.
It wasn't a big job but he took his time, cleaned everything up and explained exactly what needed to be done.

Shawn did a great job, on time and friendly. I thought I was going to have black dust all over my living room since my fireplace was super duty. I was wrong, he was very clean, no mess at all.
Thank you Shawn and Bob
MN

They do a thorough job, leave no mess and are great to deal with.
I don't have to call them, they call me annually. The wood burning fireplace is very happy as a result.
Recommend

I was in the process of purchasing a new home. In conjunction with the home inspection, the owners gave permission to have a separate chimney inspection and cleaning. On reviewing the reviews for A-1 on Homestars, I decided to go with them. I was not disappointed. They were on time, friendly and knowledgeable. As this was part of a purchase inspections, I was concerned that there would be some dirt or dust. There was none. They left the fireplace area as clean as when they arrived. They took the time to explain their inspection of the fireplace and chimney and gave me some tips for using the fireplace. I will definitely use them again (now on their annual maintenance recall list) and I have a clean chimney for then I move in.

We have two fireplace chimneys and an oil furnace chimney in the home that we purchased this year. Not knowing the condition or cleaning history we called A-1 for a complete inspection and cleaning. Shawn came and inspected and determined that only two of the chimneys needed cleaning and that chimneys were in good condition. Reasonably priced, professional and knowledgeable. Will definitely be calling them every year for regular maintenance and cleaning!