To begin with I don’t write many reviews. But I had to because of how amazing this experience was with William. It is long but you will see shy he saved us from the very reak threat of a chimney fire….
My wife and I had him come out to clean our fireplace because a bit of smoke was coming back in when we were burning. After a quick 10 minutes, I could tell how knowledgeable he was. I asked him to take a look at the chimney from top down and tell us what he thought since we know we’re gonna be in this house for at least 20 years. I also had lingering feelings the work done by prior sweeps was not adequate.
He showed me what he found and answered every question I had:
-outside top chimney needed some re-pointing on the bricks.
-concrete wash on top had some cracks needing to be patched
-concrete around brick at the base of chimney needed to be replaced. The concrete was the incorrect kind and was breaking down the brick overtime instead of reinforcing it.
Through throughout all of this, he was also taking pictures to show me what I couldn’t see such as when he was up on the roof with the gaps in the brick mortar.
He then gave us an incredibly fair price for each of these items and laid out what his priority would be. We ended up having him do all of the work.
He showed up on time, worked hard, cleaned afterward.
Unfortunately, we still had an issue where some smoke was coming in. He came back the next day and took another look…..
If you are not familiar… chimney sweeps clean from the bottom usually. So there didn’t seem to be any need to look from the top. However, when took things off, he saw a level 3 creosote buildup. THIS IS THE STUFF THAT BURNS HOUSE DOWN. He removed it.
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He saved our house and here’s why……
We’ve been in this house for eight years, had two other chimney sweeps who created half of the problems he had to fix:
1) previous sweep repointed the chimney poorly and didn’t seal it. Within 3 years, mortar was breaking up.
2) the cement around the base of the chimney that was the wrong kind — put on by another sweep. This wrong kind of cement- $15 /bag/. The right kind William used, $50/ bag. I double checked all of this and he was correct.
3) before our buying the house, a line was put into the entire chimney, EXCEPT THE TOP 4 FEET. This is where the creosote kept building up and building up. It was such a solid mass, William thought from the bottom he had reached the damper.
It is such a relief to know we now have a safe chimney. And it is so frustrating those other sweeps did such shoddy work.
William Britt should be the only chimney sweep you ever go to.