Chimney Sweep Recommendations

Ida, I have used George M. Spears as a chimney sweep since I have lived here. I highly recommend him. Clean, fast and reasonable. He lives in Richmond and his # is 237-0624.
As you may recall I wanted to have my chimney cleaned and checked out before I purchased my place. I used Chimney Doctor and was very pleased. Someone recommended him, can't recall who. He was familiar with Brickyard and the fireplaces and systems here. He inspected mine; said it didn't need to be cleaned; that there was a hairline crack which he pointed out to me and said it didn't need to have anything done to it at the time and that he would keep an eye on it on future visits. He completed an inspection report. The charge at that time was $69, had he cleaned it, it would have been more. Though he didn't actually clean it, I was satisfied and plan to call him again. The number is (510) 758-1722. Hope this helps and that others are pleased if they go ahead.

I wish the decision for a mass sweep would be made. It seems almost senseless to sweep only one stack when we all are in the building together and could be adversely affected by smoke/water/fire.
I recently read a newspaper article (not sure what paper) about this service in Marin County and it mostly talked about heating installers who have a smallish portion of this undesirable work as part of their business. It was said to cost as much as $150. It seems to me the BYL homeowners board should investigate and consider having chimneys cleaned every few years as part of our dues.
I recall they did this once as part of the lawsuit repairs and Gene should have some info on that. There is no point in one person having his chimney cleaned when three other folks share the same stack (and chimney, I suspect) so that one of them might engender a fire with smoke damage to all four. I wonder if an insurance company could even assign negligence in such a situation; I suspect they might assign it to the Homeowners Association for failure to maintain. At least I think it's something the board should look at. Since I rarely use my fireplace, if I were affected by a chimney fire, I suspect my insurer would look to the board for its costs.
I used The Chimney Man - with a coupon it cost $109 - the job was fast, professional and he worked clean - not a drop of soot on my white carpet! 800-406-0001 (December, 2003)

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