Finally got the Chimney done and boy did it need it. I contacted Detroit blankety-blank company to do an estimate to tear down several courses of brick on my chimney and rebuild as close as they could to what was there before.
They showed up promptly to write the estimate. The guy took a look at the crumbling mess and said they would rebuild the top 10 courses and then put a new crown. They told me they could be out in a week to do the work. I was elated!!! All this for only $2k… I mean I knew this was a $5-6K job! I’ll take it, but boy was my intuition screaming out all of the risk factors with this price.
Still, I said a prayer and scheduled them to do the work.
They gave me a date, moved it up, then stood me up, pushed it back, and called randomly to ask if they could come by a week early to put up the scaffold. Okay, no problem right? At least at this point they are being pro-active in making sure the Thang happens this time. They showed up in this… The spider senses started going off.
Yes… that says Matresses on the van. Whatever gets the Thang done, My Mexican Brothers will make it happen however they can… I guess I can dig it. So we chit chat as they taught me how to assemble scaffolding. Bless them for that! Now I can assemble my scaffold, get up there and fix the porch trim myself. When they got the last of the scaffolding up there I asked ,”So how long will it take you to finish up today?”. He replied from the top of the roof, “We’ll probably need today and tomorrow to finish the chimney.” They weren’t supposed to start until next week. This threw me for a loop but why argue? They were getting the Thang done.
That’s when the boss drove up and got to talking. He told me they were just going to replace the stucco and they were out. UMMM… like hell you are. The quote was for a tear down and rebuild THEN stucco. We cordially went back and forth about it. So I called the company, obviously these guys were subcontracted by Detroit Blankety-Sweep and I would need to go through them to make sure thier subs did what was proposed.
The company agreed with me and call the sub. The sub called me the next morning to assure me they would rebuild what needs to be rebuilt. In other words they removed the old mortar, pulled out the loose bricks rebuilt about 60% of the project. Then stucco’d the hell out of rest before I could get to the worksite. Why did my Mom need those errands ran today!!!! Geezzz was my intuition right on this one.
But at least it will give me five years and it looks nice. The company assured me the work was warranted for 5 years, that’s if they are still in business for that long… Okay Blankety Chimney-Sweep! Don’t get me wrong I believe the subs made sure it was strong but its the principal, don’t underbid a proposal and try to make up for it in the end. Anyway here’s the pictures.
Like I said they got the Thang done. I plan on adding a nice copper chimney cap like this one. They aren’t cheap and it’s kinda a headache to get it sized and mounted properly but hopefully I can swing it for less than $800.
