Black Cat Sweeps LLC

Every chimney is a separate entity unto itself and is therefore as unique as its owner. This can therefore affect pricing by causing it to go up or down. This would mean that your price could be more or less than the individual down the street from you. Another thing that dictates price is the size and type of appliance being hooked into a chimney. For example, an 8" pipe will cost more than a 6". We try to be as accurate as we can on our pricing but occasionally, hidden damages are found deep within the chimney or walls of the home. This of course is more common in old homes where codes never existed during the initial construction of the home. If we do find hidden damages then the price would of course increase over the original quoted price as we would have to include extra labor and materials to bring everything to current codes. We are never willing to sacrifice safety for cost so we would show you detailed photos of the hidden damage and explain why we are having to add to the bottom line of the budget.

This truly depends on the customer and the job. For a sweep and/or inspection it is as simple as getting them on the schedule and doing the job. With estimates, we need to make one or more trips to the home to get all our measurements and design ideas in place. With redesigning a fireplace we typically get our measurements and get to know our customer's tastes by presenting them with a random montage of sample pictures. What they become most excited about helps us to start in the right direction for the final design process. This may take multiple visits to the home by our on-staff designer.

The owner has a degree in Residential Design and a degree in Business Administration. She has also completed many courses in real estate and HIPPA compliance. She specializes in upcycled design and historical design. She is in charge of the office as well as designing customers' homes and fireplaces. Our tech, the husband of the owner, started his career in the stove industry working for Abundant Life at the Rainbow Mall in Portland Maine back in the 1970s. The rest of his life, well over 45 years now, has been dedicated to the stove and chimney industry. Their son has been doing chimney work with his family part-time since he was a young child. He mainly installs liners, Metalbestos, and woodstoves but has shown excellence in masonry as well. He is currently enrolled in PATHS in Portland Maine and has earned his refrigerant certification. He is studying HVAC and plumbing. He will soon be OSHA certified and will be graduating from PATHS in 2024.

It is actually a love story of sorts. The owner was newly divorced from an abusive relationship and had a 4-year-old daughter. She wanted to add a stove in the walk-out basement of her home so as to help with the heating issues. She heard several ads on the radio for different companies. For some reason, she felt compelled to call one company in particular. The expert she called had forgotten something at the office and went back to get it. It was January 1st so the office was closed. He saw the blinking answering machine and felt a strong urge to listen to it even though that wasn't his job. He later said that he fell in love on the spot when he heard her voice. He came to her house with a guitar and stove brochures. She had just been in an extremely bad accident and was in a neck brace with a nightie on and he had just lost his front teeth. They both looked terrible, to say the very least!! However, God had his plans. They fell madly in love. He couldn't live without her and she couldn't live without him. He and she together installed the stove, hearth, and surround. Him showing her how to do it as they went. She loved doing the hearth work almost as much as she loved him! She always jokes that she never paid for that stove and he never left!! She had been in the housing trades all of her life so was no stranger to construction. Therefore stoves and chimneys were like second nature to her. That was back in 2002 and she has been helping him ever since, eventually opening her very own chimney business and adding a son to their growing family.

Our motto is that everyone, regardless of social status, deserves affordable and safe heat. So it is that we pride ourselves in serving those who need an affordable solution to make their home safe. Therefore, most of our customers are your average hard-working middle-class Americans. Occasionally we do have celebrities call us for help and that is fine too. We turn no one away. Regardless of your race, religion, social status, or any other factors everyone is treated equally and fairly within our company.

Do your homework. There are those of us who have worked in these trades for decades. Those are the professionals who are dedicated to their jobs and have the customer's best interest in mind. If a professional doesn't have an online presence and/or doesn't have a nice substantial review base find out why before hiring them. Ask at your local stove shop or around your neighborhood what people have had for experience with the professional you are thinking of hiring. Look carefully at their reviews. Are the majority of the reviews 4 or above? That is great! However, look at the 3 and below reviews. See how they handled their mistakes. Did they offer the customer giving a 1-star review a solution to their problem and/or offer them a free future service? How a professional handles a dissatisfied customer also speaks volumes about their integrity! We are all human and we all make mistakes occasionally. How we handle those mistakes speaks of our character.

Make sure you are asking the correct questions and seeking the correct professional before you approach any professional. We work only on wood, pellet, and oil chimneys for example. If you contact a place such as Thumbtack, Angi's, or HomeAdvisor and request us to help you with a wood fireplace but then when we call you, you tell us it is a propane unit, we won't be capable of helping you. This will waste both your time and ours. Make sure you are clear with the platform you are requesting services through as to what you need. If you need propane or natural gas service, request a service professional in those categories and only those categories. Don't put in a request for service on a wood fireplace. We want to see you getting the help you need with the right professional right from the start. Finding the right fit for your job is of utmost importance to everyone.