First Choice Chimney Sweeps

Terrible service. Turned up late, immediately started criticising the installation of our wood burner complaining about the size of the stove pipe and the access panels on the register plate. One bloke came into the house and spent most of his time telling me how he had 10 years experience, yet seemed to need to keep running outside to speak to the other guy for advice. It eventually became clear they had no idea what they were doing. They started asking me how they could get a brush into the flue. I told them we'd had it swept dozens of times before and no other sweeps had complained. They then decided to pack up and leave without doing the job. Not so much 'first choice' as 'last resort'. Avoid!

Professional, knowledgeable, very tidy chimney sweeping service. Also offer service & maintenance of stoves as part of the safety inspection and advised us on suitable mantels for our fireplace.

Very positive experience with First Choice. They were able to schedule an appointment at short notice, the guys turned up exactly when they said they would and were very respectful of the house. Pleasant in demeanour and happy to answer questions on backfilling the fireplace, even though it’s not a service they provide (so genuinely free advice). They got on with the job, which they did competently and without leaving any trace they had been. And all for a reasonable price.

I had a really bad experience of using this contractor. I had originally engaged him with work to get a CCTV survey done of my chimney, and the process was pretty straightforward and I had no concerns about using him again. However, I had quite a different experience when using him a second time as I found him to have a very negative and rude attitude towards most things. There were a few things that showed up as being red flags and / or unprofessionalism in his service, firstly that he tried to charge £150 for collecting keys from the estate agent to get access to the cottage. As I understand, it’s something that other contractors are happy to do for free, and if there were to be a cost for what is a 30 minute max round trip, his charge seems outrageous for that. My direct engagement with him during this second visit was over arranging the delivery of a rear back plate for my stove that he had recommended fitting in the CCTV survey report. I had asked for his recommendation on what this should be, and ordered the one that he recommended to be delivered in time for when he said the visit was going to be that he had planned with the estate agent who manages my house. Following his work on the stove, he had a very negative attitude towards the process, complaining that apparently that the recommended rear plate was not in the house, he told me that he had broken the stove - without apology - and he recommended someone who could fix it for £150. On further clarification, it turned out that the correct rear plate was in fact in the house, and that it was his mistake that he had not recognised it. He made no acknowledgment towards the fact that his previous complaints and negative attitude were actually his own fault. In the process of arranging his visit, there had been a miscommunication between him and the estate agent who manages the house about what time he was to visit. When I asked him to send his invoice to the estate agent as they manage the cottage and that he could query the additional charge for turning up on the wrong day if he felt wasn’t his fault, he initially refused to do so and he tried to argue with me by trying to pass the blame to me, even though I wasn’t a part of organising his visit, and that he had already been offered payment via the estate agent. It seemed stubborn, unhelpful, and unnecessary. I also now realise that his normal sweeping services are more expensive than other chimney sweep contractors- £70 in comparison to £54 of my normal chimney sweep who is good as well as lovely - and that the repair of the stove that I had to get done following his visit cost £65, which was significantly cheaper than the contractor he’d recommended who was going to charge £150 for the same work. He also writes on his certificates that the next sweep is ‘required’ within 3 months, which also isn’t actually correct as HETAS themselves say the minimum requirement is two sweeps a year, and sweeping a chimney in May and then again in August is pointless as it won’t have been used in those months. I raised my concerns about his attitude and about how rude I found him to be with him directly and he didn’t apologise or take any accountability for any of it, and he simply tried to continue to project onto me. He is one of the worst attitudes of any contractor that I’ve experienced before, and my hunch is that his stubbornness and rude attitude towards me may have been rooted in sexism. Definitely not a first choice chimney sweep, and I’d very much recommend working with someone else to save yourself the headache as well as some money.

We have only used First Choice since being recommended them 15 years ago by neighbours. Ian has been a regular over the years but Sam attended this morning - the same cheery positive approach, advice freely given and a quick and efficient job, and a thorough clean-up afterwards. Well worth the money and a mug of builders tea!