Fireplace & Chimney Authority

If I could I’d give the Fireplace and Chimney Authority 2 reviews.
One for their chimney cleaning — no stars.
and
a second for the sale and installation of a Mendota fireplace insert. 4 stars.
The reason for the fugly rating on the fireplace cleaning is simple. They arrived on time. Yay… They cleaned the chimney and evaluated its continued viability. Okay… unfortunately their equipment sucked (okay bad pun there). Specifically what I mean is that they came equipped with a $ 100 Home Depot shopvac. The effect of that was that it took many hours of cleanup after they left to remove the layer of very fine soot deposited everywhere around that room. If I’d been paying attention and noticed the shopvac wasn’t a PROFESSIONAL hepa unit I’d have stopped them before they started. My bad I assumed they were well equipped and I was wrong. The shop vac had something over the exhaust (maybe a gym sock, I dunno) but it didn’t do crap on the dangerous, small soot particles. They could have hooked up a hose to exhaust outside and it might have saved they day. I’ll know if there’s ever a next time since, with my new gas insert, I shouldn’t require much in the way of chimney sweeping going forward. I hope. So now you’re educated and warned about a, potentially, messy snag when you get your chimney swept.
The chimney sweeping above was done preceding the replacement of our ancient gas log, with the installation of a new, state of the art, (read that as expensive) Mendota fireplace insert. There were a lot of decisions and prep work to be made in the selection process for this sucker let me tell ya (getting a new electrical outlet installed conveniently for the insert for example — Thanks to Kinetic Energy of Oak Park for a timely install on that.). Thankfully my wife worked her way through all that with our patient salesman, Eric Bigham. The installation process went off without any hitches and the the thing is functioning as advertised 2 weeks into its tenure in our home. The room is very comfortable now with no drafts or cold spots.
As noted in other reviews below there did seem to be a bit of tacking on of add-​ons. The 10% off coupon for the insert, (not the installation itself or the various parts needed — the $ 750 ventilation kit for example) relieved some of that pain, not a lot but some.
All in a decent experience, other then the clean up after the chimney cleaning. I’ll pay attention next time

the two men who installed our fireplace were wonderful. Extremely polite and nice. And it was so respectful and and thoughtful how they were putting their booties on and off their shoes every time they came in and out of the house. They were also not phased by the kids questions and loudness while they were working. they were super star installers with top notch customer service. Love the fireplace as well!

We went to the Lisle location looking to purchase a wood burning insert for our fireplace. Jason was very attentive, knowledgeable & went out of his way to get answers for all of our questions. He wrote up quotes on two different models for us & after realizing he forgot to include the installation fees on the second quote, he offered us a discount to make up for his oversight. We were hoping to have the unit installed on a Saturday & they were more than accommodating – arranging the installation for the first Saturday after we decided to go through with the purchase.
The gentlemen who came out to install the unit arrived on time and were both professional and personable. They also took the time to go over the unit with us & were helpful with suggestions on the size/​type of wood to use, etc.
We would definitely recommend doing business with the Fireplace & Chimney Authority!

CONSUMER BEWARE. I signed a detailed contract with Chris, and paid 50% upfront. When they were less than ½ way complete they started DEMANDING final payment. At this point I had exposed drywall with 1 coat of mud. The estimate stated «finish to 3^rd coat, prime and paint». They had to order a new mantel, as they advised they could not reuse the existing. I ordered and again gave 50% for the mantel, this work order simply stated «Order and Install Mantel» and again they were demanding final payment on the «first work order».
After 5 months of little to progress they finally came back to «complete» the work. I knew with what they needed to do, this would not be «complete» in one session, and asked my 74 year old mother to stay at the home to let them in.
When they finished for the day (not complete) they again demanded final payment, to the point of intimidating her to had over HER credit card. I spoke to the installer who was at my home, from my mother’s cell phone and told them they were NOT authorized to charge her card, as it is NOT her home, nor her work order.
Needless to say, they DID and would not reverse the charges until I gave them payment in full. NOTE: They still had to come back and finish the trim and NEVER completed the order to 3^rd coat, prime or paint… This was done by myself.

We remodeled our fireplace, including converting it from wood-​burning to gas, and replacing the old brick with stone tiles. Fireplace and Chimney Authority in Lisle helped us with the design. Mark was both knowledgeable and helpful in every step of our project. The crew who came to convert it to gas was most professional and talented; they gave us a beautiful gas fireplace. I would recommend this store highly

Scott made a good attempt at service recovery. After my husband and I contacted the distributor ourselves to inquire about the delayed parts, things finally got rolling.
Scott touched base with my husband and then followed up weekly until parts arrived. When parts arrived, an appointment was made quickly for the repair.
The technicians were efficient and kind. The service fee was waved given the situation.
The fireplace is now working! Yay!
I hope this company becomes consistently more pro-​active in customer satisfaction. I am pleased with the service recovery but would much rather have had open communication regarding parts, back-​orders, and malfunctions with the model from the beginning.

My husband and I purchased a new home last June. Neither of us had a fireplace in our past homes and were very excited to finally have our own. Although we both love the smell and sound of real burning wood, neither of us desired the maintenance that came with it. We decided on getting gas logs for inside and a traditional fire pit for outside. After admiring (or not so much liking) family and friends gas fireplaces we decided to start some detailed research. We explored reviews and images online, checked out all the home improvement chains and a couple of the high end fireplace/​chimney stores. The home improvement stores, although the logs were a lot cheaper, they also looked it! We really didn’t want logs that could be seen as fake from the next house! This is why we started to explore the high end stores. Although the prices were substantially higher (in some cases double), the quality and look of the logs was so superior our decision was clear. We went to three different area stores, one didn’t even offer to help us while we walked around for 15 minutes, the other didn’t have logs we liked and then we showed up here. Immediately we were greeted by a friendly you guy who took the time to walk around with is and answer all our question, and even shared possible options to save some money. We did not purchase on the first trip and he did not by any means seem annoyed. When we came back weeks later he remembered us and even recalled which sets we liked best. The men who showed up to install our set were friendly, helpful and did their jobs very well.
I’m not sure why we had such a different experience than everyone else but I personally would not hesitate to recommend this shop.

Very poor service. They installed an insert in my fireplace, which turned out to be a big mistake because it caused a very big draft. Repeated calls to have them fix it, or at least give an estimate to insulate the unit, were ignored completely.
I had to call another contractor to install some insulation, which helped, but not entirely. This contractor indicated the chimney cap wasn’t installed correctly, but the adjustments were relatively easy. Ended up spending another $ 2500 on insulation and repairs.
To add insult to injury, they just called their ‘best’ customers to offer a deal on other products. I told them where to put their deals (reasonably politely).

Chimney cleaning service was as expected, they suggested I have some repairs and gave me a quote which seemed fair although I have not shopped prices.
The employees who came to my house were on time and professional

Very attentive & knowledgable staff. We purchased our fireplace here and have kept coming back for the classes on BBQ.

Never having a purchased a fireplace before, I went into their showroom a little aimlessly. I don’t think the salespeople took me for a serious buyer– though, being the victim of a flood and the insurance company paying for my new fireplace, I was a serious as they come. I was told finally, after they tried to sell me on the most expensive gas fireplaces they could, that they could do a woodburning fireplace for $ 2200 and with all the drywall out, they could probably install a gas line for $ 350. We called them for an estimate on the gas line ($ 950– umm, no) then went in to buy the fireplace — at which point were were told that the $ 2200 was ONLY FOR PARTS not $ 900 for installing (what idiot thinks I am going to install a fireplace with full sheet metal work by myself???). The fire stoppers was verbally estimated for us at $ 17 each, but when they wrote it up, it was $ 26. The fireplace in question was listed on the wall for $ 1780’ish and the book said it was $ 1800’ish. Then he came in to measure and added $ 400 (telling me it was a good deal because they won’t charge me mileage since were are in the same town) for framing (we told them the size of our frameout, and they knew it could be a possibility)… So, our $ 2200 estimate went to $ 3500 — all of which should have been included when they discussed it with us. Ultimately we went with another company because we could no longer trust that they wouldn’t add on another $ 500 for issues when the install the fireplace. Ultimately, their price is in line with other quotes in the area — if you decide to go with this company — make sure ALL THEIR PRICES ARE WRITTEN DOWN IN STONE.

I visited their showroom and purchased a set of gas logs. They came to my home the next day on time and installed the logs. The install crew was prompt, clean and courteous. Pricing was also reasonable.