Our Guarantee & Warranty - Top Hat Chimney

The Top Hat Chimney Guarantee

We’ve been cleaning and repairing chimneys in North Bergen since 1999, and our guarantee isn’t a paragraph of fine print. It’s a promise with a name on it. Every job we complete carries the 90-Day Done Right Promise, stamped in writing. If something isn’t right, one call brings Wendell and his crew back at no additional cost. That’s it. No argument about whether it’s covered, no reading between the lines. We put it on paper because after 29 years of working on homes in this town, your word and your work are the same thing.

Call (848) 361-3227

What’s Covered

• Workmanship on every job, no exceptions. If a sweep, repair, cap install, or liner job we completed isn’t holding up the way it should within 90 days, we come back and make it right without charging you a second time.
• Parts we supply and install. We work with brands Wendell trusts: DuraFlex, HeatShield, Gelco, Olympia Chimney, Famco, and Copperfield. If a component we installed fails during the 90-day window, we handle it.
• Cleanup you don’t have to ask for. We lay drop cloths, run a HEPA vacuum, and leave your hearth and floors the way we found them. If we miss a spot, we come back and finish it. That’s part of the job, not an add-on.
• On-time arrival with a real window. You get an arrival window from a live person, not an automated text. If the schedule slips, we call you. If we don’t show when we said, you’ll hear from us before you have to pick up the phone.
• The price you heard is the price you pay. The number quoted on the phone is the number on the invoice. No surprise fees after the tools come off the truck. If we find something unexpected, we stop and talk to you before any work continues.

Our Satisfaction Promise

Here’s how it works if you’re not happy. You call (848) 361-3227. A live person answers, day or night. That person might be Wendell. You explain what’s bothering you. We schedule a return visit, and Wendell comes back himself to look at the work. If we didn’t get it right, we fix it. No invoice, no arguing, no “that’s normal” brushing you off. The 90-Day Done Right Promise exists because chimney problems don’t always show up the day after a sweep. Sometimes a draft issue appears three weeks later, or a cap shifts after a storm. You shouldn’t have to eat that. We also offer a free second opinion on any written estimate from another company, because we’d rather earn the job honestly than wonder if you paid too much somewhere else. If we tell you something needs work, we show you the camera footage. You see what we see, and you get a plain-English verdict. Every time. No exceptions.

Licensed & Insured Backing

A guarantee is only as good as the company standing behind it. Top Hat Chimney is state-licensed and insured, with a published address right here in the county. Wendell has been doing this work since 1999, and he puts his name on every job. That matters because fly-by-night sweeps come and go. A guy with no license and no insurance can undercut everyone, then vanish when a liner install goes wrong. We’ve been here 29 years. We run into you at the grocery store. We’re the one down the road, which means we have a reason to do it right the first time and every time after. If the crew tracking mud through your living room was your neighbor’s cousin, you’d never see him again. Wendell answers the phone. Wendell comes back. That’s the actual guarantee behind the paperwork.

Why We Put It in Writing

Your flue doesn’t care how the fire looks. It cares how it breathes. A clean chimney is a safety device, not a cosmetic one. Creosote builds up in layers. First-degree creosote is a brush job. Third-degree is a glaze that can burn at over 2,000 degrees. If we miss a section of glaze during a sweep, you might not know until your chimney is on fire. That’s not acceptable, and it’s not something we leave to chance. Our 90-Day Done Right Promise is written because guarantees that live only in a sales pitch aren’t guarantees. They’re marketing. We want you to hold the paper, read the words, and know exactly what happens if something goes wrong. That’s the only kind of guarantee worth a damn in this trade.

What the Promise Doesn’t Cover

We’re honest about this because honesty is the whole point. The 90-Day Done Right Promise covers our workmanship and the parts we install. It doesn’t cover damage from events outside anyone’s control: a chimney fire that started before we arrived, a lightning strike, a tree limb through the cap, or water damage from a roof leak that has nothing to do with our work. It doesn’t cover normal wear and tear that occurs years down the line, because brick and mortar age. No chimney lasts forever. What we promise is that anything we touched, anything we installed, anything we cleaned will be done right. If it isn’t, we fix it. Manufacturer warranties on products like DuraFlex liners or HeatShield applications are separate, and we’ll help you register and understand them. Our promise rides alongside those warranties, not in place of them. Before any work begins, you get all of this in plain language. You’ll know exactly what’s covered, exactly what isn’t, and exactly who to call if something goes sideways. That number is (848) 361-3227, and a live person picks up.

How Often Should You Hold Us to This?

Once a year, burn or no burn. Chimneys break in the off-season too. Freeze-thaw cycles work on your mortar from November through March. Animals build nests in the spring. Rain gets into a cracked crown in the summer. A lot of North Bergen homeowners only think about their chimney when they’re lighting the first fire in October, which means eight months of damage has already had a chance to set in. An annual sweep isn’t just about removing soot. It’s the one time every year someone qualified puts eyes on your flue, your cap, your crown, and your firebox. We find problems when they’re small and cheap to fix, instead of discovering them as a chimney fire or a carbon monoxide leak in the middle of January. Skipping a year doesn’t violate our guarantee. But the things we catch during an annual visit are exactly the things that keep your family safe. Ask anyone on your street. Chances are good we’ve already worked on their chimney, and they can tell you what we’re like when we show up.

The Real Cost of a Guarantee You Can’t Use

Every chimney company will tell you they stand behind their work. Then you call in February because your new cap is leaking, and you get a voicemail box. Or a call center that says someone will “get back to you within 5 to 7 business days.” Meanwhile water is dripping into your firebox and staining your ceiling. The guarantee wasn’t the problem. The company was. We’ve been answering our phones live for 29 years. Wendell still picks up more often than not. When you call at 2 a.m. because you smell smoke in the house, you don’t get a recording. You get a person who can tell you whether to open a window or call the fire department. That’s not a marketing line. That’s just how we run the business. The 90-Day Done Right Promise means you’ll never be left wondering whether someone is coming back. Someone is. His name is Wendell Pike, and he owns the company.

Standing Offers That Make the Guarantee Better

• $40 off any repair over $200. Because a small discount on a necessary repair helps you get it done before it becomes a big problem.
• Free second opinion on any written estimate. If another company quoted you a price that seems high, bring us the paperwork. We’ll look at it honestly and tell you what we’d charge.
• No trip charge inside the county. If you’re a North Bergen neighbor, we don’t charge you just for showing up. You only pay when we do work.
• 10% off always for seniors and veterans. This isn’t a seasonal promotion. It’s standing policy. Every job, every time. We just think it’s the right thing to do.

These offers don’t expire and they don’t require a coupon. Mention them when you call, or don’t. Our office applies them anyway when they see they apply to you. That’s part of the same philosophy as the guarantee: the number on the invoice should be fair, transparent, and the same for everyone in the same situation.

Call Before You Need Us

Most chimney companies only hear from homeowners when something has already gone wrong. Smoke backing up into the living room. A chimney fire that scared the family half to death. Water stains spreading across the ceiling below the roofline. We’d rather prevent any of that. If it’s been more than a year since your last sweep, call (848) 361-3227 and book one. We’ll give you a real arrival window, upfront pricing, and a written guarantee before we start. If it’s been less than a year and you’re reading this because you had a bad experience with another company, call for a free second opinion. Bring us their written estimate. We’ll look at it without attitude and tell you what we’d do differently. The worst thing that happens is you get an honest answer from a guy who’s been doing this in North Bergen since before most of the current chimney companies existed. The best thing is you find the one down the road. The one who picks up the phone at midnight and shows up with a brush, a camera, and a guarantee in writing.

Written by Wendell Pike, Owner at Top Hat Chimney, serving North Bergen since 1999.