Sam & Ivan The Chimney Guys

One detail turns up again and again in Sam & Ivan's reviews: somebody actually climbed onto the roof, took pictures, and showed the homeowner what was wrong before quoting. Across 135 Google ratings the shop sits at five stars, and the photo habit — diagnosis pictures, then completion pictures — is what customers keep describing. The business runs out of Methuen and Lowell. Its site says it was established in 2021, after Sam and Ivan each spent more than a decade at another chimney company and decided to combine their skills; it describes itself as family-run, owner-operated by the two partners, and Latino-owned, working across Essex and Middlesex counties in Massachusetts and Hillsborough, Merrimack and Rockingham counties in New Hampshire. The company states CSIA membership and a CSIA-certified sweep on staff, which is its own claim rather than something confirmed against a registry. The work described this spring is squarely chimney and masonry. One homeowner had a stainless flue installed along with a chimney repair and a new cap. Another had a chimney lined, a waterproof cap fitted and new flashing set at the base of the brick, with the liner reconnected to the boiler inside and the basement left cleaner than the crew found it. A third brought them in to correct another contractor's chimney work and posted before-and-after photos of the fix. Someone else needed a sweep inside a week to beat a new roof going on, and got a callback fast enough to make the window. Behind that recent run sits a deeper history: about 120 reviews since 2021 across four sources, and no cluster of complaints anywhere in it. One thing to pin down before you call. The homepage advertises "20 years of experience" and "two decades", while the site's own About page gives Year Established 2021 and the Angi profile lists five years of experience. The generous reading is the partners' combined individual experience — worth asking them to say plainly which they mean. Scheduling is the other recurring note: a few reviewers mention a hiccup or a wait of a couple of weeks, though the quoted price held when it happened. For a relining, a crown or stack rebuild, a stubborn chimney leak, or a wood or pellet stove that needs a proper vent, this is a well-documented choice. Ask for the estimate photos — that is how they work anyway — and settle the years-in-business question while you have them on the phone.