The Joy of Business Ownership

There's nothing like owning your own business. You have all of the amenities that you always hear about like being your own boss, setting your own schedule, and yadda, yadda, yadda. What you never hear about is the negative side of things. Yes, there are negatives.

Take my business, Buckeye Valley Chimney Service, for example. Just last night our area here in Toronto was hit with 17" of snow. Now, for some reason, not everyone knows that not
only is there 17" of snow on the ground but also on the roof of their house. In this business, it is almost imperative that we get on the roof to get to the chimney. Sometimes, that is a task in itself when the roof is dry, but ad 17" of snow and the task becomes almost impossible. Still, we get those calls from people who need us there Now, or those who don't understand why we call to cancel after they have waited for a week for us to get there.

So, with the old cliche in mind that "The Customer is Always Right", we pack up our equipment and head out hoping the whole time that by some miracle, the roof is clear or there is a way to do what we need to from the bottom of the chimney, or that there is access to the chimney top from a ladder.

As we pull up to the house, our greatest fear comes true. It's a 2 story house with a very steep roof with the chimney coming out of the peak. Needless to say, the 17" of snow that is on the ground is also on the roof. Access from this point is not safe and therefore out of the question. Hopefully, we can do something from the inside.

As we enter the toasty warm house, the homeowner is so happy that we could make it. He shows us the way to his woodstove and tells us the story of how he knows it needs cleaned because it's been smoking for a week, but now it is smoking really bad and how it hasn't been cleaned for about 10 years. As we pull the pipes off we see that the thimble extends about 12" back into the wall to meet the 8"x12" flue liner. Knowing that even though our chimney rods are flexible, we are also aware that they are not flexible enough to make the 90 degree turn required to access the flue from this point.

Our final hope is asking the homeowner if the chimney has a clean-out door. With a puzzled look on his face he says, "I don't know". We head to the basement to look for a clean-out area only to find that one doesn't exist. The moment we feared has arrived. We have no access to clean this chimney today. We have to break this news to the homeowner and hope that he'll still have us back at another time to do the job.

We find the homeowner and explain to him that we won't be able to clean his chimney today because it is not safe to get on his roof at this time and we don't have access from the bottom. With a perturbed tone to his voice he tells us he thought we would be better equipped to do jobs like this and how his gas bill is going to go up, all because we won't clean his chimney. I try to explain that the only way to clean his chimney is from the top and it's not worth injury to my son or myself to try at this time but we would be more than happy to come back when conditions are better. With that, he says he'll try to find somebody else and shows us to the door.

So here we are. We just lost 3 hours out of our day. We didn't get paid for the visit and we more than likely lost a customer if he can find someone crazy enough to go on his roof in the snow.

The Bright Spot?

We live to work another day.