The Second Sweep · Dovescot & the Oxcart parishes · the second-opinion firm · Est. 2017
Somebody quoted you a reline. Before you pay for one, pay us a quarter as much to check.
The Second Sweep reads other firms’ chimney quotes against the flue they were written about — a Level 2 camera scan, a written verdict, and the arbitration letter your solicitor or insurer can file. Nine seasons, six hundred verdicts, and the most common one is the one that saves the money: keep the flue you have.
The premise
Why a second sweep exists
A reline is a two-to-four-thousand-dollar answer, and around Dovescot it is routinely written without a camera ever going down the flue — from a ladder, from a phone, from a hope. We are not here to call anyone a liar; we are here to put the camera where the money is about to go and write down what it sees. If the first quote was right, the re-read costs you nothing and you proceed with a clear head. If it was wrong, you just bought the most profitable afternoon of your year. Either way, somebody with a brush in one hand and no dog in the fight has looked at the actual walls.
Services
The verdict card, in order of how we work
01
The verdict scan — $349
A Level 2 camera pass down every foot of the flue the quote was written about, graded and recorded — telling the Level 1 housekeeping that was dressed up as reline work apart from the genuine Level 3 problem the first firm undersold. You bring the quote; we bring the camera; the flue decides which of you was describing it.
02
The verdict letter — included
Two pages: what the camera found, what the quote claimed, and a line-by-line reading of the gap — the crack that is a crack, the crack that is a mortar shadow, the “unrepairable” run that is one tile at the thimble. Written to be forwarded, because a verdict you cannot send to the first firm is just a rumor.
03
The repair arbitration — from footage only
Where work is genuinely needed we quote it itemized from the scan — damper plates seated, crowns poured with a drip edge, chambers parged, rigid 316Ti relines insulated and draw-tested — and our number sits beside theirs on the same page. Cheaper is not the point; evidenced is. We are frequently cheaper anyway.
04
The independent witness — $180
For the disputes and the claims: a dated, photographed record of the flue’s condition that belongs to neither firm in the argument. Insurers pay claims on files like this and decline claims without them, and one in seven of our verdicts finds the damage the first inspection missed — which is exactly when this letter earns its keep.
The no-sale clause
We have no reline to sell you
The verdict scan costs the same whether your flue is pristine or ruined, and the letter says the same thing either way — which is the entire structural honesty of this firm. When a verdict does name work, the arbitration quote is written from the footage with each line priced to be checked against anyone else’s, including the firm that wrote the first one. We win some of those jobs and lose some, and the ledger above says which way the parish’s flutes actually lean: most of them are fine.
The re-read clause
If our verdict agrees with the original quote — the work is real and the price fair — the $349 comes back as a credit against doing it with us, or as a re-read waiver if you stay with the first firm. A second opinion you pay twice for is a first opinion with a delay.
Dovescot & the Oxcart parishes, 2025 — 2026
Verdicts, filed
Six verdicts from last season with their letters. The first firm’s number is in the file; the flue’s number is in the letter.
The quote on our kitchen table was $3,900 for a reline, written by a firm that spent eleven minutes at the house and never opened a camera case. The Second Sweep found one cracked tile at the thimble, replaced it, and charged $410 all in with the verdict. They also told us which parts of the original quote were fair, which was an education.
Our insurer was leaning on a report that read like it had been photocopied from the last house. The independent-witness letter — dated, photographed, degree by degree — ended the argument in one exchange. Worth four times the $180, and I say that as someone who has paid lawyers more to say less.
I am the first firm in one of these stories, I suspect: they checked a reline I quoted and the verdict agreed with me — the clay was done. The re-read was waived, the household came back, and I now write my quotes with more camera in them. The parish is better for this firm existing, which is a strange compliment to give a competitor.
Two firms, two relines, four weeks apart, $3,600 and $4,100 — and a closing date we could not move. The Second Sweep put the camera down on a Tuesday and the verdict landed Thursday: the flue was sound, the “cracks” were mortar shadows the first camera had rushed past, and the one real defect was a damper plate rusted open since the eighties. Plate seated, cap fitted, verdict letter into the deed packet. The sale closed on time and the buyers’ surveyor kept the letter, which is the highest regard I have ever seen paperwork held in.
Before the verdict
Fair questions
The five every household asks before booking an arbitration.
Isn’t this just two companies both trying to sell me a reline?
It is the opposite arrangement and it is structural: the verdict costs the same whatever it says, and the re-read is free when we confirm the first quote. A firm that sells relines has a reline-shaped hammer; we are paid for the reading, and the ledger — most flues keep their clay — is what an honest reading looks like.
What do you actually check the quote against?
The flue itself, on camera, foot by foot: creosote graded degree by degree, cracks measured not described, the damper run through its travels, the crown and chamber photographed from above. Then the letter reads the quote line by line against that footage. Anything the quote claims that the walls do not show gets named; anything the walls show that the quote missed gets named louder.
What if you find MORE damage than the first firm?
One verdict in seven does, and it is the reason the witness letter exists. A missed crack, a glazed run under a “clean” card, a nest above the smoke shelf — the footage goes to you, and if a claim or a dispute follows, the dated record is the file your insurer settles on. Finding the damage the first inspection missed is the service, not the embarrassment.
Can you do the repair if the verdict says I need one?
Yes — damper plates, crowns with a proper drip edge, chamber parging, tuckpoint in matched mortar, rigid 316Ti relines insulated and draw-tested — quoted itemized from the footage with every line checkable against the first firm’s number. You are free to take either quote or neither; the arbitration is finished before the pricing begins, and the re-read credit applies either way.
Why does the trade dislike you?
The honest ones do not — several now write their own quotes with cameras because of verdicts like these, and one of our testimonials is from a competitor who was confirmed, not contradicted. The trade we hurt is the quote-from-a-ladder trade, and around the parishes it has quietly raised its game since 2017, which we also count in the ledger.
Verdict scans inside the week; arbitration letters in forty-eight hours · (555) 078-9042 · verdicts@thesecondsweep.example
Get the verdict before you pay the invoice
Send or read us the quote — every line, including the one that says “recommended by manufacturer” — and we will scan the flue it was written about. The verdict is $349 with the letter, and the re-read costs nothing if the first firm was right. verdicts@thesecondsweep.example