Murphy’s Fireplace & Stove Inc. — Local services in Salem

I had a mostly-bad experience with this company as a serious chimney and stove contractor. I hired them to replace part of my brick chimney with zero-clearance (bare pipe) assembly and regret my decision. My general contractor and I reminded Paul of needing parts for measurements weeks ahead, and Paul called me last minute (the night before) to threaten to cancel the job and blamed my contractor for not being ready, even though Paul never got back to us about our requests! He also never mentioned he had a metal fab shop that could handle some of the prep work until after all the drama, the day of the install after I talked him off the ledge.

That's not the worst of it, though. He tried to leave the job site without finishing the job (left a mess inside and the stove disassembled) and then unethically asked me to "square up" on finances that same night. He couldn't reassemble the stove flashing correctly so I did it instead after he left.

He promised me it was ready to go. So I was excited to build a fire. Tried to pull out the damper rod. It wouldn't budge. As it turns out, he dropped the flex pipe onto the damper rod, and then vacuumed up the spacer brackets, and then denied doing it, and tried to blame it on my contractor! He came back, pulled up the flex pipe and made a collar for the flex pipe a few weeks later (no operating stove all that time), but the damper rod was bent and was difficult to operate. He also left tools at the worksite. He denied the wrongdoing and argued with me, accusing me of bending the rod. I kept detailed project notes and a timeline, and reminded him the rod worked perfectly before he dropped the flex pipe on it. He asked for "an opportunity to make it right." At this point (third callback! several weeks into a project that should have taken two days max), I told him I didn't have confidence in him or his work. The saving grace is that they agreed to pay another company to come out and finish the job and do it right.

The other company came out, corrected Paul's mistakes and did a great job to get me up and running again. They also disputed some of the claims that Paul made about caulking, and said that the spacing collar he made would have failed the first fire I built, falling back through the collar (had I even been able to build it in the first place!). They reinstalled the correct, heat-stable spacing brackets for the flex pipe. The fireplace now works as it should. Paul's office staff were great and very helpful and professional. They helped coordinate with the other company to complete the work. I do not trust Paul or his work, though, or his professional opinion, or his ability to coordinate and collaborate with others. This project cost me much more in time, energy and money than...

This place is top notch from the owner on down to office staff. Had a company come out a year ago and look at both fireplaces and told us all we needed was a cleaning and a new cap. we did that and began to use our fireplaces. We noticed a lot of smoke coming out into our house, and decided to stop using it and called Murphy's. They came out and inspected it. Come to find out we had thermal occurrences that happened on both fireplaces, and if we continued to use them, we took the risk of catching our house on fire. They had to chemically treat both fireplaces to get all of the creosote off, and then put a camera down both chimney's to inspect. Sure enough, both had huge cracks etc. Thank goodness we had them do that. Once that was done, Nathan came out and resurfaced both chimneys, and built back the back fire wall. It took a little time to complete which was expected, but we couldn't be happier. We now have complete faith and comfort knowing our fireplaces are like new and SAFE!!! Thank you Nathan for being a true professional, and thank you to the entire Murphy's staff for making sure our home will not burn down due to us having a fire. You guys ROCK! We will use no other company but them...

I cold called this company to have my fireplace inspected and swept. The results were not what I wanted to hear BUT the video and kind support of the inspector Paul (the owner) helped deflect the shock that the fireplace was very dangerous. Subsequently, I worked with Stephanie and various members of the the team. I purchased a wood fireplace insert and all the the necessary supplies and installation. I changed my order like 5 days prior to the set date and was met with NO guilt or resistance by this business-Stephanie was fantastic and represents the company with unconditional respect and regard.

I had to have the cresole removed which freaked me out! Then a new liner, insert placed into my small fireplace. ZERO fumes and no olfactory picked up by their process.

This company was amazing! Every person I dealt with was professional, knowledgable, knew when to refer my question and extremely tidy and efficient. I am very thorough and selective as a consumer and Murphy's exceeded my expectations. These guys and gals are the real meal deal... I just moved to Salem and have zero connection to these people. I more than highly recommend this company if you need any...