Everyone’s time is worth something…

I am brought in time and again to consult on a homes comfort problems. These are always very difficult calls because the very frustrated home owner is looking for someone to blame. This someone could be as simple as their significant other or one of the children or it could be the general contractors fault or that last service technicians fault for not finding the problem. What is interesting is that it is hardly ever the homeowners fault (at least in their eyes).  If a homeowner is going to short cut on the quality of the contractors they use to work in their homes then they will get what they pay for; bad work. Everyone needs to get paid for his/her time. Whether it be the coffee house barista or the service technician that comes to your home. A company that is charging an amount that seems too good to be true probably is. They are either not very good business people and they will not be answering their phones the next time you need them or worse their technician has orders to find SOMETHING wrong with your system while they are in your home! Find a company that has a good reputation, a track record of quality and (most important of all) that you feel comfortable with.

The worse call I ever have to go on is a problem call. What I mean by that is a call where another contractor has done something incorrectly and I am there to see what that “something” is. The problem is that many homeowners view each contractor as being related to the next. I inherit this poor installation from another contractor and somehow it becomes my fault. When shortcuts are taken when installing any type of mechanical system the end result is that the system will not operate the way it was intended. I recently had a client call me to review a humidity issue in their 2 year old home. This was not new or surprising to me, many new construction homes do not have many accessories installed onto their HVAC systems, no humidifiers, no air cleaners, no set back thermostats, no UV filters. These are extras that hit the floor early when a tight budget is becoming even tighter. What did surprise me was that my preconception was all wrong. This home had top of the line Honeywell touch screen thermostats, with power humdifiers on all three systems, Unico air distribution systems for the two zones on the first floor and a high quality 95% furnace and high efficiency air conditioner to handle the entire second floor. On top of all that this home had a very high end 95% hot water boiler providing heat for domestic hot water, hot water coils in both Unico systems as well as radiant heat for the basement, the husbands work room and several other key areas of the house. This was a home that someone had designed a very complete and advanced comfort system.

Once I was over my shock I asked the homeowner to tell me any issues she might have had with the house since they lived there. Unfortunetly my joy at seeing a beautiful system became short lived. In several sentences I realized that there were a steady list of problems that the homeowner did not equate with the HVAC system. Upon further inspection I realized that zone valves had not been installed properly, thermostats were not wired correctly, the proper amount of water flow through the sytems had not been maintained, the list went on and on. The humidity in the home? That was because the humidifiers were never installed and wired correctly.

Pay attention to the work you are paying for.  All contractors are not alike.