Ray is a truly professional and surprisingly honest worker. I always hesitate when seeking out professional services for my home, as you can get any variation of service, no matter what you read or hear from someone else. But you do finally have to take the plunge, and after doing my homework, I chose RAA. Sometimes homework really does pay off!
Initially, we hired him to provide regular heating and a/c maintenance. Over time, it became clear we needed a new furnace, and I dreaded the thought. I had zero experience with that and imagined dollar signs beyond our means. Ray explained everything top to bottom, and my follow-up research really backed up what he had told me. We were not in an emergency situation, so we had time to make a decision.
Ray offered us multiple options and gave us his thoughts on each one. We made a choice based on what we could afford and what made sense for us - certainly not the cheapest option, but not the crazy expensive one, either - and he never tried to upsell me at all. As our furnace is in the attic, Ray did a nearly heroic job of dismantling and removing the old furnace, and then bringing up the new one and installing it in a small space in tremendous heat. (It was summer when all this happened.) All this through a rickety set of pull-down set of stairs in the ceiling. Seriously, Ray is awesome.
Since then we continued to use him for regular maintenance. But - I made the mistake of not keeping it up after we moved away, and for two years the machines were untended while our tenants lived in the house we left behind. Big mistake.
During the inspection (!!!) as we were selling the house, the inspector turned on the a/c to check it, and the drain pan had rusted through. I suspect the inspector moved or dislodged the pan in some way, but in any case - whoosh! a bunch of water dumped on the ceiling and collapsed it into the bathroom below. Yikes...
So - I called Ray. At the time, we didn't know it was just a rusty drainpan, all we knew was that our a/c was messed up and we had to replace the ceiling and fix whatever was wrong with the a/c prior to closing. (It was an otherwise perfect inspection, which made this really suck!)
Ray came as quick as he could, figured out the problem, got it fixed and tested everything to be sure there was no other problem. Voila - corrected a/c and imminent closing, thank goodness!
So, next time, I know - always have Ray do regular maintenance!!! You should, too!!! read more