Major installation at my mother's house: remove & replace failed in-attic furnace, install new duct…read morework, seal off old duct work.
First estimate suggested a lifetime heat exchanger warranty, reduced in subsequent estimates to 25 then 20 years--failed to set customer expectations.
Joe indicated that likely the main reason the heat exchanger in the existing furnace failed was due to improper combustion gas vent piping. Estimate: all will be removed and replaced. Actual: new parts stuffed through existing parts. Joe explained that this was done to avoid roof tile damage--good! Original metal to asbestos apparently leads to condensation. He claims all metal passing through the asbestos won't have this issue. I am unqualified to know whether this is correct or not. Better would have been realizing the roof tile issue existed at the time of the original estimate, setting customer expectations appropriately, rather than setting up a misunderstanding leading a lay person to feel like work was being shorted out of time pressures or some other factor.
The hired crew, not supervised by Joe, did a rushed, slipshod job:
- 75,000 BTU furnace specified on estimate. They picked up and installed a 40,000 BTU unit. No one but me noticed.
- Eyeball jab & cut new register openings without measuring anything (until i made them measure). Screws driven in at radical angles to force things to work. See photo.
- Crushed thermostat wire under furnace. See photo.
- Installed 1 of 2 furnace mounting stands extremely crooked, which led to:
- Power wiring not installed to code (improper grommet), screw hole stripped
- Rammed a new blower cover screw in through a new hole rather than using manufacturer-provided screws and existing holes
- Failed to properly seal old ductwork, due to improperly-size parts (end caps) and not caring to take the time to get correctly sized ones. See photo.
- New flex ducts banded too tight, restricting airflow. One was torn.
After the fact, Joe *did* take care of most of the items listed above, else i did myself. I was the only one who actually did the math and calculated that 40,000 BTU input (32,000 output) was (barely) sufficient to properly heat the space being covered. To be fair to the crew and Joe, there is absolutely no visible external difference between the furnace capacity models: one has to read the nameplate. Still, for a major purchase and installation like this, one would think someone would check. The 40,000 BTU furnace was left in place and the bill reduced accordingly.
Extensive register opening patchwork was left up to a third party painter/handyman who never showed up. Months later Joe did the patching himself, leaving my mother (by her choice) to do the painting.
Joe himself and his crew were always on time, and completed the job on time. In hindsight i wish the crew had taken more time to do their work correctly.
The work Joe himself did was of good professional workmanlike quality. The work of the crew he hired was not.
If i hadn't checked things out, my mother would have had real-world safe (as long as nothing moved the crushed/un-properly-grommeted wires and chafed off their insulation), viable heat, though she would have overpaid for a furnace capacity she did not get, and things were not done (by the crew) to code.
Bottom line: if you want reliable heat/cooling at a very fair price and aren't particular about the details most homeowners never, ever see, call Joe at Quality Air Heating and Cooling. If, like my mother and myself, you tend towards perfectionism and expect minimal house interior damage, all codes to be met, and all workmanship to be excellent, proceed with caution. For smaller jobs where Joe himself is doing all the work, you'll likely be fine. Bigger jobs where a crew is involved, depends on the crew, and someone ought to very carefully inspect all work done.
