Like many others, I got on the bandwagon to convert from oil to natural gas heating. I solicited bids from 3 companies, and invited each to my house to advise us and give quotations. I also advised our oil company, West Side Oil Co., to stop oil delivery pending this change. When I called West Side, they said that they also did gas conversions. Since West Side has been good to work with in the past, I invited them to bid my gas conversion.
Rich Chapman handles West Side's gas conversions. Upon arrival to evaluate my home, he set himself off from the competition by performing a detailed analysis, measuring my home to determine its exact requirements. Rich and his crew are highly professional, and he analyzed the site with a lot of attention to detail. I gained confidence knowing he was not just the salesperson, but the person who would be doing the job. He spent a good hour with me, explaining details about the installation, operation, and schedule for the job. He recommended the modulating Triangle Tube boiler, and explained its benefits over the nearest competitor, Buderus. By comparison, the other bidders spent only about 15 minutes at my home, and just said they would identify their offering in their bid (one didn't even do that). I was pretty sold on West Side, as long as their bid was reasonable. They came in at the middle of the bids, so I opted to use them for the conversion.
Before starting the job, it was necessary for the utility, Yankee Gas, to approve a previously abandoned pipeline from the street to my house. This approval took about 6 weeks, so Rich had to wait awhile to get started. Eventually, the approval was made, and Rich scheduled the job within the next three weeks, consistent with the lead time estimate he had given.
Rich Chapman promised to arrive and work three straight days until the job was completed, and he made good on that promise. The initial work involved running the gas pipe from the meter location to the planned furnace location the house. West Side included several additional valved ports to simplify the connection of future gas appliances, something the other bidders did not indicate. The line was pressure tested, and was approved by the town inspector. The inspector commented what a good job West Side had done on the line.
Then Rich proceeded with the installation of the new furnace. This task required the existing hot water tank be moved and temporarily repiped, to keep it operating during the conversion. West Side then installed the furnace, attaching it to a basement wall. In addition to their other skills, Rich and his crew are experts in concrete drilling, and easily handled installing the inlet and outlet vent pipes through the concrete foundation. Yankee Gas will not turn on the gas until the furnace is ready for a flame test, so Rich and his crew attached one heating zone to the new furnace and prepared it to be tested.
Yankee Gas cooperated in getting their technician on-site to complete the test the same day. The gas was turned on, and everything worked as expected. While waiting for the Yankee Gas technician to arrive, Rich and his crew installed piping, valves and pumps as needed for the other zones, up to the point of connecting to the existing line. Heat in the other zones and hot water were maintained on the old system. The final day, the new hot water tank was installed, and the new pipes were connected into the existing heating system. After only a few hours of no-heat, Rich had the new system running throughout the house. The existing furnace, hot water tank, and oil tank were then removed along with extraneous piping no longer needed. They cleaned up thoroughly, and we were happily converted. The inspector came the next day, and commented what a great job West Side had done. He specifically noted the attention to details in the instructions, the use of additional valves to facilitate future maintenance, and the overall clean appearance of the installation.
I was very pleased, as I have been in the past, by West Side Oil Co, and plan to keep working with them for any future maintenance needed. read more